The particular aim of the conference will be to combine analyses of the Isna ‘Ashari Shi‘a and those of the Isma‘ili Shi‘a. These two communities, each influential in their own right in parts of the subcontinent, have always been discussed in isolation from each other in scholarship; this conference thus opens the possibilities for a meaningful comparison of their experiences as religious confessions and minority communities. Equally, the conference welcomes reflection on the relationships of the South Asian Shi‘a with those in the wider world: for instance, ideas of clerical internationalism tying the Isna ‘Ashari Shi‘a of north India, Hyderabad or Karachi to Iraq or Iran, or the links between the Isma‘ili Shi‘a of South Asia and their co-religionists in East Africa and elsewhere.

This event has been recorded and is available as a podcast at the following URL:
http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2011/09/contesting-shiism-isna-ashari-and-ismaili-shiism-in-modern-south-asia/