Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

Photo of Emeritus Professor Ian Netton

Emeritus Professor Ian Netton

BA PhD FSA FRHistS FRSA FRAsiaS FRAI

Professor Emeritus

I.Netton@exeter.ac.uk

Overview

I was born in Singapore and studied for my BA in Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, graduating in 1972, and my PhD at the University of Exeter (Arabic and Islamic Studies, 1976), specialising in mediaeval Islamic Philosophy. From 1977 to 1995 I taught at Exeter University where I was latterly Reader in Arab and Islamic Civilization and Thought. In September 1995 I became the University of Leeds first Professor of Arabic Studies and I remained in Leeds until 2007, serving four terms as Head of that University's Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. I was also Director of Leeds University's Centre for mediaeval Studies from 1997-2002. In 2007 I was appointed Sharjah Professor of Islamic Studies at Exeter University where I am now Emeritus Professor of Islamic Studies. My primary research interests are Islamic theology and philosophy, Anthropology of religion (especially ritual), Sufism, mediaeval Arab travellers, Arabic and Islamic bibliography, comparative textuality and semiotics, comparative religion and general Islamic Studies.

In 2014 I received the BRISMES Award for Services to Middle Eastern Studies.

I am the author or editor of 23 books of which the most recent is Islam, Christianity and the Realms of the Miraculous: A Comparative Exploration (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). I was the editor of The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies for many years and I am currently General Editor of the Routledge Sufi Series,the Routledge Culture and Civilization in the Middle East Series and the Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires Series. I have served on several national committees as, for example, Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Panel 8 (Philosophy, Religious Studies and Law), and as a Sub-Panellist in my field for the Research Assessment Exercise of 2008.I am also a member of the research cluster for Islamic studies within the Institute.

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Research

My primary research interests are Islamic theology and philosophy, Anthropology of religion (especially ritual), Sufism, mediaeval Arab travellers, Arabic and Islamic bibliography, comparative textuality and semiotics, comparative religion and general Islamic Studies.

Research group links

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Supervision

I have a particular interest in classical Arab and Islamic history, Islamic theology and philosophy, sufism, medieval Arab travellers, Arabic and Islamic bibliography, Islamic art and architecture, comparative textuality and semiotics, and comparative religion. As an external or internal examiner, I have examined more than one hundred and sixty doctoral dissertations in numerous UK universities.I have also examined research degrees in Finland and Turkey.

Research students

Research topics recently supervised - a selection:

  • The Ka'ba in the manuscript of al-Mahjub.
  • Christians and Jews in the Qur'an with reference to modern Islamic exegeses
  • The Social status of female slaves in medieval Islam
  • Women in Twelver Shi'i hadith.
  • The image of the West in Saudi poetry 1920-1990.
  • Egyptians in the Qur'an.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2018 | 2016 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 1991 | 1984 |

2018

  • Netton IR. (2018) Islam, Christianity and the Realms of the Miraculous A Comparative Exploration, Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture.

2016

  • Traboulsi (ed.) S, Mayer (trans.) T, Netton (trans.) IR. (2016) Epistles of the Brethren of Purity :On Companionship and Belief: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 43-45, Oxford University Press.

2012

  • Erickson K, Stoneman R, Netton IR. (2012) The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East, Barkuis Pub.

2011

  • Netton I. (2011) Islam,Christianity and the Mystic Journey:A Comparative Exploration, Edinburgh University Press.
  • Netton I. (2011) Exitus and Reditus: Towards a New Islamic Neoplatonic Paradigm, Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity (Canada), volume 26.

2010

  • Netton I. (2010) Exile and Return: Diasporas of the Secular and Sacred Mind, Living Islamic History, Edinburgh University Press, 178-191 {Also part of bibliog.
  • Netton I. (2010) First Paperback edition of Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion, Routledge.

2009

  • Netton IR. (2009) Private caves and public islands: Islam, Plato and the ikhwan al-safa, Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, volume 9, pages 107-120.
  • Netton I. (2009) Private Caves and Public Islands: Islam, Plato and the Ikhwan al-Safa'{Reprint of RAE article}, The Afterlife of the Platonic Soul:Reflections of Platonic Psychology in the Monotheistic Religions, Brill, 107-120.

2008

  • Netton I. (2008) Islamic and Middle Eastern Geographers and Travellers: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Two: The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2008) The Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'in the History of Ideas in Islam, The Ikhwan al-Safa' and their Rasa'il, Oxford University Press, 123-138.
  • Netton I. (2008) Islamic and Middle Eastern Geographers and Travellers: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume One: Medieval Geographers and Travellers, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2008) Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2008) Islamic and Middle Eastern Geographers and Travellers: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Three: The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2008) Islamic and Middle Eastern Geographers and Travellers: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Four: The Post-Medieval and Early Modern Period, Routledge.

2007

  • Netton, I.. (2007) Five Textbooks in Search of Being and Reason: Tradition and Continuity in Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought, Routledge, 5-27.
  • Netton I. (2007) Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume One: Legacies, Translations and Prototypes, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2007) Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Four: Eclecticism, Illumination and Reform, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2007) Islamic Philosophy and Theology:Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought:Volume Two:Revelation and Reason, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2007) Islamic Philosophy and Theology:Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Three: Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism, Routledge.
  • Netton I. (2007) A Tale of Three Cities: Al-Farabi and the Path to Perfection, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Critical Concepts in Islamic Thought: Volume Two, Routledge, 88-107.

2006

  • Salhi ZS, Netton IR. (2006) The Arab Diaspora: Voices of an anguished scream, DOI:10.4324/9780203965337.
  • Netton I. (2006) Islam, Christianity and Tradition: A Comparative Exploration, Edinburgh University Press.
  • Salhi ZS, Netton I. (2006) The Arab Diaspora: Voices of an Anguished Scream, London & New York: Routledge.

2005

  • Netton I. (2005) Private Caves and Public Islands: Islam, Plato and the Ikhwan Al-Safa', Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, volume 15, pages 73-87.

1991

1984

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