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Indiana University Bloomington
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Core Faculty : Faculty & Staff

Asma AfsaruddinAsma Afsaruddin

  • Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
  • Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Religious Studies

Education

  • Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University, 1993, Near Eastern Studies

Research Interests

  • Pre-modern and modern Islamic religious and political thought
  • Qur’anic hermeneutics
  • Hadith criticism
  • Exegetical, legal, and ethical perspectives on jihad and martyrdom
  • Muslim attitudes towards the People of the Book
  • Islam and religious pluralism
  • Gender roles

Contact Information

aafsarud@indiana.edu
Memorial Hall, M17

(812) 855-4323

Courses Recently Taught

  • Golden Age of Islamic Civilization
  • Islamic Texts: Tafsir
  • Islamic Texts: Hadith Sciences
  • Islam and Modernity
  • War and Peace in the Islamic Tradition
  • Islamic Feminisms
  • Jihad in Islamic Texts

Publication Highlights

  • Islam, the State, and Political Authority:  Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns, editor. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011.
  • “Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Remembering Muhammad as Head of State,” in The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad. Ed. Jonathan Brockopp. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 180–98.
  • The First Muslims: History and Memory. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2008
  • Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002.
  • Hermeneutics and Honor: Negotiating Female Public Space in Islamic Societies. (Editor) Middle East Monograph series. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University, 1999.
  • “The Hermeneutics of Inter-Faith Relations: Retrieving Moderation and Pluralism as Universal Principles in Qur’anic Exegeses,” Journal of Religious Ethics (2009): 331–45.
  • ”Obedience to Political Authority: An Evolutionary Concept,” Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Directions. Ed. Muqtedar Khan Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, 2006. Pp. 37–60.
  • ”The ‘Islamic State’: Genealogy, Facts, and Myths,” Journal of Church and State 48 (2006): 153–73.
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