Islamic Jerusalem Studies

Islamicjerusalem Studies is a field of Study offered by several academic colleges and universities that focuses on the region of the Holy Land from an Islamic perspective. It embraces both Islamic Studies and theology as well as history, geography, archeology and architecture.

Islamicjerusalem Studies is a relatively new field of academic inquiry concerned with the region known in Arabic as Bayt Al-Maqdis. Since its establishment in London in 1994, the founder of the field Professor Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi, has encouraged promising academics to contribute to this endeavor by adopting and promoting a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the study of the region. The term Islamicjerusalem has three main elements: the land, its population, and a unique vision of inclusivity for the two.

The field dates to the creation of ISRA (Academy for Islamic Jerusalem Studies)in 1994 in the United Kingdom. The Academy helped institutionalise the field in British higher education. The founder first taught a module at Undergraduate level entitled ‘Islamic Jerusalem’ at the al-Quds University and in the 1990s at the University of Stirling. This was followed by PhD candidates researching the field at Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian Universities.

The majority of the research emerged with the launch of the first institution dedicated specifically to the field of Islamic Jerusalem Studies, Al-Maktoum Institute in Dundee in 2001. The Institute supports original postgraduate research. It offers Masters and PhD programs in Islamic Jerusalem Studies accredited by the University of Aberdeen.

Ten years later field started to expand beyond the United Kingdom, in particular within the Arab and Muslim World. Currently courses are offered in at universities in Egypt, Palestine and Malaysia.

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