The Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University is pleased to announce an interdisciplinary symposium and reception in honor of Professor George Saliba, on the occasion of his retirement. Scholars of the history of science and the history of Arabic and Islamic thought will present their current research, and celebrate the contributions of Professor Saliba to these fields of scholarship.
The symposium will take place on Friday, February 17, in Butler Library, room 523, from 3:30 to 6:30 pm. A reception will follow. Please RSVP to mesaasretirement@gmail.com.
3.30 pm - Welcome by Timothy Mitchell, Chair, MESAAS
3.45 pm - Opening remarks by Hamid Dabashi, Professor, MESAAS
4.00 pm - Keynote lecture: Islam Without Europe: Traditions of Reform in Eighteenth-Century Islamic Thought
Ahmad Dallal (American University in Beirut)
5.00 pm Roundtable
Moderator: Marwa Elshakry (Columbia University)
“Condemning Alchemy in Byzantium and the Islamic World”
Alexandre Roberts (Columbia University)
“Nasir al-Din Tusi and the Scientifc Exchange in the Period of Mongol Expansion in West Asia”
Hadi Jorati (Ohio State University)
"Formation of music theory and translation of musical concepts in medieval Baghdad”
Mohammad Sadegh Ansari (Columbia University)
Title TBA
Wadad Kadi (University of Chicago)
6.30 pm Reception
