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Dr Sohaira Siddiqui

Dr Sohaira Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar. In 2014 she received her doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara. Her first monograph, Knowledge, Law and Politics: An Intellectual Portrait of al-Juwayni, analyzes the thought of the 11th century jurist and theologian Abu Ma'ali al-Juwayni through a close reading of his legal, political and theological treatises. She has published a series of shorter articles on comparative Islamic political thought in the 11th century, scholarly connections and mechanisms of critique in the medieval period, and modern arguments for legal reform. She is also the editor of a forthcoming volume entitled Locating the Shari'a: Legal Fluidity in Theory, History and Practice. She currently has two research projects. The first is a translation and commentary of al-Juwayni's treatise entitled, Kitab al-Ijtihad, one of the earliest extant treatises discussing the juristic debate regarding the ontological multiplicity of truth. The second project focuses on the juridical thought of some of the first Muslim judges to serve on the High Courts in British India during the 17th and 18th centuries. This project aims to analyze the contestations to Anglo-Muhammadan law once Muslim jurists were afforded the opportunity to contribute to its adjudication. Her research interests include classical Islamic legal theory, classical Islamic political thought, the development and intersection of legal thought and political thought from the 9th to 11th centuries, Islamic Law under colonialism, and secularism and modernity in relation to Islamic law and Muslims in the West. She has previously taught courses in Religion, Islamic Law and Islamic History at the University of Saskatchewan and has held fellowships at Cambridge University and Harvard Law School.