Description
Join panellists Christopher de Bellaigue and Zulfiqar Ali Shah for an illuminating conversation that charts the evolution of the Enlightenment, its Islamic influences and its relevance in the modern world, where those ideals still serve as the cornerstone of the world’s strongest democracies.
2024 marks 300 years since the birth of Immanuel Kant and 330 years since the birth of Voltaire, two of the best-known philosophers of the European Enlightenment, a philosophical movement that revolved around rationalist thought, scientific enquiry and religious toleration, all principles that were deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition.
Looking back at the work of Kant, Voltaire and others, our panel reveals the fascinating untold story of the cross-fertilisation of Western and Islamic philosophy, and the reformers who helped produce the modern world.
Please note, this venue has changed from the printed programme.
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About the Authors
Zulfiqar Ali Shah
Zulfiqar Ali Shah received his BA and MA (Hons) in Comparative Religions from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan and his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Wales, UK. He has taught at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, the University of Wales in the UK, the University of North Florida and Cardinal Stritch University in the US. He is the former president of the Islamic Circle of North America, Shariah Scholars Association of North America, the current Executive Director and Secretary General of the Fiqh Council of North America and Religious Director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. He has authored many articles and books including Anthropomorphic Depictions of God: The Concept of God in the Judaic, Christian and Islamic Traditions. His upcoming ground-breaking books include Islam and French Enlightenment and Islam and the Founding Fathers of America.
Christopher de Bellaigue
Christopher de Bellaigue is the award-winning author of six books, including The Islamic Enlightenment, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize in 2017. His latest book, The Lion House, was a Sunday Times, New Yorker and Spectator book of the year and was described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘Wolf Hall for the Ottoman Empire…a gripping story told with intelligence, knowledge and verve.’ As a reporter in the 1990s and 2000s, he covered the Middle East, Turkey and South Asia. His writing appeared in the Economist, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books. He has made several television and radio programmes and is an honorary fellow of the University of St Andrews.
About the Chair
Waqas Ahmed
Waqas Ahmed is the executive director of the Khalili Foundation and founder of the DaVinci Network. He is considered a world authority on multidisciplinary thinking and is the author of the globally acclaimed book The Polymath. Waqas has had an extraordinarily diverse career spanning art, science, international affairs and beyond. He has been featured in or has written for the Financial Times, The Times, Fast Company, Philosophy Now, Forbes, Men’s Health, the BBC and The Lancet.
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