Noor Fellow in Islamic Studies 2008/09-2009/10

Dr. Timothy Gianotti

Now in the second year beyond his one-year term as the Noor Chair of Islamic Studies at York University and the Noor Cultural Centre in Toronto, Timothy J. Gianotti currently serves as the 2008-2010 Noor Fellow in Islamic Studies at York University. Holding a B.A. (1988) from the University of Notre Dame (Great Books, Classics), his M.A. (1990) from the University of Toronto (Islamic Intellectual History, Arabic language & literature), and his Ph.D. (1998) also from the University of Toronto (classical Islamic Philosophy & Theology), his undergraduate and graduate studies included several periods of residence in the West Bank and Jordan, where he studied literary Arabic, Islamic History, various topics in Christian and Jewish thought, and the traditional Islamic religious sciences. Now, in addition to introductory courses in Islamic religious history, theology, and mysticism, he teaches upper level undergraduate and graduate seminars that deal specifically with Islamic spirituality, Islamic theology, Islamic political thought, medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy, and the language and imagery of war within the Abrahamic religious traditions.

His scholarly research and writing reflect a fascination with the soul, especially as understood by the classical Islamic philosophical, theological, and spiritual traditions. Here, the study of the soul is intimately connected to the larger “worlds” of the state, the cosmos, and, ultimately, the Hereafter, and so the arenas of ethics, politics, metaphysics, and eschatology all factor into his preoccupation with human nature.

He is the author of Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001), a study of controversies surrounding the soul and the Afterlife in medieval Islam, and he is currently working on two new book projects: an introductory (trade/educational) text titled, In the Light of a Sacred Tree: Illuminations of Islamic Belief, Practice and History, and a second scholarly book titled, Walking the Way of the Afterlife: al-Ghazālī on the Jurisprudence of the Heart (fiqh al-qalb). Based largely on al-Ghazālī’s Book of Knowledge (kitāb al-‘ilm), the flagship text of his 12th century, forty-volume masterpiece on spiritual formation, this new project explores the inner processes of moral education and character formation within a traditional Islamic framework. Professor Gianotti’s other articles, book chapters, and translations explore questions of human nature, moral theology, the virtues, human agency, Islamic Chivalry traditions, the relation between language and thought, and metaphysics.

Prior to his return to Toronto in the summer of 2007, Professor Gianotti served on the Religious Studies faculty at the University of Virginia, where he carried the title of Assistant Professor of Classical Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Mysticism. He has also taught at the University of Oregon, Penn State University, and the University of Toronto. Professor Gianotti now lives with his wife and five children in Toronto.

Dr. Gianotti can be contacted at tgianotti@noorculturalcentre.ca.

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