University of Toronto
I am Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow at The University of Toronto, mentored by Prof Walid Saleh. I was awarded a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham in 2015. I have published research articles in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Muslim World and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. My first book In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an, was published in 2018. I am currently writing my second monograph on the Textual integrity of the Qur’an. I am specialised in the isnad-cum-matn method and am interested in working with Sunni/Shiʿi sources.
Research related to commentary
I am editing a volume on Qur’anic commentary entitled, Understanding Surah al Baqarah: A Modern Interpretation of the Qur’an in the Light of the Qur’an (SBC Publication: London, 2022).
The work analyses some of the prominent classical and contemporary Sunni and Shiʿi commentators to relate their commentaries to contemporary Muslim communities living in the West. The volume is intended to benefit those Muslim and non-Muslim readers who are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the Quran and Muslim faith. The commentary also into some of the most complicated issues related to Muslim, Christian and Jewish relations, Muslims in the West, Islam and modernity, Islam and human rights, gender issues, Islamic eschatology, ethics, and law.
Publications related to commentary
“The rational-analytical tafsīr in modern Iran: The influence of Uṣūlī School of Jurisprudence on the interpretation of the Qur’an,” in Interpretation of the Qur’ān in Modern Iran, ed. Alessandro Cancian, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 pp.19-39.
In Search of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s Codex: History and Traditions on the Earliest Copy of the Qurʾān, (Berlin & London: Gerlach Press, 2018), Second Edition to be published in 2022.
“Suppression of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s codex: Study of the traditions on the earliest copy of the Qur’ān,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2016), 75/2, pp. 267-289.
“The Collection of the Qurʾān in the Early Shīʿite Discourse,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2016), 26/3, pp. 375-406.
Other publications
Seyfeddin Kara and Arzu Merali, “Is “vicarious Vicarious Retribution Model” Sufficient to Analyse Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes?” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2020), 40/4, pp. 1-24.
“Between Salman Rushdie and Ayatollah Khomeini: Kalim Siddiqui and political Islam in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century,” The Muslim World (2017), 107/3, pp. 375-400.
“Use of transmission patterns in contemporary Shī’ite ḥadīth studies,” Journal of Shia Islamic Studies (2016), 9/2, pp. 144-164.
“Contemporary Shi’i approach to the textual history of the Qur’ān,” in New Trends in Qur’anic Studies, ed. Mun’im Sirry, Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2019, pp. 109-124.