Dr Maria De Cillis

Associate Professor and Shiʿi Studies Unit Head (Interim)

Biography Publications Research Teaching Talks

Monograph

The Notion of Sympathy across Ismailism and Italian renaissance. (Forthcoming, 2025).
Salvation and Destiny in Islam: The Shiʿi Ismaili Perspective of Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī. I. B. Tauris in collaboration with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, (London, 2018). 296pp.
Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought. Theoretical Compromises in the Works of Avicenna, al-Ghazālī and Ibn ʿArabī, (Routledge, London and New York, 2014).
This monograph has been translated into Arabic as: Bayna al-ḥurriyya al-insāniyya wa’l-qadar al-ilahiyya fi’l-fikr al-islāmiyya. Translated by Muḥammad Salāḥ (The National Centre for Translation, Cairo, 2019).

Co-edited volume

“The Aristotelian Concept of Quinta Essentia and its Perception in Shiʿi Islam”, in Mélanges d’études shi’ites et islamologiques offertes au Professeur Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi / Shi’i and other Islamic Studies in Honour of Professor Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Brepols in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies (Turnhout), forthcoming, 2024.
“Intellectual Import of the Ismaili dāʿīs in Central Asia: Al-Kirmānī, al-Sijistānī and al-Rāzī on Nature and the significance of their discussions in the Fatimid Context” in D. Dagiev (ed.), Tajiks: History, Religion, Culture and People. Routledge (London and New York), forthcoming, 2025.
“Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī and Muʿtazilism: An Enquiry into an Opaque Relationship”, in Raison et quête de la sagesse Hommage à Christian Jambet, Brepols, (Turnhout, 2020), pp. 229-257.
A Preliminary Study on the Significance of Qaḍāʾ and Qadar in the Eighth Chapter of al-Kirmānī’s Kitāb al-Riyāḍ” in Esotérisme shi’ite, ses racines et ses prolongements: Shiʿi Esotericism: Its Roots and Developments, Amir-Moezzi, De Cillis, De Smet, Mir-Kasimov, eds., Brepols, (Turnhout, 2016), pp. 345-368.

“Al-Kirmānī’s Perspective on Spiritual Assistance and the Accomplishment of Prophethood in the Story of Moses and Shuʿayb”. (Forthcoming).
“La Questione del libero Arbitrio nel pensiero Islamico Classico”. Rivista Fondazione Oasis. Cristiani e Musulmani nel Mondo Globale 13:26 (2017), pp. 33-41. (Refereed Journal) In Italian. Translated into English as “Muslims and Free Will” in Christians and Muslims in the Global World, 13:26 (2017).
“Avicenna on Matter, Matter’s Disobedience and Evil: Reconciling Metaphysical Stances and Qur’anic Perspectives”, Transcendent Philosophy 12 (2011), pp. 147-168. (Refereed Journal) The above article has been edited and published on the IIS website in 2013

Book reviews

Özgür Koca Islam, Causality, and Freedom. From the Medieval to the Modern Era (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Pp. 287. in the Religious Studies Journal, CUP, forthcoming, 2021.
Seyfeddin Kara, In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an. The Review of Qur'anic Research, the online companion to the International Qur'anic Studies Association (IQSA). (14 July 2019)

Article reviews

“Sins and Sinners in the Ismaili Thought: Some Examples”. Reviewed for Studi Magrebini, Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale (2021).
“The Esoteric Meaning of the Sin of Adam in the Manuscript Tradition of the Rasāʾil Iḫwān al-Ṣafāʾ”. Reviewed for Studi Magrebini, Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale (2021).
“Divine and Celestial Knowledge in relation to Determinism in the Philosophy of Avicenna”. Reviewed for The Toronto Journal of Theology (2020).
“Comparisons in Muslim Anti-Christian Writings in Christian Iberia and Exile”. Reviewed for Entangled Religions - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer (2020).

‘Free Will, Predestination, and Acquisition’ for the Dictionary of Islamic Bioethics, Oxford University Press (Forthcoming).
‘Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī’ for the IIS Encyclopaedia of the Ismailis (Forthcoming).

Encyclopaedia Entries for the Biographical Dictionary of Islamic Civilisation and Culture, Mustafa Shah and Abdel Haleem, ed. (I. B. Tauris, 2022).

"Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani" for the Encyclopaedia of the Ismailis (The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London 2022).

(Co-Translation). The Proof of God. An English Translation with an Introduction from the French of Amir-Moezzi’s La Preuve de Dieu. (With O. Mir-Kasimov). B. Tauris in collaboration with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, (London, 2023). 392pp.
Translation from the French of the Introductory paper by Prof M. Yahia featuring in The Study of Shi‘i Islam. History, Theology and Law, F. Daftary and G. Miskinzoda, ed., I.B. Tauris and the Institute of Ismaili Studies, (London, 2014), pp. 253-270.