Doctoral scholarship alumni

A list of our scholarship award alumni and their research areas

 

View current recipients here

 

2018

Sadiq S. Habib (Religious Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Identity Processes Among Emerging Adult Ismailis in Europe and North America - A Study in Integral Anthropology

 

2017

Taushif Kara (History, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Colonial Born?: Migration, Memory, and Islam for the Khoja of East Africa

 

2016

Amaan Merali (Oriental Studies, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Ottomans and the Ismailis (1887-1914): Imperial Perceptions of an Inter-Imperial Community

Azzam Al-Kassir (Politics, Birkbeck, University of London)
Thesis: Continuity and Change in the Thought and Praxis of Salafi-Jihadism: Reading into the writings of the ideologues and Strategists of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria

Muhammad Dost Khan (History, Royal Holloway, University of London)
Thesis: Historicising Perceptions Of The West In Pakistan’s Political Discourse

 

2015

Aslisho Qurboniev (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: The Organisation of Learning and Knowledge Transmission in Egypt and Ifrīqiyya under the Fāṯimids: Institutions, Patronage, Networks and Practices

 

2014

Karim Javan (Religious Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Qiyama in Ismaili Histories

 

2013

Rahim Gholami (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: Ismaili Neoplatinism in two Fatimid texts: A comparative study of al-Sijistani's al-Yanabi and Nasir Khusraw's Khwan al-ikhwan with an annotated English translation of Khwan al-ikhwan

Shumaila Hemani (Ethnomusicology, University of Alberta)
Thesis: Singing the Shah-jo-Raag in Pakistan and India

 

2012

Zulfiqar Khimani (Sociology, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Transnational Religious Belonging: The Case of Nizari Ismaili Muslims

 

2011

Zarangez Karimova (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Structure and Content Analysis of the Three Shīʽī Ḥadīth Works: Kitāb al-jami` al-Wāfī, Wasā’il al- Shīʻa ilā ahādīth al-sharīʻa and Bihār al-Anwār

Ula Zeir (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: Salamiyya: A City of the Ismailis in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Ottoman Syria (1839-1918)

 

2010

Laila Kadiwal (Sociology, University of Sussex)
Thesis: Religious Pluralism in Ismaili Muslim Religious Education: From difference to diversity

Sorbon Mavlonazarov (Anthropology, Durham University)
Thesis: Changes and Continuity in Shrines Visitation in Badakhshan: A Case Study of Wakhan Valley

 

2009

Zamira Dildorbekova (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Dynamics of Islam and Modernity in Tajikistan: Contemporary Ismaili Discourse

Shayesteh Ghofrani (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: Comparative analysis of the Concept of Wilaya in Shi'ism and Sufism in the Formative Period

 

2008

Sultonbek Aksakolov (History, SOAS)
Thesis: Islam in Soviet Tajikistan: State Policy and the Practice of Religion from 1950-1985

Shaftolu Gulamadov (Religious Studies, University of Toronto)
Thesis: The Ethical Dimension of the Ismaili Tradition of Badakhshan

Amier Saidula (Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: A Last Refuge: National Law, Traditional Dispute Resolution and Tajik Survival in Xinjiang Today

 

2007

Zouhal Avzalshoeva (Law, University of Sussex)
Thesis: Nobody beats an obedient woman': state and non-state responses to violence against women in Tajikistan

Rafiq Rahim Ajani (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Development of the Mystical Theology and Ethics of Rindi in Persian Poetry from the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries

Sharaf Oshurbekov (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of York, Toronto)
Thesis: Contested Spaces and Contested Meanings: Isma’ili Muslim Places of worship in Badakhshan region

Sabrina Datoo (History, University of Chicago)
Thesis: Fashioning Muslim Life: Yunani Medicine and Muslim Liberalism in Colonial India c. 1880 – 1930

Aly Kassam-Remtulla (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Muslim Chaplaincy on Campus: Institutional intent and implications

 

2006

Shiraz Hajani (South Asian Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Great Resurrection – Reconstructing Alamut

Wafi Momin (South Asian Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Formation of Satpanth Ismaili Tradition in South Asia

 

2005

Zulfiya Ashurmamadova (Education, University of London)
Thesis: Financing Education in Tajikistan: Tradition and Transition

Jamil Kassam (Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Nizaris during the Safavid Period

Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev (History, SOAS)
Thesis: The Ismailis of Badakhshan: History, Politics and Religion from 1500 to 1750

 

2004

Maryam Rezaee (Politics, University of York)
Thesis: Women and Higher Education: An Analysis of Women’s Development, Empowerment, and Class Position with Special Reference to the Ismaili Women of Iran

Karim Gillani (Music and Religious Studies, University of Alberta)
Thesis: Sound and Recitation of Khoja Ismaili Ginans: Tradition and Transformation

Otambek Mastibekov (Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Leadership and Authority of Ismailis: A Case Study of Badakhshani Community in Tajikistan

 

2003

Arif Jamal (Law, University College London)
Thesis: Liberal Theory and Islam: (Re) Imagining a Muslim Public Square

Marodsilton Mubarokshoeva (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Universities in Muslim Context: Concepts, Challenges, and Opportunities

Nacim Pak (Anthropology of Media, SOAS)
Thesis: Shi'i Expressions of Religion and Spirituality in Iranian Cinema

 

2002

Yahia Baiza (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Education in Afghanistan, 1901-2006: Developments, Influences and Legacies

Abdulmamad Iloliev (Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Poetic Expression of Pamiri Ismalism: The Life and Thought of Mubarak-i Wakhani, a Nineteenth-century Mystic Poet and Religious Scholar

Vafo Navkarov (Philosophy, University College London)
Thesis: Justice, Persons & Institutions

 

2001

Amin Mahdavi (Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: An Event-Driven Distribution Model for Automatic Insertion of Illustrations in Narrative Discourse: A Study Based on the Shahnama Narrative

Gurdofarid Miskinzoda (Islamic Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: On the Margins of Sira: Mughulta'i (689-762/1290-1361) and His Place in the Development of Sira Literature

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad (Social Anthropology and Media Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Post Revolutionary Iranian Cinema: Ideology and Cinematic Critique

 

2000

Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga (Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Weaving social life. Moroccan Rural Textiles, People and Changing Values

 

1999

Omar Ali-de-Unzaga (Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: The Use of the Qur'an in the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa

 

1998

Laila Halani (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Discourses of Religion and Development: Agency, Empowerment and Choices for Muslim Women in Gujerat, India

Fahmida Suleman (Islamic Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Lion, the Hare and Lustre Ware: Studies in the Iconography of Lustre Ceramics from Fāṭimid Egypt (969 - 1171 CE)

 

1997

Zulfikar Hirji (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Co construction of Space and Relatedness Amongst Swahili speaking Muslims of the Indian Ocean: Zanzibar, Mombasa and Muscat