Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies

Description

This roundtable proposes a “Barbados-to-Bengal Complex” as both an extension and critique of Shahab Ahmed’s “Balkans-to-Bengal Complex.” Ahmed mapped a vast post-Mongol, Afro-Eurasian zone—stretching from Southeast Europe through Anatolia, Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent—held together by shared concepts, Sufi-inflected practices, circulating texts, and entangled histories. While his formulation, which foregrounded the movement of people, ideas, texts, and devotional forms, challenged Eurocentric divisions and disciplinary silos, its geographic concentration inadvertently reinforced the marginalization of histories and contemporary formations beyond Afro-Eurasia. Specifically, this roundtable discusses an agenda for theorizing global Islam in ways that are not merely geographically expanded but conceptually re-scaled. It positions the Americas as integral, rather than peripheral, to understanding Islamic belonging, circulation, and religious formation in a globalised world.

Period	19 May 2026
Event type	Conference
Location	London, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National