17th & 18th Century Yemen: The Age of Religious Liberalism

Presented by Mohammed Sharafuddin, Sana’a University & the Center of Middle East Studies, Harvard University. Dr. Sharafuddin is a recognized scholar whose lecture will focus on the profoundly influential Yemeni jurist and mujtahid, Mohammed al-Shawkani (d. 1839), whose call for Islamic doctrinal unity has been used to characterize him as an early advocate of a unified Yemen state - a legacy of deep relevance to the current state of affairs in Yemen - and has been the basis for a number of global Islamic schools of thought.