Organized by the Beyond Sharia Research Team Utrecht University Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies | Wednesday 15 April 2026 | Janskerkhof 13, Room 006 (Stijlkamer)
With pain in our hearts for the atrocities carried out against the people in Iran on 8 and 9 January this year, followed by flames of war, we remain committed to our goal of safeguarding Iran’s intellectual heritage.
You are cordially invited to the next international conference by the ERC Advanced Grant project, Beyond Sharia: the Role of Sufism in Shaping Islam. This scholarly gathering is focused on bringing together researchers working on a range of topics from Sufism in present-day Turkey to areas in the Balkans. Topics we would like to cover at this conference include the role of Persian as a lingua franca, saints and sainthood in this cultural zone, and the role of antinomian or non-conformist Sufis in shaping a new type of Islamic piety.
Image: “Two Nightingales in a Rose Bush”, Double-Sided Illustrated Leaf from an Ottoman Album; ‘Abdullah Bukhari Turkish, ca. 1725–45. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Object Number: 2023.217
Programme Wednesday 15 April 2026
13.00 Welcome and opening by Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
13.15 Gökçen B. Dinç (Utrecht University)
“A Joy in the Heart, a Lingering Memory”: Malami-Hamzavis from the Late Ottoman Empire to Republican Turkey
13.45 Leila Rahimi Bahmany (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Miracles and the Making of a Sufi Saint: Kaygusuz Abdal in the Menâkıbnâme
14.15 Kourosh Beigpour (Independent Scholar)
Reframing the Encounter: Shams and Rūmī through the Narrative of Hājī Bektāsh Velī
15:15 Coffee break
15.45 Zhinia Noorian (Utrecht University)
To be announced
16.15 Zeynep Oktay (Boğaziçi University)
The Secret of ʿAli: The Perfect Man and the Word of God in Alevism and Bektashism
16:45 Gianfranco Bria (Roma Tre University)
Antinomian Sufism and Nation-Building: Naim Frashëri and the Renewal of Bektashiyya in the Late Ottoman Balkans
17:15 Ufuk Erol (Leibniz Institute of European History)
Narrating Sainthood and Translating Authority: Persianate Sufism and Vernacular Piety in Fifteenth-Century Anatolia
17.45 Wrapping Up Asghar Seyed-Gohrab & Zhinia Noorian
18:00 Conference dinner
Participation is free but registration is compulsory: beyondsharia@uu.nl