Islamic Colloquia of Edinburgh (ICE) Conference 2026

Conference dates: 6-8 July 2026

About the conference

Welcome to the Islamic Colloqium of Edinburgh (ICE) – an annual online conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh and dedicated to exploring cutting-edge questions in Islamic theology, philosophy, and the dynamic intersections between Islam and science. ICE provides a vibrant platform for scholars and students worldwide to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue and push the boundaries of contemporary Islamic thought.

The theme of this year’s conference turns to the future of Islamic jurisprudence. By Fiqh of the Future, we mean the study of how emerging, speculative, or already existing technologies place pressure on inherited legal categories, moral assumptions, and jurisprudential paradigms. We are especially interested in case studies that show how technological change may require jurists to revisit familiar questions in unfamiliar settings.

Monday 6 July – Vision, Light, and Scientific Knowledge

Chaired by Shoaib Ahmed Malik

Time	Speaker	University	Paper
12:00-12:30pm	Shoaib Ahmed Malik	University of Edinburgh	Welcome, conference introduction, aims, and format
12:30-1pm	Ellen Philpott-Teo	University of Adelaide	Vision in Ibn al-Haytham’s Manāẓir and the problem of the ‘Islamic’ Gaze
1-1:30pm	Sena Aydin	Istanbul Medeniyet University	How does light propagate? The Approach of Taqi al-Din, the Peak of Optics in the Ottoman Classical Period
1-2pm	Break
2-2:30pm	Julia Tomasson	Rice University	Taḥqīq in Post-Avicennan Mathematics: Shifting Discursive and Epistemic Practices in Arabic Geometric Manuscripts
2:30-3pm	Meysam Sefidkhosh, Maedeh Shokri	Shahid Beheshti University	History of Science as Discursive Intervention: Taqizadeh and the Legitimation of Modern Science in Twentieth-Century Iran

Tuesday 7 July – Cosmos, Calculation, and Creation

Chaired by Jörg Matthias Determann

Time	Speaker	University	Paper
12:00-12:30pm	Muktashim Billah	Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar	Revisiting Epistemological Divides: A Jurisprudential Reassessment of Astronomical Discourses Among Mughal Ulama
12:30-1pm	Abdurrahman Ali Mihirig	University of Oxford	The Kalām Astronomy of Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa al-Bukhārī (d.747/1347)
1-1:30pm	Julio César Cárdenas Arenas	Complutense University of Madrid / University of Antioquia	Celestial Bodies, Calculation, and Astrology in Medieval Islam: Ibn Taymiyah’s Cosmological Critique
1-2pm	Break
2-2:30pm	Nazir Khan	McMaster University	Creatio continua: Ibn Taymiyya on the metaphysics of change in al-Nubuwwāt
2:30-3pm	Hani Ahmed Zewail	University of California, Santa Barbara	Defining Nature in Al-Kindī: Greek Physics and Islamic Creation

Wednesday 8 July – Reform, Evolution, and Muslim Futures

Chaired by Majid Daneshgar

Time	Speaker	University	Paper
12:00-12:30pm	Mohammad Hossain	Ibn Haldun University	A Maghrebi vision of Ottoman Quarantine: Anti-Epidemic measures and State Reform in Hamdan bin Osman Khodja’s Ithāf al-Munsifin (1838)
12:30-1pm	Ayesha Qurrat ul Ain	International Islamic University Islamabad	Evolution, Human Origins and the Quran: A Comparative Reading of Daryabadi and Parwez
1-1:30pm	Ahmad Faizuddin Ramli	National University of Malaysia	The Human Question in Evolutionary Controversy: Dignity, Moral Agency, and Responsibility in Muḥammad Riḍā al-Najafī al-Iṣfahānī’s Critique of Darwinism
1-2pm	Break
2-2:30pm	Seriyye Akan	Binghamton University	Re-examining the Late Ottoman Intellectuals’ Interpretation of Biological Evolution
2:30-3pm	Ahmed Elbenni	Princeton University	Locality, Materiality, and Cosmotechnics: Sardarian Science Fiction as Islamic Philosophy of Technology

Register

To attend this event, please register via our Eventbrite. Once registered, joining information will become available to you.

General Enquiries

Please direct any questions regarding this conference to shoaib.malik@ed.ac.uk.

This article was published on Wednesday 24 June 2026