The archive includes documents tracing the early childhood, education and academic career of former IIS governor Professor Mohammed Arkoun (1928-2010), one of the most influential and innovative scholars in Islamic studies.

This hybrid conference (online and in-person) will bring together a group of scholars who are interested in the legacy of Mu`tazilism and its influence.

Recent years have witnessed the publication of new material that was not available before for scholars. These new publications have enriched our sources about the early Islamic theological debates. The new sources have refocused our interest in the influence of Mu`tazilism, one of the earliest Islamic schools, and the legacy it left behind. The Mu`tazilite school had a major and determinative effect on the trajectory of various aspects of Islamic intellectual currents.

This conference will focus on the influence of Mu`tazilism on all aspects of the Qur'an, its status, interpretation, and relationship to the Prophet. The speakers will address Mu`tazilite thought and the influence it had on Islamic theology in other schools.

The notion that events bearing far-reaching consequences for the human condition took place prior to the creation of the world and of man has been a central theme in the Islamic literary tradition. This lecture seeks to demonstrate how the raw materials of this notion in Imami-Shiʿi thought – namely, its expressions in the earliest literary strata, the Qurʾan and the ḥadith – were addressed, creatively interpreted and elaborated upon by thinkers of two later periods: the Buwayhid (945-1055 CE) and Safavid (1501-1722 CE).