Dr Kumail Rajani

Kumail Rajani is a Research Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Though primarily focused on the origins and development of hadith corpora, his research interests include Quranic exegesis, Islamic law and legal theory, South Asian studies, Ismaili studies, and Shii studies more broadly. He has worked as a Postdoctorol Research Fellow on the Law, Authority and Learning in Shiite Islam project, an advanced award (no. 695245) funded by European Research Council. His article entitled “Between Qum and Qayrawn: Unearthing early Shii hadith sources” was published by the BSOAS 84/3 in 2021. He also edited The Sound Traditions: Studies in Ismaili Texts and Thought (Brill, 2021) and co-edited Shiite Legal Theory: Sources and Commentaries (2023). He is currently working on converting his PhD (Making Sense of Ismaili Traditions: The Modes and Meanings of the Transmission of hadith in the Works of al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 363/974), Exeter) into a monograph, among other pursuits. Rajani spent a number of years in Shiite seminary (hawza) of Qum studying and teaching classical Islamic texts of hadth, fiqh and Islamic legal theory. Rajani is the recipient of Post Doctoral Writing Fellowship from British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies for one year (2022) as well as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship for 3 years (2023-2025).