Shar ̄ıEah colleges. Most comparative studies of religion
within the universities of the Gulf region are housed within
separate colleges devoted to the study of shar ̄ıEah (Islamic
law) and Islamic studies. The department of us:u ̄l al-d ̄ın in
the College of Shar ̄ıEah at the Imam Muh:ammad bin SaEud
University was established in the 1950s. The faculty of
shar ̄ıEah and us:u ̄l al-d ̄ın at the King Khalid University was
founded in 1976, and in the 1990s Islamic studies (including
the comparative study of religions under the heading of al-
Milal wa al-Nihal) was moved into the College of Shar ̄ıEah
and Islamic Studies at Kuwait University. Iranian universi-
ties, such as the Bu Ali Sina University and Shiraz University
offer degree programs in Islamic law through the faculties of
law at each institution.
Despite their separate institutionalization, these colleges
of shar ̄ıEah and Islamic studies are often more akin to a
North American “divinity school” with a more diverse cur-
riculum than a “seminary”-style college. Other colleges of
shar ̄ıEah and Islamic studies are more strictly preprofessional,
however. The Salahaddin University in Arbil, Iraq, was es-
tablished in 2003 with the aim of preparing ima ̄ms for service
in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The faculty of shar ̄ıEah and
Islamic studies at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan, was
established in 1991, merging the then existing Islamic
Studies Center into a college designed for professional train-
ing. A similar situation pertains to the college of shar ̄ıEah at
al-Ahqaf University in the H:ad:ramawt region of Yemen.
CHALLENGES AND CURRENT TRENDS. Today the basic focus
of most regional programs in the comparative study of reli-
gion is historical and doctrinal. The more differentiated con-
ception of religion as inclusive of practices and beliefs outside
of canonical texts and officially sanctioned venues has suf-
fered in the modern period. Modern Muslim scholars of reli-
gion tend to isolate what they consider to be religion (Arabic,
d ̄ın) from tradition and culture (Arabic, tura ̄th, thaqa ̄fah).
The broad view taken by premodern travelers, historians,
and al-Milal wa al-Nihal scholars, as well as the more self-
critical approach to canonical Islamic texts and doctrines, has
largely been replaced by a less complex cataloging of accepted
beliefs and practices.
The major challenge facing the study of religion in Arab
universities is the perception that comparison and theoretical
models represent a challenge to indigenous methods and ap-
proaches to the study of religion. This is particularly evident
in the defensive and protective posture taken by scholars of
the major foundational subjects in classical Islam, especially
the historical study of the Prophet Muh:ammad and the in-
terpretation of the QurDa ̄n. Such a defensive stance some-
times has the unfortunate result of stifling discussion and use
of the rich comparative approaches developed by pre-
modern Muslim scholarship.
Scholars trained largely in European and North Ameri-
can institutions have introduced innovative approaches to re-
gional studies of religion. This includes, for example, per-
spectives adopted from the history of religions, text-critical
studies, philosophy of religion, and anthropology. Scholars
using such approaches are not always successful given the in-
stitutional and intellectual barriers in regional universities.
Reactions range from the establishment of institutions to the
publication of monographs criticizing particular schools of
thought and individuals, but sometimes reactions have taken
the form of threats and outright violence against particular
individuals. The banning of certain publications, both classi-
cal and modern, is not uncommon in the region, including
the expurgation of passages from classical texts and modern
textbooks for K–12 education.
Where European and American models have been most
influential is in the areas of archaeology and textual-historical
studies. Archaeologists from the King SaEu ̄ d University in Ri-
yadh, for example, have produced a number of excellent
analyses of pre-Islamic Arabian religion, and indigenous
scholarship on antiquities in other areas, especially Egypt and
Jordan, is world class. The German approaches associated
with Religionswissenschaft and Religionsgeschichte are more
easily integrated into regional curricula, perhaps because of
the emphasis, familiar from the classical Islamic tradition,
upon history and doctrine. Within the context of other disci-
plines, religion is treated with more theoretical ingenuity, as
a variable in anthropological, art historical, and political sci-
entific studies.
Centers for comparative religion. Since the 1970s a
number of initiatives have created regional centers and brief
runs in journals and other periodicals devoted to the relations
of Muslims and non-Muslims. Most of this has focused on
Muslim-Christian dialogue, such as the programs at the Cen-
tre d’Études et de Recherches Économiques et Sociales in
Tunis, the joint visits between the Vatican and al-Azhar offi-
cials, and the Seminar on Islamic-Christian dialogue
founded in Tripoli, Libya, in 1976. These initiatives, howev-
er, appear to have been more concerned with political rela-
tions than with the academic study of religion.
More recently, as a reaction to the more insular attitude
of some regional scholars, a number of regional institutions
and centers specifically devoted to the comparative study of
religions have been established. A prime example of this is
the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies (Arabic, MaEhad
al-Malak ̄ı li-Dira ̄sa ̄t al-D ̄ın ̄ıyyah) founded by Prince H:asan
bin Talal in 1994 in Amman, Jordan. The RIIFS, devoted
primarily to the study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
publishes quarterly journals in English and Arabic and spon-
sors lectures and visiting scholars from around the world.
Other state-supported and private institutions in the region
have begun to cultivate more active and creative programs
in the comparative study of religion as a means to broaden
both academic and popular conceptions of religious identity
and civil cooperation.
Another example of this is the Department of Theology
and Religions at Qum University in Iran, founded in 2001
with the stated aim of “highlighting the role of religion in
dialogue among civilizations.. .for the purpose of under-STUDY OF RELIGION: THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF RELIGION IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST 8783