Legitimate and Illegitimate Violence in Islamic Thought (LIVIT)
Welcome to the website for this three-year project exploring the justification of violence in Islamic thought from the earliest time until now. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Global Uncertainties Programme.
Between 2010 and 2013, the project team will be researching the history and development of justifications for violence in the Islamic intellectual tradition. When and how have Muslim thinkers justified violent acts? When did they refuse to justify them? How have these justifications changed over time and what influence do these historical arguments have on the ideology of Islamic movements in the modern period? These and other questions for the focus of the project, and more information is available here.
Image: Ali killing an enemy with the ”dhul-faqar” sword. Khaveranname, Iran, 882AH. Tehran.
Latest LIVIT News:
Istvan Kristo-Nagy ("Why the takfir of the zanadiqa? Struggle and Interaction between monotheism and dualism") and Robert Gleave ("Takfir and Taqiyya in Medieval Shii Fiqh") both presented papers at the International Conference Takfir: a Diachronic Perspective to be held at the Centro De Cientias Humanas y Sociales in Madrid, 24th-26th October 2001. For details click here.
Istvan Kristo-Nagy presented a paper entitled "The Status of Intellectuals as a point of bifurcation in the social evolution of the West and of Islamdom: the Case of Ibn al-Muqaffa'" at the Centro De Cientias Humanas y Sociales in Madrid on 24th November 2011. For details, click here.
Istvan Kristo-Nagy is to present a paper at the meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Washington DC, on 3rd December 2012, entitled "Iranian Revival after post-conquest trauma as reflected in Ibn al-Muqaffa''s Oeuvre" - on a panel for the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies, for details, click here.
Robert Gleave addressed US Navy Midshipmen on Islamic law and Shiism as USNA, Annapolis, on 11th October 2011: for details, click here.
