While many European universities, Leiden included, have a proud tradition of research into Islamic studies, a topical and thematic focus on Shiʿi Islam in all its dispensation remains a desideratum.

The present volume focuses on the political perceptions of the Hajj, its global religious appeal to Muslims, and the European struggle for influence and supremacy in the Muslim world in the age of pre-colonial and colonial empires.

Since 2021, LUCIS invites three to four eminent scholars to give a large-scale lecture in one of the finer halls at Leiden University. These lectures bring together students, junior researchers, and senior scholars from Leiden University and beyond and are aimed at presenting cutting-edge research in…

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

The Centre is the proud home of several research programmes.

Why is Arabic poetry relevant for our understanding of the Arabic-speaking world? Arabist James Montgomery explains this in the first video interview of the Leiden | Islam interview series produced by Leiden Islam Centre LUCIS. 'If there is anything which is going to make the situation worse, it is…

Faculty roundtable

In August 2006 a young American called Raed Jarrar discovered Arabic’s potency. Detained by four guards at New York’s Kennedy Airport for wearing a T-shirt with “We will not be silent” on it in Arabic, he was told that he may as well be entering a bank with a T-shirt announcing “I am a robber.”

Mahmood Kooria shows in his dissertation that Islam often adapts to the regional context. PhD defense 14 December.

Debate

Conference

The west side of the campus square is occupied by the Gorlaeus Lecture Hall, known as ‘the dish’. This building houses the largest lecture halls of Leiden University, which welcome hundreds of students every day. It also has Leiden’s largest solar panel roof, with 1241 solar panels.

The west side of the campus square is occupied by the Lecture Hall, known as ‘the dish’. This building houses the largest lecture halls of Leiden University, which welcome hundreds of students every day. It also has Leiden’s largest solar panel roof, with 1241 solar panels.

How did free agents in the Dutch Republic react to the creation of colonial monopolies (VOC and WIC) by the States-General? This project answers this question by looking at the role individuals played in the construction of an informal global empire parallel to the institutional empire devised by the…

In the period between the First and the Second World War, many Muslim intellectuals came to Europe. What impact did they have on each other’s, as well as on European thinking, and how were they in turn influenced? Leiden Islam expert Dr Umar Ryad has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to investigate…

This book examines how Muslim communities in the Netherlands perceive and experience extremism, counter-radicalisation policies, and Islamophobia.

Lecture

Perspectives on Terrorism 2015

This book explores chronologically, for the first time, the representation and redefinition of Indonesia’s regional cultures through recording media, from the introduction of the gramophone record through the current video compact disc (VCD) era, taking as case study the Minangkabau ethnic group.

How did people experience Islam on a day-to-day basis in the early centuries of Islam? That's where the papyri come in, says professor of Arabic Petra Sijpesteijn in the fourth video of the Leiden | Islam interview series.

Programme management of research programme “Strengthening knowledge of and dialogue with the Islamic/Arab world”

Lecture

Lecture

The Historic Port Town of Sandy Point and its Anchorage

Every year, in the last month of the Islamic calendar, millions of Muslims from around the world come together in Mecca to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage that all capable Muslims should perform at least once in their lives. In 2013, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden organised the exhibition…

Subproject of

The Leiden University Shii Studies Initiative (LUSSI) is hosting a two-day online conference on Islam and Evolution.

The conquest by Rome brought profound changes to large parts of Europe. Unprecedented infrastructural works were created, towns sprang up, a ribbon of fortresses was laid out along the frontiers.

LUCITH runs a number of initiatives and programmes. Below you will find a list of initiatives and activities by the Centre for Islamic Thought and History.

An overview of Professional Associations and Journals

This study describes religion in Java.

Lecture

Matthias Haentjens and Ross Spence participated in Warsaw conference and PhD workshop on 16 & 17 November 2018.

Lecture

Maurits Berger worked as a lawyer in Amsterdam and as a journalist and researcher in Egypt and Syria. Since 2008, he has been a Professor of Islam in Leiden. Now he finally gets to do what he really wants: bringing his social knowledge and experience with Islam to the academic world. His call to the…

Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam

Marietje Beemsterboer defended her thesis on 12 June 2018 (in Dutch)

'In Perspective' is the quarterly publication of the Faculty of Humanities in which we bundle some of our most high-profile stories. In Perspective is printed in limited quantities (currently only available in Dutch), spread amongst relations and partners and offered on coffeetables within our buildings.…

War and terrorism overshadow interest in the pre-Islamic heritage of the Arabic peninsula. The new Leiden Centre for the Study of Ancient Arabia aims to make the general public more aware of the ancient history of this region.

Nichiran kankei-shi o yomitoku [Revisiting the History of Dutch-Japanese Relations] is a new, two-volume Japanese publication with a chapter written by Wulan Remmelink. Both volumes offer a new look on the historical relations between Japan and The Netherlands during the Edo period by examining various…

How was anti-communism organized in the West? New volume edited by Giles Scott-Smith, Luc van Dongen and Stephanie Roulin on the aims, arguments and associations of a range of transnational anti-communist activists during the Cold War.

On November 21 a team of three students of Leiden University won the third prize during the North-West European Programming Championship in Bremen (Germany).

Lecture

At our regular panel discussions we bring together scholars and other experts to discuss a current topic that captures the interest of the general public as well as academics.

Political Scientists Harun Cero and Arlinda Rrustemi (Leiden University) argue that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could present a chance for Bosnia and Kosovo to finally remove Russian influence, which has been growing and blocking these countries for years. The West should shift away from appeasing…

Every semester, LUCIS invites a scholar to Leiden to provide a lecture series on a topic of their choice. With these lectures, we aim to present state-of-the-art research in Islamic studies to the Leiden academic community and beyond, and to offer students and junior researchers the opportunity to get…