Assistant Professor
Religious Studies
Aun.Ali@Colorado.EDU

Education

Ph.D., Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, expected 2015
M.A., Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, 2007
B.A., Rutgers University, 2003

Research Interests

Islamic law, theology/philosophy, exegesis and history; Sunni-Shi'i relations and sectarianism; philosophical theology and philosophy of religion; historiography and philosophy of history; modernity and the nation-state; the concept of tradition

Regional and Thematic Interests

West Asia/Middle East
Religion; History

Profile

Aun Hasan Ali joined the Department of Religious Studies in 2015. He works on the Islamic tradition. Ali studied Religion and Philosophy at Rutgers University, receiving his BA in 2003. That same year he travelled to Yemen to continue studying Arabic. He earned an MA in Islamic Studies from McGill University in 2007, and will receive his PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University in 2015. Ali's research focuses on the intellectual history of Shi'ism, including both the pre-modern and modern periods. In particular, he is interested in studying Shi'ism through the lens of the concept of tradition and social network theory. Ali is also interested in Shi'i law and legal theory, especially the interplay between shariah and legislation. His current project examines intellectual life in the city of Hillah in southern Iraq in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE. Ali is also preparing the final draft of an article in which he examines the relationship between Sunnism and Shi'ism through the lens of the issue of documentary evidence in Islamic law. His recent publications include a translation of a Persian chapter about the Qajar philosopher Abu'l-Hasan Jilveh in Philosophical traditions in Qajar Iran, set to be published by Brill in 2015, and two articles on Shi'i legal theory, classical and modern, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. 

Selected Publications

  • “Refraining from Seeking Clarification: A Chapter from the al-Wāfī fī sharḥ al-Wāfiya of al-Aʿrajī (d. 1227/1812).” In Kumail Rajani and Robert Gleave (eds.), Shiʿite Legal Theory: Sources and Commentaries. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press/Gibbs Memorial Trust, 2022). Co-authored with Hadi Qazwini and Yusuf Ünal. Introduction, critical edition and translation.
  • “The Canonization of Nahj al-Balāgha between Najaf and Ḥilla: Sistani and the Iconic Authority of the Marājiʿ,” Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam 2/1 (2021): 3–23.
  • “The Rational Turn in Imāmism Revisited.” Global Intellectual History 5/3 (forthcoming – accepted).
  • “Some Notes on the History of the Categorization of Imāmī Ḥadīth.” Turkish Journal of Shiite Studies 1/2 (2019): 215–233.
  • “Reading the Story of Moses and Khiḍr through the Lens of Islamic Law.” English Language Notes 56/1 (2018): 209–212.
  • “Mīrzā Abū l-Ḥasan Jilwah” by Encieh Barkhah. In Reza Pourjavady (ed.), Philosophy in Qajar Iran. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Translation.
  • “The Discourse on ʿIlm al-Waḍʿ in Modern Shīʿī Scholarship.” Islamic Studies 50/3-4 (2011): 325–345. 
  • “Legal Theory: Classical Shīʿī.” In Oxford Encyclopedias of the Islamic World: Digital Collection
  • “Legal Theory: Modern Shīʿī.” In Oxford Encyclopedias of the Islamic World: Digital Collection

Selected Presentations

  • “Some Notes on the Uses of Documentary Evidence in Imāmī Law,’” The Seventh Annual Conference on Shiʿi Studies, The Islamic College, London, May 2022.
  • “The Primacy of the Quran: Pushing the Boundaries of Critique,” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 2021.
  • “Ibn Idrīs al-Ḥillī and the Transformation of Shīʿī Law,” Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, November 2021.
  • “The Legal Purport of ‘Refraining from Seeking Clarification,’” The Sixth Annual Conference on Shiʿi Studies, The Islamic College, London, March 2021.
  • “The Sanctuary of the Twelfth Imam in Ḥillah,” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, December 2020.
  • “Sunnī Ḥadīth in Imāmī Law,” Shīʿī Studies Group Symposium, Franke Institute, University of Chicago, October 2018.
  • “Reading the Nahj al-Balāghah in Ḥillah,” Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī, The Shīʿah Institute, Warburg Institute, University of London, December 2017. 
  • “The Ijāzah of al-ʿAllāmah al-Ḥillī to the Banī Zuhrah: Sources for the History of the School of Ḥillah,” Shii Studies: The State of the Art, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, December 2017.
  • “Muḥammad Isḥāq Fayyāḍ on Islamic Governance,” Shīʿī Studies Group Symposium, Franke Institute, University of Chicago, May 2017.
  • “Understanding the Maqtal of Ḥusayn as Devotional and Mystical Literature,” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 2016.