T

he Shīʿah Institute is located in the heart of Bloomsbury, London’s traditional academic and publishing hub, a short walk from the British Museum, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Senate House, University College London, the Warburg Institute, and the British Library, as well as many of the world’s most renowned publishing houses.

The Institute houses a growing team of researchers, editors, and administrators who are working alongside our scholars to bring the Shīʿah Institute’s work to fruition. The offices also accommodate the Shīʿah Institute Press and a comprehensive private library of philosophical, literary, and religious works related to Shīʿah Islam.

Dean 

Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, specialising in the concept of consensus (ijmāʿ) in Imāmī Shīʿī jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) as it has developed over the last millennium. He has taught Islamic jurisprudence at the University of Bristol and the University of London and given lectures in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. His research and writings focus on primary Shīʿī sources of classical and modern Arabic literature, early Islamic history, jurisprudence from the Mediaeval to the Modern period, and philosophy (ḥikmah) and gnosis (ʿirfān). He is currently engaged with multiple projects including the study and translation of the Nahj al-Balāghah. His publications include: an introduction to and translation of The Mystery of Prayer by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Leiden, 2015); an introduction, translation, and Arabic critical edition of the Foundations of Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Imāmī Shīʿī Legal Theory by al-ʿAllāmah al-Ḥillī (Leiden, 2016); an Arabic introduction to and critical edition of Mabādiʾ al-wuṣūl ilā ʿilm al-uṣūl (London, 2016); and an English adaptation of The Call of the Free by Riḍa al-Khafājī (London, 2016).

Keeper of the Archives

Mohammad Amir Ahmad Khan is the Keeper of the Archives at the Shīʿah Institute and was previously a Research Associate, becoming a Fellow in 2015. He holds a PhD in South Asian History from the University of Cambridge and he is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science and History at Ashoka University in Haryana, India. His research interests focus on Shīʿah–Sunni polemics in the subcontinent.

Staff

The Shīʿah Institute team comprises of skilled Accounts and Development Officers, Editors, and Registrar all working together in handling day to day tasks and ensuring the smooth running of the institute’s operations.