Visiting Scholars
As an integral part of the academic program, the Zaytuna Summer Arabic Intensive offers enrichment lectures by some of North America's most esteemed Muslim scholars. The Arabic Enrichment Lectures Series is an exclusive feature of the summer program and is intended to supplement the themes of the Arabic language courses by offering presentations on topics such as history of the Arabic language, famous Arab writers and poets, and contemporary themes in Arabic literature. The goal of this lecture series is to provide a broader picture of the historical and sociocultural context behind the Arabic language and to inspire students of the language to deepen their appreciation of Arabic's rich history and enduring life. These lectures, along with their extended Q&A sessions, will be open to Zaytuna Summer Arabic Intensive students and staff only.
Imam Zaid Shakir, “The Role of Arabic in the Islamic Sciences”
Born in Berkeley, California, Zaid Shakir accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force. He obtained a BA with honors in International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. His studies of Arabic, Islamic law, and Qur’anic studies led him to Egypt, Morocco, and finally to Syria, where he graduated from the prestigious Abu Noor University. Back in the United States, he returned to serve as the Imam of New Haven, Connecticut's Masjid al-Islam, which he had cofounded in 1987. In 2003, Imam Zaid moved to California to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute, where he now teaches courses on Arabic, Islamic law, history, and Islamic spirituality. In 2005, Zaytuna Institute published Scattered Pictures, an anthology of diverse essays penned by Zaid Shakir. Among his other works is a translation from Arabic into English of The Heirs of the Prophets, published by Starlatch Press in 2001. He is a frequent speaker at local and national Muslim events and has emerged as one of the nation's top Islamic scholars and a voice of conscience for American Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
(confirmed)
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, “Secrets of Arabic Vocabulary Acquisition”
Hamza Yusuf was born in Washington state and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the U. A. E. and Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known scholars in various countries. After ten years of studies abroad, he returned to the U.S. and took degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He has traveled all over the world giving talks on Islam. He also founded Zaytuna Institute, which is dedicated to the revival of traditional Islamic sciences in the West. Shaykh Hamza is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest university, the Qarawiyyin in Fes. In addition, he has translated into modern English several classical Arabic texts and poems. Shaykh Hamza currently resides in Northern California with his wife and five children.
(confirmed)
Dr. Hatem Bazian, “The Arabic Roots of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)"
Hatem Bazian is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and an adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on Islamic law and society, Islam in America, religious studies, and Arabic language. He has also taught Middle Eastern politics at the Saint Mary’s College of California and Arabic and Maliki fiqh at the Zaytuna Institute. He earned a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from UC Berkeley in 2002, specializing in Islamic law and the history of Muslims in Jerusalem.
(confirmed)
Dr. Sulayman Nyang, “The Impact of Arabic in Africa”
Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang is professor and chairman of the African Studies Department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A former deputy ambassador and head of chancery of the Gambia Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Nyang has served as consultant to several national and international agencies and on the boards of the African Studies Association, the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists.
(confirmed)
Dr. Khalid Blankinship, “Topic TBA”
Khalid Yahya Blankinship (born 1949, Seattle Washington) is an American historian specialising in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. In 1975 Blankinship received a MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo, in 1983 a second MA in Islamic History from Cairo University and in 1988 a Ph.D. in History from the University of Washington. He has lived and travelled widely in the Middle East, including eleven years in Egypt and one year in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
(confirmation pending)
Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp, “Topic TBA”
Professsor Kenneth Abdel Hadi Honerkamp teaches Modern Standard Arabic and in-depth Arabic textual study at the University of Georgia in Athens. He is also involved in researching Arabic manuscripts, particularly those found in the less well-known manuscript collections of Morocco. His interest lies in the integral and complementary relationship of the Shari’ah and Sufism.
Dr. Honerkamp is a graduate of the Qarawiyyin University of Fes, Morocco. He is also a graduate of the University of Aix-en-Provence, France, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1999 after earning a Master’s degree in religion from the University of Georgia in 1995. Earlier, Dr. Honerkamp also studied Qur’anic commentary and Arabic grammar in the North-West Frontier of Pakistan with traditional Muslim scholars.
Dr. Honerkamp has lectured in many cities in the U.S.A. and has written several scholarly articles in Arabic, English, and French, which have been printed in various academic journals. He translated and annotated two of the three works that appear in Three Early Sufi Texts, which was published by Fons Vitae in 2003. He is currently working on several forthcoming books.
(confirmation pending)
And more scholars to be added soon insha'Allah.
