Translating Persian, Universalizing Islam: The Case of Rumi’s “Moses and the Shepherd”

Описание: @UBC Asian Studies

The Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia presents the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies. This presentation: “Translating Persian, Universalizing Islam: The Case of Rumi’s ‘Moses and the Shepherd’" was delivered via Zoom on March 8, 2025, featuring guest speaker Dr. Austin O’Malley, and discussant Dr. Francesca Chubb-Confer.

Event details: https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/tran...

The tale of Moses and the Shepherd is one of the best-known stories from Rumi’s Masnavi. In this lecture, Austin O’Malley examines how the episode has been translated and understood in English-speaking environments, paying special attention to the ways in which its form and meaning have been changed to accord with the universalizing religious expectations of the modern era. A close translation of the Persian text, he suggests, frustrates this surreptitiously Protestant universalism and thereby makes our own assumptions visible.

About the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies: Alireza Ahmadian (1981 – 2019) was an enthusiastic researcher, a consummate socio-political analyst, and an opinion leader on foreign policy who nurtured the virtues of diplomatic dialogue and liberal democracy. Alireza was a proud and devoted UBC alumnus, supporter of UBC’s Asian Studies department, and beloved member of Canadian-Iranian Community. UBC’s Asian Studies department renamed this lecture series in his honour in 2019. The Ahmadian family and friends have provided funding to support this series, and this generous gift will see these important academic and community engagement events supported through to the end of the 2025/2026 academic year. To access the full list of events, visit https://asia.ubc.ca/lecture-series/al...