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Open research questions in Islamic Studies and History

108 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 7,725 Islamic Studies and History papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • This the complex study delves relationship between the music therapy and meşk system. It also covers the ontological relationship between the tasawwuf and the meşk system via examining the components of ethical cultivation in the relationship the master and apprentice. between Narrative review provided a vast literature to examine the association between the music therapy and psychological well- being via ethical cultivation in the meşk system. However, future researchers may choose a systematic review to improve the applicability of theoretical framework and increase reliability of the study. They can also address the limitations of this study via conducting empirical case studies to replicate historically derived these concepts to serve daily needs of individuals. Furthermore, the literature about the music therapy at Ottoman Sifahanes can be studied multidisciplinary collaboration of medicine, psychology, sociology and other disciplines. This study is limited with the Ottoman Sifahanes, future researchers can extend the framework by focusing the other Sifahanes in Anatolian Seljukian Empire, or others. This extension would enhance the scope and the impact of practices at Sifahanes in literary scholarship.

    Music therapy: Exploring soul harmony within the ethical cultivation in Ottoman Sifahanes, makam, ethics, and therapy in Ottoman music · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore comparative representations of the enemy found in the literary works of other poets of the ghazwah tradition, examine enemy narratives in pre- Islamic Arab culture, or apply digital humanities approaches to quantitatively map patterns of diction and metaphor.

    Images Of Islam’s Enemies Portrayed In the Arabic Poem Of Ka'ab Ibn Malik: A Representation-Based Analysis In The Prophetic Biography Context · 2026 · DOI

  • in understanding gender dynamics within Yemeni society.Female writers like Habib Abdulrab Sarori, Huda al-Attas, Zahra Rahmat Allah, Nabila al-Zubayr, and Nadia Al-Kokabany provide a realistic portrayal of Yemeni women who fight for their rights and refuse to be confined to traditional roles of wife, mother, or daughter. It is worth noting the ongoing relevance of them, demonstrating م 2026 سراـم رـــهش 53،) (ددــــعـلا 865 ةـيناـسنلإا تاـساردلاو ةيوـبرتلا موـلعلا ةـلجم Breaking the Silence: Women's … Dr. Ali Al-Subari, Dr. Abdulmajeed Alhanash that, as Hooks suggests, many women who associate feminism with an alternative lifestyle come from "middle-class backgrounds, are unmarried, college-educated, and often lack the social and economic responsibilities faced by working-class and poor women" (Hooks, 2015, p. 130). The main female characters in the Yemeni novel undergo significant changes in their family lives, but they overcome obstacles and strive to assert their true identities in a patriarchal society. Nadia is a feminist writer who recognizes and challenges the oppression, suppression, and marginalization of women in society. Through her writings, she aims to turn this pattern around. She actively works to dismantle patriarchal authority and speaks out against male domination. In her novel Aqeelat (2009), Nadia tells the story of Joud and Rawada, two ordinary girls on a journey to becoming self-sufficient women. The novel showcases their resistance against a patriarchal society as they strive to achieve their goals. According to feminist standpoint theories, "women's standpoint, developed within the women's movements, is essential for critiquing and reimagining society to create a socially just societal order without oppression or inequality" (Lykke, 2010, p. 206). Nadia's novel Aqeelat exemplifies this perspective through the rebellious and determined characters of Rawda and Joud, who challenge traditions and norms in Yemeni society to assert their independence and identities. The issues and themes explored in Nadia's novel arise from the experiences of women at a societal crossroads, navigating the shift from traditional to modern values. She vividly portrays the struggles faced by educated middle-class Yemeni women as they balance their own aspirations and the constraints imposed by patriarchal forces. This study focuses on the novel Aqeelat as a primary source, which is analyzed through a feminist lens. Feminist theory suggests that women are oppressed and subjugated by patriarchal societies, and Yemeni women are actively fighting for their liberation and empowerment.

    Breaking the Silence: Women's Resistance and Liberation in Nadia Al-Kawkabani's Novel Aqeelat · 2026 · DOI

  • Second, future research may focus on developing more operational methodological instruments for systematically identifying and classifying maqāṣid within hadith interpretation. A limitation of this study is that, while it develops a conceptual maqāṣid al‑sharīʿah-based framework for hadith interpretation, it does not include applied analyses of specific texts, leaving its practical effectiveness in producing contextually relevant and solution-oriented readings to be demonstrated in future research initiatives. The main findings indicate that normative and contextual approaches, when operating independently, tend to produce partial understandings that are insufficiently responsive to the complexity of contemporary social issues.

