This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Azim Nanji" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Azim Nanji is a Kenyan-born professor of Islamic studies. From 1998 until 2008, he served as director of The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, England. He is also on the board of directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada.
Biography
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Nanji attended schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and Makerere University in Uganda, and received his master's and doctoral degrees in Islamic Studies.
Nanji has held academic and administrative appointments at various American and Canadian universities. Since 1998, he has been with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, a research institute which aims to promote scholarship and learning of Muslim cultures and societies, with a view towards attaining a better understanding of Islam and its relationship with other societies and faiths.
In 1988, he was Margaret Gest Visiting Professor at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, US, and a visiting professor at Stanford University, California in 2004.
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 the Humanities.
Within the Aga Khan Development Network, Nanji has served as a member of the Steering Committee and Master Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and as a 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.
Publications
Professor Nanji has authored, co-authored and edited several books including:
- The Nizari Ismaili Tradition (1976),
- The Muslim Almanac (1996),
- Mapping Islamic Studies (1997)
- The Historical Atlas of Islam (with M. Ruthven) (2004)
In addition, he has contributed shorter studies and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism in journals and collective volumes including the Encyclopædia of Islam, Encyclopædia Iranica, Oxford Encyclopædia 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. As of 2007, he was preparing a Historical Dictionary of Islam to be published by Penguin.
References
- Muborakshoeva, Marodsilton (2013). Islam and Higher Education: Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-68750-8.
- "Biography: Azim Nanji". The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Archived from the original on 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
External links
- 1995 Baccalaureate Address at Stanford University
- 2004 Birks Lecture at McGill University
- The Great Lecture Library