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
- Guest Lecture of Ms. Marianne Aringberg LAANATZA (advisor of MENA.SE), "Arab Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Development," will be given on Thursday, February 22, 2024.
- Guest Lecture of Prof. Michael LEEZENBERG (University of Amsterdam), "Kurdish Vernacular Literature in the Persianate Cosmopolitan: A Case Study in Early Modern Islamic Cultural History," will be given in collaboration with the University of Tokyo Centre for Middle Eastern Studies on Friday, February 16, 2024.
- Guest Lecture of Prof. Michael LEEZENBERG (University of Amsterdam), "Post-party Leninism and Bonapartist Anarchism: Two Paradigms in 21st-Century Kurdish Politics," will be given in collaboration with the Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies on Wednesday February 14, 2024.
- Guest Lecture of Prof. Michael LEEZENBERG (University of Amsterdam), "Naqshbandi-Wahhabi rivalry as a major force in the modernization of the Islamic world," will be given in collaboration with the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University and the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies at Kyoto University on Monday, on Monday February 12, 2024.
- International workshop, "Muslim Piety as Economy: Markets and Mobilities," will be held in collaboration with JSPS-KAKENHI JP21H03719、JP22H03846 on Friday January 19, 2024.
- Office of the Institute of Islamic Area Studies at Sophia University will be closed from Saturday December 23, 2023 to Thursday January 4, 2024.
- Online version of Sufism Today: Understanding Different Aspects of Mysticism (SIAS Lectures 9) was published (in Japanese).
- Screening of Algerian Film "143 Sahara Street" will be held on Tuesday November 21, 2023, in collaboration with the Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies (in Arabic, Subtitles and Commentary in Japanese, Pre-registration is required). This is one of the programs of Sophia Open Research Weeks 2023.
- On-demand lecture series "Transmission of Sacredness in Islam: Prophet’s Family, Saints’ Descendants, and Holy Relics" will be held jointly with the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies at Kyoto University, which offer two lecture videos on Monday November 13 and the other two on Monday November 20, until Sunday December 3 (in Japanese). This is one of the programs of Sophia Open Research Weeks 2023.
- Research seminar on moderate Islam was held jointly with the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies at Kyoto University on Sunday November 12, 2023 (in Japansese)