Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations

To learn more, click here [https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen/topics/2026/the-fortifications-of-medieval-cairo/] for Professor Pradines’ talk on ‘The Fortification of Medieval Cairo’.

The discovery of the remains of Cairo's medieval walls was a stroke of luck. Learn about how excavation work to create a new park took an unexpected archaeological turn with Dr. Stéphane Pradines! https://myumi.ch/qZ7xg

Image: Fatimid walls, Cairo, 11th-12th centuries. © Stéphane Pradines, 2009.

March is Women’s History Month, and this coming Sunday is International Women’s Day. Purple is International Women’s Day’s official colour - and ISMC decided to start wearing it early. In fact, why not the whole month! It’s also a good period to stop and reflect on all of the incredible women who have made our history.

In the next instalment of ISMC’s Living and n the Digital World, Dr Lucas Chancel talks about how energy and inequality are fueling both resentment and climate change. Join us in-person or online on 11 March. Register now: https://www.aku.edu/ismc/events/pages/event-detail.aspx?EventID=2924&Title=Can%20we%20build%20a%20fairer%20world%20without%20destroying%20the%20planet?

AKU-ISMC’s Walid Ghali represented the university at the Middle East Librarians MELA / MELCOM conference in Cairo last week. He presented a paper entitled: 'An Egyptian Pioneer on Fatimid Literature: ambiguous authority record'.

Register now for Islamic Art & Architecture at Play on 18 February: https://www.aku.edu/ismc/events/pages/event-detail.aspx?EventID=2920&Title=Islamic%20Art%20&%20Architecture%20at%20Play

On 20 January 2026, a delegation from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), led by Dr Charles J. Henry (President, CLIR), Wayne Graham (Chief Information Officer and Director of Informatics, Cultural Networks, and Knowledge Systems, CLIR), and Dr Fenella G. France (member of the CLIR board of directors), met with the AKU-ISMC’s Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) team at the Aga Khan Centre.
The day-long engagement was dedicated to in-depth discussions and collaborative brainstorming on theoretical and computational approaches for multiple case studies on text reuse, as part of the ERC-funded KITAB Transform project.
The meeting also offered a valuable platform for sharing ongoing research initiatives, exchanging perspectives on current challenges, and strengthening institutional collaboration toward advancing digital humanities research.
Sarah Bowen Savant

Congratulations to AKU-ISMC alumna Fatemah Shams for receiving AKU’s Distinguished Alumni Award!

Fatemah graduated from AKU-ISMC’s very first cohort and has since become celebrated for her poetry and as a feminist scholar as well as being Associate Professor of Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also been an external expert on literature for the Nobel Committee.

Explore Fatemah’s poetry at: https://poetrysociety.org/poems/five-poems-by-fatemeh-shams

Another excellent lecture by AKU-ISMC’s Walid Ghali, this time given at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.