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Professor Azim Nanji is a Kenyan-born professor of Islamic studies. From 1998 until 2008, he served as Director of The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, England. [1] He is also on the Board of Directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada.
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Professor Nanji attended schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and Makerere University in Uganda, and received his master's and doctoral degrees in Islamic Studies from McGill University, Canada.
Dr. Nanji has held academic and administrative appointments at various American and Canadian universities. Until 1998, he was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. Since that time, he has been with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, a research institute which aims to promote scholarship and learning of Muslim cultures and societies, with a view towards attaining a better understanding of Islam and its relationship with other societies and faiths.
In 1988, he was Margaret Gest Visiting Professor at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, USA, and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, California in 2004, where he was also invited to give the Baccalaureate Address in 1995.
Professor Nanji has served as Co-Chair of the Islam section at the American Academy of Religion and on the editorial board of the Academy's Journal. He has also been a member of the Philanthropy Committee of the Council on Foundations and has been the recipient of awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Canada Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2004, he gave the Birks Lecture at McGill University.
Within the Aga Khan Development Network, Professor Nanji has served as a member of the Steering Committee and Master Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and as a task force member for the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (AKU-ISMC), and continues as Vice Chair of the Madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa.
Professor Nanji has authored, co-authored and edited several books including:
In addition, he has contributed numerous shorter studies and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism in journals and collective volumes including the Encyclopædia of Islam, Encyclopædia Iranica, Oxford Encyclopædia of the Modern Islamic World, and A Companion to Ethics. He is also the Associate Editor for the revised Second Edition of The Encyclopaedia of Religion. As of 2007, he is preparing a Historical Dictionary of Islam to be published by Penguin.
Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III served as the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML). His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and the protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. There were similarities in Aga Khan's views on education with those of other Muslim social reformers, but the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji argues that he also expressed a distinct interest in advancing women's education for women themselves. Aga Khan called on the British Raj to consider Muslims to be a separate nation within India, the famous 'Two Nation Theory'. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India at the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937 to 1938.
Aga Khan is a title held by the Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias. Since 1957, the holder of the title has been the 49th Imām, Prince Shah Karim al-Husseini, Aga Khan IV. Aga Khan is a direct descendant of Muhammad, the last prophet according to the doctrine of Islam.
Shah Karim al-Husayni, known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Ismaili followers and elsewhere as Aga Khan IV, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis. He has held the position of imam and the title of Aga Khan since 11 July 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III. The Aga Khan claims direct lineal descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, who is considered an imam by Nizari Ismailis, and Ali's wife Fatima, Muhammad's daughter from his first marriage.
The Nizaris are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent reasoning or ijtihad; pluralism—the acceptance of racial, ethnic, cultural and inter-religious differences; and social justice. Nizaris, along with Twelvers, adhere to the Jaʽfari school of jurisprudence. The Aga Khan, currently Aga Khan IV, is the spiritual leader and Imam of the Nizaris. The global seat of the Ismaili Imamate is in Lisbon, Portugal.
Jamatkhana is an amalgamation derived from the Arabic word jama‘a (gathering) and the Persian word khana. It is a term used by some Muslim communities around the world, particularly sufi ones, to a place of gathering. Among some communities of Muslims, the term is often used interchangeably with the Arabic word musallah. The Nizārī Ismā'īlī community uses the term Jama'at Khana to denote their places of worship.
The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) is a research institute in London, United Kingdom. It aims to promote the study of Muslim cultures and societies, both historical and contemporary, in order to foster a greater understanding of their relationships with other societies and faiths. It also functions as a gathering point for the Ismaili community as it endeavors to understand its own history and thought, including the often neglected fields of esoteric Islam and Shi'ism.
The Khoja are a mainly Nizari Isma'ili Shia community of people originating in Gujarat, India. The word Khoja is derived from the Persian word Khwaja, a term of honor, the word Khoja is used to refer to members of Baniya caste groups (traders), who converted to Islam from Hinduism under Muslim pirs (saints).
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a network of private, non-denominational development agencies founded by the Aga Khan that work primarily to improve quality of life in different regions of Asia and Africa. Aga Khan IV succeeded to the office of the 49th hereditary Imam as spiritual and administrative leader of the Shia faith-rooted Nizari Ismaili Muslim supranational union in 1957. Ismailis consist of an estimated 25 to 30 million adherents.
Yohanan Friedmann is an Israeli scholar of Islamic studies.
The Global Centre for Pluralism is an international centre for research, education and exchange about the values, practices and policies that underpin pluralist societies. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the Centre seeks to assist the creation of successful societies.
Sajida S. Alvi is an academic of Pakistani origin in Canada. She is a historian of Islam in South Asia and was the inaugural appointment to the chair in Urdu Language and Culture at the Institute of Islamic Studies from September 1987 until her retirement in June 2010.
The population of Shias in Africa is composed of several communities:
M. Ali Lakhani, is a writer, lawyer, and editor whose works focus on metaphysics and the perennial principles found in the wisdom traditions of the world.
The History of Nizari Isma'ilism from the founding of Islam covers a period of over 1400 years. It begins with Muhammad's mission to restore to humanity the universality and knowledge of the oneness of the divine within the Abrahamic tradition, through the final message and what the Shia believe was the appointment of Ali as successor and guardian of that message with both the spiritual and temporal authority of Muhammad through the institution of the Imamate.
Farhad Daftary is a Belgian-born Iranian-British Islamic scholar who is co-director and head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He is related to the Aga Khan IV.
The Imamate in Nizari Isma'ili doctrine is a concept in Nizari Isma'ilism which defines the political, religious and spiritual dimensions of authority concerning Islamic leadership over the nation of believers. The primary function of the Imamate is to establish an institution between an Imam who is present and living in the world and his following whereby each are granted rights and responsibilities.
Mohamed Manjee Keshavjee is an international cross-cultural specialist on mediation, with a focus on Islamic Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Prince Amyn Muhammad Aga Khan is the younger brother of Aga Khan IV, Imam of the Nizari Isma'ili sect of Shia Islam. He is the son of Prince Aly Khan and Princess Tajuddawlah Aga Khan.
Aly Kassam-Remtulla is a U.S.-based academic, writer and scholar who is Associate Provost for International Affairs and Operations at Princeton University. Previously, he was associated with the MacArthur Foundation.
Zayn R. Kassam is an American religious studies scholar known for her work on gender roles in Islam and Indian philosophy with 29 publications of her work as of July 2022. She was the chair of the religious studies department at Pomona College, and in January 2023, she began her term as director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
