معرفی
Professor Ayman Shihadeh is Professor of the Intellectual History of the Islamic World at SOAS University of London, where he also serves as Head of the School of History, Religions and Philosophies. He is affiliated with both the Department of History and the Department of Religions and Philosophies, contributing to SOAS's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to the study of global intellectual traditions.
His educational background includes a first-class BA (Hons) from SOAS, followed by postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford where he completed his DPhil in 2002. Before returning to SOAS in 2008, he held teaching positions at the Universities of Edinburgh, Exeter and Glasgow. His academic excellence was recognized through a Senior Humanities Research Fellowship at New York University Abu Dhabi (2019-2021).
Professor Shihadeh's research focuses on Medieval Arabic intellectual history, particularly the intersection of Islamic theology (kalam) and philosophy. His work explores the Avicennan philosophical tradition and its evolution through figures like Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Sharaf al-Din al-Mas'udi. His scholarship spans metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, anthropology, and the dialectical practices that shaped medieval Islamic intellectual culture. He approaches these subjects through rigorous textual analysis combined with historical contextualization, revealing the complex intellectual environments in which these ideas developed, were transmitted, and contested.
His extensive publication record demonstrates consistent engagement with primary sources from the 10th through 13th centuries. The trajectory of his work shows a deepening exploration of the philosophical-theological interface in Islamic thought, with particular attention to how medieval scholars navigated the relationship between rational inquiry and religious tradition. His research has increasingly incorporated comparative dimensions, examining how different schools of thought engaged with similar philosophical problems.
- Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
- Editor-in-Chief of the Islamic Translation Series (Brill)
- Editor of the Philosophy and Theology section of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill)
- Member of the History Sub-panel in the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021)
- Former chair of the British Association for Islamic Studies (2012-2019)
Professor Shihadeh has supervised numerous PhD students working on diverse aspects of Islamic intellectual history, including doctoral research on Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani, Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī, and various dimensions of Ash'ari and Avicennan thought. His editorial work and service on advisory boards for journals like Global Intellectual History, Oriens, and Islamicate Intellectual History demonstrate his commitment to advancing the field through institutional support and scholarly community building.
