Introduction

 

I am an Assistant Professor in the Study of Religion. I am also serving as the director of the minor program in the Study of Religion for three years until 2027. 

 

My scholarly interests primarily lie in the Islamic Intellectual History of the Formative and early Classical periods. I connect various underlying threads, such as historiography, the transmission of knowledge, the oral and the written, manuscripts, text and meaning, and the ways and forms of religious truth-making. These threads came together in my doctoral work, where I specialized in the contextual study of early Tafsīr (Qurʾānic exegesis). 

 

As for the Modern period, I am interested in the intersection of Qurʾānic interpretation and the themes of conflict, peacebuilding, and ecology through the lenses of Reform, Decoloniality, and Liberation Theology.

 

Selected Qualifications

 

  • Ph.D. Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2022

Thesis:

“The Tafsīr of Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778): A study of its provenance, sources, methods, and topics”

Principal supervisor: Andreas Görke, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh

External examiner: Nicolai Sinai, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Oxford

 

  • Master of Theological Studies, Divinity School, Harvard University, 2009

Focus: Islamic Studies 

 

  • International MA in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies, Universitat Jaume I (Spain) and University of Innsbruck (Austria), 2007

Thesis:

“Religion and Peacebuilding: Paradigms of peace, nonviolence, and the use of force in Islam” 

Thesis advisor: Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Prof. of Peace, Human Rights, and Cultural Relations, American University

 

Research Interests

 

  1. History of religious ideas

  2. Transmission of knowledge in early Muslim societies 

  3. Tafsīr (Qurʾānic exegesis) 

  4. Ḥadīth (reports about the Prophet)

  5. Religion, ethics, and justice

    a. Religion, conflict, and peacebuilding 

    b. Religion and ecology

    c. Liberation theology

 

Undergraduate courses

 

Current courses that I offer in a two-year cycle

  1. SS-101: Islamic Studies (core course)

  2. REL-235: Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

  3. REL-362/HIST-337: Qurʾān and its Interpreters: Between Text and Context

  4. REL-363: Jihād: Religion and Warfare in the Islamicate Context

Future courses that I am planning to offer

  1. REL-2XX: The Sacred Nature: Religion and Ecology

  2. REL-2XX: Theologies of Liberation: Justice in World Religions

  3. REL-3XX: The Prophetic Word: The Origins, Development, and Function of Ḥadīth

  4. REL-3XX: Qurʾān in the Modern: Interpreting an Ancient Text

Past courses that I do not offer any more

  1. HIST 235: Jihād: A Social, Political, and Theological History

  2. HIST 236: Classical Sufism

 

Academic and other links

 

Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7038-1257

Academia.edu: https://edinburgh.academia.edu/AurangzebHaneef

Academic blog: https://totbatot.wordpress.com/

Photography: @AurangzebH

X: @AurangzebHaneef