October 19 Vladimir Bobrovnikov, Ph.D. in History, a research associate of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg State University gave a lecture and held a seminar фbout Muhajirism and the State Regulation of Islam in the regions of the Russian Empire. Among the participants were undergraduate and graduate students studying at the program of training specialists with in-depth knowledge of the history and culture of Islam.
The topic of the lecture is “Interregional Relations of Islam in the Context of the 19th Century Colonial Empires Muhajirism from the Russian Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire” met the genuine interest of students.

(more…)

Principal Investigator of the Research Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes (Saint-Petersburg State University), Professor of Islamic Studies Department of Near Eastern Studies University of Michigan Alexander D. Knysh assisted in training of a student from the Kazakh National University Mr. Azamat Nurshanov. Mr. Nurshanov is a doctoral student of the Department of Religious and Cultural Studies at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, who specializes in the study of non-traditional religious movements in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

(more…)

September 11, 2015 at 04.00 p.m. an introductory video lecture to the course “History and Culture of Islam” was held at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies (St. Petersburg State University). The lecture was given by the head of the Laboratory for analysis and modeling of social processes, professor of the University of Michigan, Alexander D. Knysh. Such kind of workshops with students who are interested in studying history and culture of Islam are one of the prior areas of work of the Laboratory within the frames of training of young specialists.
(more…)

The Head of the Research Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes, Professor Alexander D. Knysh participated in the seminar “Knowing Islam: An Interdisciplinary Seminar on Muslim Epistemology”, which was held in the University of Michigan from August 31 to September 2, 2015. A. Knysh spoke on “The vicissitudes of Sufi Exegesis”.
(more…)

August 2015, the review by Alexander Knysh to the book «The Charismatic Leadership Phenomenon in Radical and Militant Islam» by Haroro J. Ingram was published in the journal “Nova Religio” (vol. 19). Here you can find the full version of the review.

On 28-29 May 2015 Institute of Oriental Manuscripts ( of the Russian Academy of Sciences) hosted a conference of young Arabic studies scholars. (more…)

The Department of Orientology (Vostochnyi fakultet) hosted an annual international conference on historiography and of Asian and African Studies. This year the conference was organized around the theme “Asia and Africa in a Changing World”. (more…)

Oleg Sokolov, the first-year MA student of the Department of Orientology (Vostochnyi fakultet) and member ofthe Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes, presented a paper to the 37th Annual Session of Arabic Studies Scholars of Saint-Petersburg, which took place between 6 and 8 of April, 2015, at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Russian Academy of Sciences).

The title of his paper was “The image of the Mujahid in ISIS and Al-Qaeda journals”.

On 20 March 2015, the Students’ Scientific Society of the Department of Oriental Studies (SPbSU) organized the first cross-disciplinary conference “Religion as a Factor in Asian and African studies”. Students of different departments specializing in various fields of sciences and the humanities took part in the conference that elicited a lively interest on the part of a very diverse audience that included representatives of many research and teaching institutions. (more…)