Who writes Islamic history — empires and rulers, or ordinary believers?In this research seminar hosted by AMI on 14 January 2026, Dr Hassan Abbas presents insights from his forthcoming book project, A People’s History of Islam. Challenging state-centred and court-sponsored historiography, Dr Abbas explores Islam through the lived faith of pilgrims, mystics, poets, and everyday communities across centuries.Drawing on extensive travels to major pilgrimage sites — from Fez, Konya, and Baku to Lahore, Karbala, and Makkah — the seminar highlights how oral tradition, spirituality, and devotion preserve histories often absent from official archives. Dr Abbas also reflects on the role of mysticism alongside juridical tradition, the challenge of writing accessible yet rigorous scholarship, and the problem of sectarian framing in Western representations of Islam.Speaker:Dr Hassan Abbas is a Distinguished Professor of International Relations based in Washington, DC, and a Senior Advisor at Harvard University’s Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs. He is the author of The Prophet’s Heir (Yale University Press) and several other widely cited works on Islam and global affairs.

Can mourning become a pathway to the divine?

Has the modern world sanitised death, and does Muharram insist we don’t look away?

Drawing from his forthcoming book Senses of Mourning, Dr Babak Rahimi of UC San Diego asks a question many have wondered, but few have explored: why do Shi'as keep mourning? This episode reveals mourning not as passive grief but as active devotion, a technique for connecting to God through the body, the senses, and collective memory. We explore how modernity's devotion to pleasure has pushed death to the margins, how Muharram insists we confront what modern life conceals, and why the senses are not obstacles to the sacred but pathways toward it. From the festive dimensions of grief to the standardisation of ritual by state and digital platforms, this conversation moves through the space where philosophy meets performance, and where the body becomes a site of hope.

Dr Babak Rahimi is an Associate Professor of Communication, Culture and Religion at UC San Diego, where he directs the Program for the Study of Religion and the Middle East Studies Program. His research focuses on sensory religion, public sphere theory, and the historical contexts of early modern Islamicate societies. He is the author of "Theatre-State" and "The Formation of the Early Modern Public Sphere in Iran" (Brill, 2011) and editor of "Performing Iran" (I.B. Tauris, 2021).

Audio Chapters:

0:00 – Highlights

01:30 – Why Muharram Performances?

5:50 – Mourning as Religiosity?

18:06 – Mourning as Technique

26:02 – Muharram as Festive Events

36:01 – Role of Senses in Muharram Devotion

46:14 – Panja and Symbolism

51:00 – Memory as a Sense?

57:00 – Gender and Muharram Performances

59:50 – Self-Flagellation as Performance?

1:06:40 – Muharram and the Other

1:11:00 – Why Western Thinkers?

1:19:40 – Modern World and the Sense of Smell

1:24:27 – Digital and the Standardisation of Muharram Rituals

1:38:28 – Thinking Islam Question

📖 Get the Book: "Senses of Mourning" by Dr. Babak Rahimi

🔗 Penn Press: https://www.pennpress.org/9781512828344/senses-of-mourning/

🔗 Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Senses-Mourning-Moharram-Performances-Qajar/dp/1512828343

Dr Nisha explores how digital technologies are reshaping religious life in contemporary India. Challenging the strict divide between the secular and the religious, she argues that digital media has given rise to new hybrid forms of belief, practice, and spiritual experience.