Harvard News: Asani named professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Culture

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 8, 2009–Ali Asani, a scholar of Islamic cultures and a gifted teacher of South Asian languages, has been appointed professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic religion and cultures in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2008.

Asani, 53, was previously professor of the practice of Indo-Muslim languages and culture. He has taught at Harvard since 1984, and has held joint appointments in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on the Study of Religion and the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. With the new appointment Asani also joins the Department of African and African American Studies.

“Professor Asani is an exemplary scholar,” said Diana Sorensen, dean of arts and humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “His work in the field of Islamic studies draws from a range of disciplines to shed new light on cultural practices and devotional traditions. Furthermore, he is a first-rate language instructor who demonstrates remarkable facility with Urdu-Hindi, Gujarati, Sindhi and Swahili.”

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Asani’s primary field of study is Islam in South Asia, though his work encompasses an array of disciplines and bridges several departments. He is a scholar who moves easily from poetry to linguistics, history to religious studies. His studying and teaching about Muslim cultures covers a range of geographic settings from Delhi to Istanbul, Timbuktu to Zanzibar.

Asani is the author of five books, numerous scholarly papers and many encyclopedia articles. Several of his publications focus on Shi’i and Sufi devotional literatures in the Indian subcontinent. His first book, titled “The Bujh Niranjan: An Ismaili Mystical Poem” (Harvard University Press, 1992) was a translation and critical study of an 18th-century poem in medieval Hindi from the Isma’ili Shi’i tradition in Northern India. In 1995 he co-authored “Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Popular Muslim Poetry” (University of South Carolina Press), which focuses on the poetic and devotional traditions associated with the Prophet Muhammad in Urdu, Sindhi and colloquial Arabic. “Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literatures of South Asia” (I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2002) is a pioneering interdisciplinary study of ginans, the devotional hymns of the Nizari Ismaili Muslim communities of South Asia. Most recently, Asani published the language-learning text “Let’s Study Urdu” (Yale University Press, 2007).

At Harvard, Asani teaches a range of courses from undergraduate classes in the Core Curriculum to graduate seminars. Rich in the use of multi-media, his lecture courses introduce students to the complex traditions of Islam, often employing literary and artistic traditions, such as calligraphy, Qur’anic recitation and music as lenses to investigate the complexities of religion and culture. Asani’s seminar on Islam in South Asia explores subjects such as the politics of language and religious identity and the impact of Islamist movements on women and religious minorities in Muslim societies. He has also offered instruction in several language and literature courses in Urdu-Hindi, Gujarati and Swahili.

Asani has played a key role in advising on curricular materials and issues of pedagogy in the teaching of Islam and Muslim civilizations in secondary schools. Recently, he served as a consultant for the Islamic Cultural Studies Initiative, a professional development program for high school teachers in Kenya, Pakistan and Texas intended to promote a culturally and historically based approach to the study of Islam. Asani is an active member of the Program in Religion and Secondary Education at the Harvard Divinity School and has been appointed to the “Religion in the Schools” Task Force of the American Academy of Religion.

Asani has lent his insight and expertise to several faculty committees at Harvard, including the Committee on General Education. He serves on the advisory boards of the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Pluralism Project, the Islam in the West Project and the Harvard Foundation. He is also on the Board of Freshman Advisors and is an active member of the Lowell House Senior Common Room.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Asani completed his undergraduate and doctoral studies at Harvard. He received his B.A. in the comparative study of religion in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Indo-Muslim culture in 1984. Asani has received numerous awards and honors, including the Dean’s Commendation for Distinguished Teaching from Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education and the Harvard Foundation Faculty Medal (2002). He has been the recipient of grants from the Carnegie Corporation (2007), the Aga Khan Development Network (2006), the Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching (2002, 1999) the Institute of Ismaili Studies (1996) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (1986).

HARVARD UNIVERSITY | FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES