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Welcome to Azim Nanji!
Dr. Azim Nanji joins the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies as Senior Associate Director in April 2008.
In this capacity he will be involved in plans to extend the reach of Stanford’s studies in Islam and Muslim societies, giving attention both to on-campus events and also to initiatives for national and international scholarly and student exchange. Nanji will also be a Lecturer in Stanford’s Department of Religious Studies, offering regular courses.
Dr. Nanji comes to Stanford University from the Institute of Ismaili Studies, based in London, where he served as Director for ten years (1998-2008). Previously, he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida and has held academic and administrative appointments at various American and Canadian universities.
Nanji has authored, co-authored and edited several books, including: The Nizari Ismaili Tradition (1976), The Muslim Almanac (1996), Mapping Islamic Studies (1997) and The Historical Atlas of Islam (with M. Ruthven) (2004). In addition, he has contributed numerous shorter studies and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism in journals and collective volumes, including The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Oxford Encyclopaedia 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. In 1988 he was Margaret Gest Visiting Professor at Haverford College and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in 2004, where he was also invited to give the Baccalaureate Address in 1995. He has also lectured widely at international conferences all over the world.
Dr. 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 Humanities. Within the Aga Khan Development Network, Azim Nanji has served as a Member of the Steering Committee and Master Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 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. He is currently preparing the Historical Dictionary of Islam to be published by Penguin Press.
We eagerly anticipate the presence of Azim and Razia Nanji among us!
Ismailimail 
The Institute of Ismaili Studies’ great loss is Stanford University’s great gain. I wish Dr. Nanji all the best in his new post.
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^^ Hello Easy Nash – I wouldn’t say it is a loss for the IIS as my understanding of the IIS’ vision goes beyond its walls. Certainly this is a great gain for Stanford, but also for the IIS.
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You mean like a win-win situation. Agreed.
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To clarify, I meant that locally his is a great loss to the IIS but, taking a broader perspective, I agree it is beneficial to both institutions ;-)
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Dr Azim Nanji decison to accept the stanford position is a positive step for Him and his family during the jubilee year .
This jubille year is a great occassion in history to rise to the bigger challenges and Professor Nanji has chosen to continue to share his time and knowledge with stanford university.
It is a win- win situation as Professor Nanji continues to bulit on his outstanding legacy.
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My favourite quote of Dr. Azim Nanji:
“In sum the process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda represents the initial level – one transcends history, the other creates it. The spiritual and material realms are not dichotomous, since in the Ismaili formulation, matter and spirit are united under a higher genus and each realm possesses its own hierarchy. Though they require linguistic and rational categories for definition, they represent elements of a whole, and a true understanding of God must also take account of His creation. Such a synthesis is crucial to how the human intellect eventually relates to creation and how it ultimately becomes the instrument for penetrating through history the mystery of the unknowable God implied in the formulation of tawhid.”(Azim Nanji, Director, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, U.K., 1995, taken from: http://www.iep.utm.edu/i/ismaili.htm)
The above excerpt is 1 of 63 from the following collection:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/02/327comprehensive-quotes-of-aga-khan-iv.html
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it is great pleasure for me to chosen at the standford university,it gain of stanford and iis this co_operation and coordinotion with istitute
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