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Elias G. Saba
Grinnell College
Occupation
Assistant Professor
Contact
HSSC N2152
1226 Park St
Grinnell IA 50112
United States
ABOUT
Elias G. Saba is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and History at Grinnell College. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. His dissertation was awarded the British Association of Islamic Studies – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World 2018. His primary research focus is on the classical Islamic heritage, its interpretations, and epistemological problems in the study of pre-modern Islam. Along with Matthew. L Keegan, he is currently completing an edition and translation of the novella Oh, No! I'm not European by Khalil al-Khuri (d. 1907). He is also working on a phenomenological study of Islamic legal thought in fourteenth century Cairo. This project explores how scholars understood Islamic law, how they put legal knowledge into conversation with other scholarly disciplines, and how they understood the value of knowledge. Saba teaches courses on religion in the Middle East, the history of Islam and Islamic societies, and theory and method in religion.
Discipline
Law
Sub Areas
Arabic
Islamic Law
Islamic Thought
7th-13th Centuries
13th-18th Centuries
Mamluk Studies
Translation
Geographic Areas of Interest
All Middle East
Islamic World
Specialties
Genres Of Legal Literature
Histories Of The Book
Philosophy Of Language
Languages
Arabic (advanced)
Spanish (native)
French (intermediate)
Persian (intermediate)
German (elementary)
Education
PhD | 2017 | Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations | University of Pennsylvania
MA | 2013 | Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations | University of Pennsylvania
BA | 2008 | Near Eastern Studies | Cornell University
Abstracts
Explanation or Innovation? An Analysis of the Farq Fiqhi Evolving Difference: Legal Distinctions in the Hanafi Tradition Sufis and Sufism in the Jamal al-Din al-Asnawi's Biographical Dictionary I’m not European: Khalīl al-Khūrī and Arabic Literary Modernism Law and Language in the Writings of Jamal al-Din al-Asnawi Text(iles): Dress and Fashion in Mamluk-Era Legal Sources