Seyfeddin Kara

Dr Seyfeddin Kara is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow at The University of Toronto.

He was awarded a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham, UK in 2015. He is a Board Member at the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies. Dr Kara was previously a Teaching Fellow at the University of Durham, UK and Assistant Professor (Imam Ali Chair) at Hartford Seminary, US. He has 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. He is the author of In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an. He is currently writing a monograph on the Textual integrity of the Qur’an. Here is an interview about his current research project.

Teaching

He has taught the following courses:

• Introduction to Shiʿi Islam
• Introduction to Islam
• The Textual History of the Qur’an
• The Life of the Prophet Muhammad
• Introduction to Islamic Law
• Islam and Human Rights
• Islam, State and Government
• Islam and Muslims in the Modern World
• Contemporary Socio-political Issues in Muslim Religious Thought

Publications

Books

Seyfeddin Kara, In Search of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur'an (Foreword by James Piscatori), (Berlin: Gerlach Press, 2018)
Seyfeddin Kara, The Textual Integrity of the Qur’an: Sunni and Shiʿi Historical Narratives on Falsification (Under-contract with Edinburgh University Press.)

Journal Articles

Seyfeddin Kara, “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.
Seyfeddin Kara, “The Collection of the Qurʾān in the Early Shīʿite Discourse,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2016), 26/3, pp. 375-406.
Seyfeddin Kara, “Use of transmission patterns in contemporary Shī’ite ḥadīth studies,” Journal of Shia Islamic Studies (2016), 9/2, pp. 144-164.
Seyfeddin Kara and Arzu Merali, “Is “Vicarious Retribution Model” Sufficient to Analyse Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes?” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2020), 40/4, pp. 1-24.
Seyfeddin Kara, “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.

Book Chapters

Seyfeddin Kara, “Contemporary Shi’i approach to the textual history of the Qur’an,” in New Trends in Qur’anic Studies, ed. Mun’im Sirry, Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2019, pp. 109-124.
Seyfeddin Kara, “The rational-analytical tafsir in modern Iran: The influence of Uṣuli School of Jurisprudence on the interpretation of the Qur’an,” in Interpretation of the Qur’an in Modern Iran, ed. Alessandro Cancian, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 pp.19-39.
Seyfeddin Kara, “Muslim Youth at University: A Critical Examination of the British Higher Education Experience,” In Muslim Youth: Challenges, Opportunities and Expectations, eds. Mohammad Siddique Seddon and Fauzia Ahmad, 144–62. UK: Continuum (Bloomsbury Publishing), 2012.