The Islamic Studies Library will hold its last film screening of the academic year on Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5 p.m. in the Tuesday Night Cafe (Morrice Hall, room 017).

The Dupes is a stark, beautifully photographed black and white film tracing the destinies of three palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession, despair and hope for a better future.

The setting is Iraq in the 1950s and the protagonists,concealed in the steel tank of a truck, are trying to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the “promised land.”

The Dupes is considered a masterful adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani’s acclaimed novella, Men Under the Sun, The Dupes is also one of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian predicament.

Professor Malek Abisaab, McGill History Department and Institute of Islamic Studies, will moderate the post screening discussion.

Come on come all!

In anticipation of next week’s public discussion “Issues Around Representations of the Prophet” hosted by the Institute of Islamic Studies, there are some recent writings worth your time to read in advance. Many of these are found online (I’ve included the links) while others are found in the ISL—come for a visit.

Choix discutable, choix discuté Quelques voix apportent une perspective musulmane sur la publication des unes: http://www.delitfrancais.com/2015/01/20/choix-discutable-choix-discute/. Interview with Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim of the IIS.

The History and Philosophy of Representational Art in Islam: http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/10/the-history-and-philosophy-of-representational-art-in-islam.html

The Prophet Muhammad Was Once Glorified In Art: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/16/quran-prophet-images

Ways of Looking at the Prophet: http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-lives-of-muhammad-by-kecia-ali-1420841587

Drawing the prophet: Islam’s hidden history of Muhammad images: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/10/drawing-prophet-islam-muhammad-images

The Koran Does Not Forbid Images of the Prophet: http://www.newsweek.com/koran-does-not-forbid-images-prophet-298298

There are of course a number of worthwhile academic books, articles, etc. some of which include the following:

Khalidi, Tarif. 2009. Images of Muhammad: narratives of the prophet in Islam across the centuries. New York: Doubleday.: http://mcgill.worldcat.org/oclc/243960546

Hillenbrand, Robert, and B. W. Robinson. 2000. Persian painting: from the Mongols to the Qajars : studies in honour of Basil W. Robinson. London: I.B. Tauris in association with the Centre of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge.: http://mcgill.worldcat.org/oclc/46642670

Asani, Ali S., Kamal Abdel-Malek, and Annemarie Schimmel. 1995. Celebrating Muḥammad: images of the prophet in popular Muslim poetry. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press.: http://mcgill.worldcat.org/oclc/32201887

The Story of Portraits of the Prophet Muhammad Oleg Grabar Studia Islamica No. 96, Écriture, Calligraphie et Peinture (2003), pp. 19-38+VI-IX http://www.jstor.org/stable/1596240?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Gruber, Christiane. 2009. Between Logos (Kalima) and Light (Nur): Representations of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Painting. In Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World XXVI. 229-262.: Available as Open Access via Archnet, http://archnet.org/publications/6805.

Gruber, Christiane. 2009. MEʿRĀJ ii. Illustrations. From the turn of the 14th century onward, depictions of the Prophet Moḥammad’s night journey (esrāʾ) and heavenly ascent (meʿrāj) were integrated into illustrated world histories and biographies.http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/meraj-ii-illustrations

Join us on Thursday January 29th, at 5:30 pm in the Octagon room (Islamic Studies Library, Morrice Hall) as we discuss -for the second time- the novel Mornings in Jenin, the acclaimed novel by Palestinian-American author and activist Susan Abulhawa.

The One Book, Many Communities: Mornings in Jenin reading campaign was initiated by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine, a network of self-defined librarians, archivists, and information workers in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

To access this event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1515299365406523/