OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
This one-day workshop will compare the role and function of saints in Christianity and Islam, and explore the very different realities that could lie behind the concept of a ‘saint’. It will explore the similarities and differences within sainthood as it developed in different parts of the Islamic and Christian worlds. This will include such issues as: relations with political power; the use of relics; the emergence of specific types of cult; the function of shrines and pilgrimage thereto; the place of intercession by saints; and their role as exemplars.
Speakers:
Bryan Ward-Perkins (Oxford), ‘The early development of Christian sainthood’
Simon Yarrow (Birmingham), ‘The Cult of Saints in Latin Christendom: New Developments, c.800-1500’
Monica White (Nottingham), ‘Models of Sainthood and Veneration in the Eastern Christian World, 900-1200’
Roderick Grierson (Rumi Institute), ‘Friends of God’: Turkish Sufism and the Conversion of Anatolia’
Azfar Moin (Austin, Texas), ‘Saint Shrines as Objects of Imperial Veneration and Desecration in the Post-Mongol Empires’
Sarah Ansari (RHUL), ‘‘A way of life rather than an ideology?’: Sufi saints and the politics of identity in Sindh’
Moin Nizami (OXCIS), ‘The Sufi-‘Alim Nexus: Muslim Mystic Trends in 18-19th c. Northern India’
Miranda Williams (Oxford), ‘Christian and Muslim shared shrines in the Manar al-Athar photo-archive’
Closing remarks: Francis Robinson (RHUL)