    Reconstructing Ḥadith Interpretation through a Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Framework: A Methodological Reassessment of Normative–Contextual Readings · 2026 · DOI

  • https://doi.org/10.22452/JAT.vol20no1.11 10 Siti Nor Aisyah Ngadiran, Konsep Sejarah menurut Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: Kajian terhadap Karyakarya Terpilih (The Concept of History according to Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: A Study of Selected Works) (Master Dissertation, Department of Islamic History and Civilization, Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya, 2012). 11 Noratiqah Ahmad Kazmar and Azmul Fahimi Kamaruzaman, Falsafah Sejarah Syed Muhammad Naquib al- Attas: Analisis Teks Islam dalam Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu (Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’ Philosophy of History: Analysis of Islamic Texts in Malay History and Culture) (Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2020). (2025): 20, no. 1 3 Journal of Al-Tamaddun, Vol. 21 (1), 2026, 1-16 guidance for the study of Islamic history. Secondly, metaphysical terms employed in Islamic history must be rendered accurately and in accordance with the Islamic interpretation. Thirdly, the study of Islamic literature in the Malay world must reflect an Islamic interpretation in order to be accurate. Lastly, the accuracy of any interpretation of a historical source can be achieved by comparing it to other sources from the Malay world. Al-Quran as a Main Source in the Study of Islamic History Most research on Islam is inseparably linked to Islamic law (shariah), a discipline that applies the basic knowledge of Islam as revealed to the prophets and messengers of God. This includes research on the history of Islam in the Malay World. As a matter of fact, Louis Massignon (1883-1962), a French Islamicist with expertise in Arabic and Persian manuscripts, particularly the metaphysics of al-Hallaj, has stressed the importance of understanding Islamic textual content, especially metaphysical texts, from the author’s vantage point, which involves the inner self. This approach is particularly compelling in analysing mystical texts, such as those written by Sufis, because of the interior nature of mystical experiences. In terms of Islam’s religious originality, Massignon explained the distinctive and original aspects of Islamic texts by taking up the Sufi practice of meditation on key terminology from the Quran or the Sufi tradition.12 Therefore, from a Muslim standpoint, scholars should consider the Quran as a source of knowledge of utmost significance.13 Thus, this approach is expected to extend into the study and discipline of Islamic history. However, experts and historians of the Malay World are more inclined towards sources grounded in Western history as references for the study of Malay and Islamic history. The research methodology of al-Attas places the Quran at the epistemological centre, and we now elaborate on his research precedents.

    Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas’s Perspective on the Interpretation of Islamic Historical Sources in the Malay World · 2026 · DOI

  • The Arab and Islamic arena in general is witnessing modern intellectual calls, not limited to the political, social, and cultural aspects; rather, they have extended to an essential component of the nation's identity and civilization, namely the Holy Koran, where we have begun to hear bold debates about it that have not respected its sanctity.

    Modernist interpretations and their impact on the Koranic text · 2025 · DOI

  • While the nineteenth century Arab travel literature is quite rich and an object of extensive research, al-Wardānī’s journey was only briefly discussed in 1937 by Henri Pérès and has not been studied more deeply since that time.

    Towards a Reconstruction of the Intellectual Past: ʿAlī Ibn Sālim al-Wardānī and His Al-Riḥlah al-Andalusīyah · 2024 · DOI

  • Hence, this study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature via scrutinizing the speech of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) grandson, Imam Al-Hassan son of Ali Bin Abi Talib (PBUT).

    Audience Demands as a Strategic Maneuver in Imam Al-Hassan's Speech after his Truce with Muaawiya · 2021 · DOI

  • Following close on the heels of Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron’s (1991) anthology Women in Middle Eastern History and Leila Ahmed’s (1992) germinal Women and Gender in Islam, Roded’s survey of an understudied genre became an essential resource for scholars interested in Muslim women and gender in what the author refers to as “Islamic culture” or “Islamic society.

    Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Saʿd to Who’s Who · 2020 · DOI

  • A third answer that is not explored in the introduction—except perhaps alluded to in the reference to the translation of al-Ṭabarī’s History as an “invaluable resource for scholars and students alike” (1:2)—is that critical and fully-annotat- ed translations of classical works may function as “commentaries” on the original Arabic texts and can thus be useful to scholars who are capable of reading the original texts.

    The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (Volume 1) · 2018 · DOI

  • These conversations also provide promising avenues to think afresh the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ʿulama inasmuch as they capture the challenges and adjustments attendant on imperial patronage, depict the jockeying for influence and positions among intellectuals (particularly between Indo-Muslim and Iranian lettrés), and shed light on relatively little known figures or on unexplored facets of more prominent individuals.

    Messianism, rationalism and inter-Asian connections: The <i>Majalis-i Jahangiri</i> (1608–11) and the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ‘ulama · 2017 · DOI

  • Emerged in the region of Necd in Saudi Arabia during the 18th century, Wahhabism turned out to be a sectarian movement influencing the entire Saudi Arabia and not just remained a cult limited to a region only thanks to the effects of the predominant religious, geographical, political and socio-cultural backgrounds.

