Ali S. Asani
Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Cultures
Address:
Harvard University
Barker Center 305
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-5755
Fax: 617-496-5798
Email: aliasani@fas.harvard.edu
Courses
Islamic Civilizations 241r: Approaches to Studying Indo-Muslim Culture and South Asian Islam
Religion 1801: For the Love of God and His Prophet: Religion, Literature, and the Arts in Muslim Cultures
Religion 1802: Introduction to Islamic Mysticism: The Sufi Tradition
Religion 1820: Islam in South Asia: Religion, Culture, and Identity in South Asian Muslim Societies
Biography
Professor Asani holds a joint appointment between NELC and the Study of Religion. He also serves on the faculty of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. He has taught at Harvard since 1983, offering instruction in a variety of languages such as Urdu/Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Swahili as well as courses on various aspects of the Islamic tradition. His books include: Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Literature of South Asia; The Bujh Niranjan: An Ismaili Mystical Poem; The Harvard Collection of Ismaili Literature in Indic Literatures: A Descriptive Catalog and Finding Aid; Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Muslim Devotional Poetry (co-author); Al-Ummah: A Handbook for an Identity Development Program for North American Muslim Youth; and Aaiye Urdu parheN: Let's Study Urdu (co-author) (forthcoming). He has numerous articles in journals and encylopedias and serves as associate editor of the Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs and Khoj: Journal of South Asian Studies. He has recently written an article on, "Pluralism, Intolerance and the Quran," American Scholar (January 2002). He also serves on the advisory board of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.