Foreword
Islamic Studies is a multi-facet and multi-dimensional discipline. It talks about theology, history, politics, culture and civilization, society and economics, thoughts and trends. It covers a lot of themes and subjects related to Islam and Muslims. This could be seen while studying the syllabus of any institution or department offering this subject in their educational programs. This feature of Islamic studies has created some confusions and ambiguity also, about the very concept of Islamic studies. It is often asked in academic discussions that what are the core areas of the Islamic Studies, and what could be considered as supplementary and supportive parts? In other words, the question is that what the very concept of Islamic studies is. The significance of question intensifies more when we confront the situations where we find that the Islamic studies is being thought in different ways with different contents, in traditional Islamic seminaries, in modern educational institutions, in sub-continent, in Arab world and in Western world. This scenario demands us to define the Islamic studies and its core areas.
Islamic Studies has a long span of time and wide geographical boundaries to be covered in teaching and research. It starts from the pre-Islamic era, and comes to the modern age, covering more than fourteen hundred years of time, and almost all continents of the world. In these periods and places, a lot of incidents, achievements and changes occurred and took place. A number of governments and rulers appeared and disappeared. Several movements, thoughts and trends spread and engaged people. Different nations and regions came in this framework. Islamic studies in its teaching and research take all these occurrences and appearances into its account. This results in covering, different subjects and topics like history, culture, society, administration, literature, academics and architecture, etc., under the umbrella of Islamic Studies. Here this discipline appears to be a more interdisciplinary than a separate entity. Therefore, the need arises to differentiate between the discipline of Islamic Studies and other disciplines of social sciences which subjects have been discussed here.
Syllabus designing is another area of concern for Islamic studies. With the ongoing fast changings in the market place of today's world, it is often asked how much job oriented this discipline is. And to what extent the scholars of Islamic Studies, have employability in the market. The educational system always emphasize to modify the syllabus keeping in view the changing trends and emerging demands in the market forces. This requires from the subject fraternity to think upon, while preparing and designing the syllabus. The local needs, and local history and culture are another area which deserves to be incorporated in the syllabus.
Any academic deliberation cannot ignore the importance of research. Research has always a key factor in development of any subject, as well as in progress and development of knowledge and nation. So it is very ample to know about the scenario, quantity and quality of researches in the field of Islamic studies. Though, several departments and institutions of Islamic studies offer courses and admissions in research program and projects, but it is need of the hour to make sincere assessment of research works being done. What impact it has in academic world; which areas have been covered in the research; and what are the aspects and issues need to be researched all these to be sincerely looked upon. We can't claim that the research in Islamic studies is up to the required quantity and of satisfactory standard. Thus, the deep analysis of the research works and their quality is the only way forward to come to the conclusion.
Considering the above-mentioned points and issues that drawing our attention towards the discipline of Islamic Studies, we at the Department. of Islamic Studies, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad decided to organize a two-day national seminar on 24th and 25th April 2019, in collaboration with Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, by inviting scholarly papers, and organizing sincere deliberations and discussions in academic atmosphere, to reach out to a solid conclusions and line of action.
The said seminar was attended by a good number of professors and scholars from across the country. The bright part of the seminar was the meaningful deliberation and healthy discussion which took place after every academic sessions. The participants of the seminar rightly felt that this seminar was the need of hour, and was the first of its kind in recent history of the country, to have research papers and discussions on such subject.
Papers presented during the seminar were in Urdu and English languages and therefore it was decided that two books separately- -one in English and another in Urdu, to be compiled and published separately. Accordingly, papers of Urdu language have been collected, compiled and edited by me, and got published in August 2022, by the Directorate of Translation, Translation Studies, Lexicography and Publication, MANUU, Hyderabad, and was released by Honorable the then Vice Chancellor of MANUU. It is indeed a great asset for the fraternity of Islamic studies.
The book in your hand is a compilation of the papers presented during the seminar in English language. The collection, compilation and editing works have been done jointly, by me and by my learned colleague in the Department Mrs. Zeeshan Sara, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies. These papers cover the issues and areas of the subject which were pointed out above. The papers are of high quality and deeply researched on the subject.
Hindu (947)
Agriculture (137)
Ancient (1130)
Archaeology (825)
Architecture (580)
Art & Culture (945)
Biography (732)
Buddhist (549)
Cookery (168)
Emperor & Queen (592)
Islam (276)
Jainism (339)
Literary (890)
Mahatma Gandhi (397)
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