The Institute of Islamic Area Studies at Sophia University was inaugurated on April 1, 2022. Formerly known as the Center for Islamic Studies, the Institute was established in 2006 as a division of the Institute of Asian Cultures, and became a research unit of the Temporary Research Division in 2010. Our goal is to pursue the study of Islam as a global issue by means of area studies based on detailed field research throughout the world. For more information, click here.
News
- Office of the Institute of Islamic Area Studies at Sophia University will be closed from Saturday August 9, 2025 to Monday August 18, 2025.
- Joint Seminar was held, in collaboration with the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies (IMS), the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies, Kyoto University (KR) and the Center for Islamic Area Studies, Kyoto University (KIAS), on Saturday, June 21, 2025.
- Hybrid lecture on "Traditional Urbanism and Community-Based Spatial Informal Adaptation Practices in Morocco" by Dr. Aqil Cheddadi (Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University) will be held on Thursday July 24, 2025 (in Japansese; however, the Q&A session will be conducted in Japanese, English, French, and Arabic).
- Online version of Transmission of Sacredness in Islam: Prophet's Family, Saints' Descendants, and Holy Relics (SIAS Lectures 12), was published (in Japanese).
- Online version of Catalogue of Southeast Asian Kitabs of Sophia University, Third and Expanded Edition (SIAS Occasional Paper 45) was published.
- International Workshop "Japanese Visual Anthropology of Sufism and Related Subjects" was held on Sunday, December 8, 2024.
- The list of fellows has been updated.
- International Workshop was held, in collaboration with the Center for Islamic Area Studies of Kyoto University (KIAS), the Group of Society, Religions, and Laïcités of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (GSRL-CNRS), the Center for Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies of Kyoto University and the Global Mediterranean at the Asian Cultures Research Institute (ACRI) of Toyo University at Toyo University Atami Training Center, on Thursday, February 20, and Friday, February 21, 2025.
- Research Seminar on "Sufism and Saint Veneration" was held, in collaboration with the Center for Islamic Area Studies of Kyoto University (KIAS), the Center for Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies of Kyoto University and the Global Mediterranean at the Asian Cultures Research Institute (ACRI) of Toyo University, on Wednesday, February 19, and Thursday, February 20, 2025 (in Japanese).
- International Workshop will be held, in collaboration with the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies at Kyoto University, Center for Islamic Area Studies at Kyoto University, and Laïcités of the French National Centre for Scientific Research(GSRL-CNRS) at Toyo University Atami Training Center, on Thursday, February 20, and Friday, February 21, 2025.
