Aun Hasan Ali

Research Interests 

Islamic law, legal theory, theology, philosophy, exegesis, and history.

Overview

Aun Hasan Ali joined the Department of Religious Studies in 2015. He received his PhD from McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies. His research focuses on the intellectual history of Twelver Shi’ism, particularly law and legal theory. His first book, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi’i Islamic Tradition, builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies and Anthropology to argue that Twelver Shi'ism is better understood as a discursive tradition. At CU Boulder, Ali teaches Religious Dimensions of Human Experience, Islam, The Quran, Sufism, and Fundamentalisms. In addition to intellectual history, he maintains an interest in Urdu and Persian literature.

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.