    ETKİLERİ AÇISINDAN VEHHABİLİK (SUUDİ ARABİSTAN DIŞI ÜLKELER ÖRNEĞİ) · 2013 · DOI

  • Abstract The role of Sufi networks in facilitating trans-imperial travel and the concomitant social and political connections associated with the pilgrimage to Mecca is often mentioned in the literature on Ottoman-Central Asian relations, yet very little is known about how these networks operated or the people who patronized them.

    Connecting People: A Central Asian Sufi network in turn-of-the-century Istanbul · 2012 · DOI

  • The paper identifies Mohammad-Hosein ʻAqili's late 18th-century recommendation that medical students study philosophy, dialectic, and logic to strengthen sharīʻa rather than pursue independent inquiry, but does not systematically compare how different Islamic physicians and scholars specifically reconciled rational medical inquiry with religious doctrine during the transition to modernity.

    Medicine in Islam and Islamic Medicine · 2012 · DOI

  • The paper suggests that the intellectual framework of Islam as a worldview facilitated Greek medicine's adoption in the Middle Ages, while nation-state formation shaped modernization in the 19th-20th centuries, but does not provide detailed comparative analysis of how these two historical contexts specifically influenced medical epistemology and practice in Islamic societies.

    Medicine in Islam and Islamic Medicine · 2012 · DOI

  • The paper notes that anti-colonial movements in the Indian subcontinent linked Ayurveda and Unani medicine to national identity and resistance, but lacks detailed documentation of the specific organizational, educational, and political mechanisms through which these traditional medical systems were institutionalized as symbols of resistance to Western biomedicine.

    Medicine in Islam and Islamic Medicine · 2012 · DOI

  • The paper argues that institutional and state sponsorship were crucial factors determining whether traditional Islamic medicine survived modernization (as in the Indian subcontinent with Unani medicine and Ayurveda, versus decline in Iran and Turkey), but does not provide comparative institutional analysis of how different state structures specifically supported or withdrew support from Galenico-Islamic medical establishments.

    Medicine in Islam and Islamic Medicine · 2012 · DOI

  • The paper identifies that Islamic medicine turned medical theories into dogma and froze the spirit of inquiry, but does not systematically analyze the specific intellectual mechanisms or institutional practices that caused this ossification of Greek medical theory (Galenic humoral medicine) within Islamic scholarly tradition between the medieval period and the eighteenth century.

    Medicine in Islam and Islamic Medicine · 2012 · DOI

  • Footnote1 Occurring in a much maligned and understudied region—the Arabian Peninsula—this widespread phenomenon has either been elided, cynically dismissed or the motivations for these conversions and their sociohistorical conditions of possibility assumed.

    Explanation is Not the Point: Domestic Work, Islamic<i>Dawa</i>and Becoming Muslim in Kuwait · 2010 · DOI

  • As with the 1989 figure, reliable data are limited and widespread claims that the IRGC controls 60 percent of Iran's economy are unable to be substantiated.

    The Militarization of Post-Khomeini Iran: Praetorianism 2.0 · 2010 · DOI

  • In that sense, recent scholarly efforts to remedy the situation by providing deeper insights into the intellectual, geographical, and political diversity of Salafism have produced mixed results, for they have largely overlooked two of the most persistent epistemological problems that are at the root of much of the present-day ambiguity.

    THE CONSTRUCTION OF<i>SALAFIYYA</i>: RECONSIDERING SALAFISM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CONCEPTUAL HISTORY · 2010 · DOI

  • The second chapter, which analyzes equality, reviews authoritative Islamic sources and argues that although there is conclusive evidence that Islam envisages equality in basic rights and duties among all Muslims, the evidence is somewhat inconclusive on whether all members of the human race enjoy such equality.

    Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam · 2003 · DOI

  • In my own limited knowledge I know of no specialized studies in ourclassical legacy which could be described today as political thought, or astreatises on political systems, international relations, systems of government,the history of diplomacy, political development, methods of political analysis,political theory, political planning, or any of the other categories currentlystudied as a part of contemporary knowledge.

    Political Science in the Legacy of Classical Islamic Literature · 1990 · DOI

  • The dates that I have chosen are not altogether arbitrary since they correspond, as we shall see, to certain demarcations in the history of conversion noted by Mamlūk historians themselves; furthermore, I have deliberately excluded the period of the Crusades from consideration in the belief that this period should be studied separately in order to determine whether the Mamlūks' involvement in the Crusades affected their policy toward the indigenous Christians of Egypt to any appreciable extent.

    Coptic conversion to Islam under the Baḥrī mamlūks, 692–755/1293–1354 · 1976 · DOI

  • 67-123; Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikh-i pansad salah'-i Khuzistan, 3rd Edi- tion (Tehran, 1330/1951); and CA1I Muhammad Saki, Ju- ghrafiya-yi tarikhi va tarikh-i Luristan (Tehran, 1343/ 1964) for additional research into families in Western Iran.

    Towards A Social and Economic History of Eighteenth-Century Iran · 1973 · DOI

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108 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 7,725 Islamic Studies and History papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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