The McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library were established in 1952 by

Wilfred Cantwell Smith Wilfred Cantwell Smith (July 21, 1916 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian Islamicist, comparative religion scholar, and Presbyterian minister. He was the founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Quebec and later th ...

, and since 1983 both have been housed in Morrice Hall on

McGill McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to: People * McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname) * McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...

's campus in downtown

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec. McGill's institute is the first

institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

History of the Institute
/ref> and hosts 14 full-time

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

s, 5 visiting positions and 5 professors

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Library

The Islamic Studies Library began with only 250 books but grew rapidly. Today, the library holds more than 110,000 volumes, half of them in Islamic languages, and is counted among the major North American collections in Islamic Studies.

Notable faculty

The Institute of Islamic Studies has had numerous famous faculty members, including,

Toshihiko Izutsu was a Japanese scholar who specialized in Islamic studies and comparative religion. He took an interest in linguistics at a young age, and came to know more than thirty languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Hin ...

Niyazi Berkes Niyazi Berkes (21 October 1908 – 18 December 1988) was a Turkish Cypriot sociologist. Early life and education Berkes was born in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, on 21 September 1908, shortly after the Young Turk Revolution in Turkey.

, Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker,

Fazlur Rahman Malik Fazlur Rahman Malik ( ur, ; September 21, 1919 – July 26, 1988), commonly known as Fazlur Rahman, was a modernist scholar and Islamic philosopher from today's Pakistan. Fazlur Rahman is renowned as a prominent liberal reformer of Islam, who ...

Issa J. Boullata Issa J. Boullata (‎; February 25, 1929 – May 1, 2019) was a Palestinian scholar, writer, and translator of Arabic literature. Biography He was born in Jerusalem on February 25, 1929 during the British Mandate of Palestine. He obtained ...

Sajida Alvi Sajida S. Alvi (born 1941) is an academic of Pakistani origin in Canada. She is a historian of Islam in South Asia and was the inaugural appointment to the chair in Urdu Language and Culture at the Institute of Islamic Studies from September 198 ...

, and

Wael Hallaq Wael B. Hallaq is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he has been teaching ethics, law, and political thought since 2009. He is considered a leading scholar in the field of Islamic legal studies, and has ...

Endowed chairs

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Named Chairs at McGill

Emeritus professors

Festchrifts

Given the high number of influential scholars of the study of Islam, professors of the Institute have been honoured with numerous festschrifts. These include: * Kamal Abdel-Malek and Wael B. Hallaq, eds. ''Tradition, modernity, and postmodernity in Arabic literature: Essays in honor of professor Issa J. Boullata''. Leiden: Brill, 2000. * Khaleel Mohammad and Andrew Rippin, eds. ''Coming to Terms with The Qur'an: a volume in honor of professor Issa Boullata, McGill University''. North Haledon: Islamic Publications International, 2007. * Todd Lawson, ed. ''Reason and inspiration in Islam: theology, philosophy and mysticism in Muslim thought: essays in honour of Hermann Landolt''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. * Wael B. Hallaq and Donald P. Little eds. ''Islamic studies presented to Charles J. Adams''. Leiden: Brill, 1991. * Donald P. Little, ed. ''Essays on Islamic civilization: presented to

''. Leiden: Brill, 1976. * A special issue of ''Mamluk Studies Review'' ol. 9 no. 1 (2005)was presented as a festschrift in honor of Donald P Little.

References