Call for Papers – Islamic Colloquia of Edinburgh (ICE)

Yet when it comes to Islam, these categories are rarely examined or questioned in sustained historical detail. What kinds of narratives actually describe the relationship between Islam and science across different contexts and time periods? Was there conflict, harmony, ambivalence, or something else entirely? How did different thinkers, institutions, and regions conceptualise and negotiate this relationship? And how might revisiting these historical interactions reshape current assumptions about Islam’s engagement with scientific knowledge?

This conference seeks to investigate these questions by spotlighting interactions between scientific developments and Islamic thought, theology, institutions, and societies. We are not simply interested in science as a body of knowledge, but in how scientific theories and proposals have been encountered, interpreted, contested, or integrated within Muslim intellectual and social traditions.

We would like to invite scholars to explore these encounters across time and space—whether through philosophical inquiry, theological debate, legal reasoning, educational reform, social response, or institutional development. Submissions may examine how science has been understood in relation to Islam, and how Muslim thinkers or communities have responded to, shaped, or resisted scientific currents.

The conference welcomes papers falling into the following historical periods:

A) 800–1200 CE

B) 1200–1800 CE

C) 1800–to date CE

These phases are offered as heuristics, not rigid boundaries. We especially encourage submissions that challenge conventional chronologies or offer comparative insights across multiple contexts.

This classical period is often considered the formative age of scientific inquiry within Islamic civilisation. We seek papers that examine how Muslims theologically, philosophically, and socially engaged with scientific disciplines during this time. Suggested topics include:

• Theological responses to astronomy and cosmology: e.g., the kalām critique of celestial spheres
• Al-Kindī’s harmonisation of Hellenistic philosophy with Islamic metaphysics
• Al-Rāzī’s natural philosophy and its reception among theologians
• Early exegetical references to the concept of nature in the Qurʾān
• Ibn Sīnā’s integration of Aristotelian science into his theological vision, and critiques by Ashʿarī thinkers
• Ibn al-Haytham’s Kitāb al-Manāẓir (Book of Optics) and the broader implications of vision theory for epistemology and theology
• Qurʾanic exegesis and its intersections with natural philosophy

Once marginalised in older historiography, this era is now increasingly recognised for its intellectual continuity, regional diversity, and theological engagement with science. Rather than a decline, this period reveals new modes of synthesis, critique, and reapplication of earlier scientific thought within Islamic intellectual traditions. Suggested topics include:

• The vibrant commentary and super-commentary tradition on Avicennian physics, medicine, and metaphysics, and how these were reframed in dialogue with kalām
• The astronomical reforms of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, his critique of Ptolemaic models, and their theological and institutional contexts (e.g., Marāgha observatory)
• ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qūshjī/al-Qūshcī and his reworking of astronomy regardless of Aristotelian physics—opening space for empirical approaches with theological neutrality
• ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī’s al-Mawāqif and its role in integrating natural philosophy into systematic kalām discussions
• Religious debates surrounding Ottoman observatories (e.g. Taqī al-Dīn/ Takiüddin) and the broader question of astronomical legitimacy in Islamic law
• Safavid Persia application of Avicennian medicine and cosmology within evolving Shīʿī theological contexts
• Mughal engagement with science and translation projects, including tensions between Islamic jurisprudence and court-sponsored technological or astronomical practices
• Intersections between Sufi metaphysics and cosmological theories in Persianate and Turkish traditions

This period has seen dramatic shifts in how Islam and science interact, particularly under colonial rule, in reformist movements, and through globalisation. While much attention has focused on Arab and Ottoman contexts, we especially welcome papers that extend the scope geographically and thematically. Suggested topics include:

• Reception of non-Darwinian evolutionary concepts in Muslim exegetical literature
• Muslim responses to Darwinism: from Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Shiblī Nuʿmānī to modern ʿulamāʾ and scientists across the world
• Colonial and nationalist reforms in scientific education (e.g., Aligarh Movement, Egyptian medical schools) and their theological consequences
• European scientific and theological progress and the formation of Muslim study of Islam and Science
• The Islamization of knowledge movement and critiques by figures such as Ismāʿīl Rājī al-Fārūqī and Ziauddin Sardar, among others
• The rise of the scientific miracle literature (iʿjāz ʿilmī) and its impact on Qurʾanic literature
• How contemporary Muslim scholars (and institutions) negotiate neuroscience, artificial intelligence, or environmental science, among others, through Islamic metaphysics

• Sign-ups for the conference can be completed through the submission form.
• Abstracts should be no more than 300 words
• Please clearly indicate which of the three time periods your paper fits into
• Submission Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2026
• Decisions will be communicated by mid-April 2026 at the latest

• The conference will be held online during the first week of July 2026 (exact dates to be confirmed)
• Selected papers will be considered for publication following the conference. Please note that acceptance to present does not guarantee publication

For questions or further information, please contact Dr. Shoaib Ahmed Malik at shoaib.malik@ed.ac.uk.

We look forward to your contributions as we deepen our understanding of the many ways Islam and science have shaped—and been shaped by—each other throughout history.