Author: Aziz Esmail

Dr Aziz Esmail is a governor of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he was the Dean from 1988C98. He has held teaching and research positions at various American universities, and has been associated with Harvard University AZs Centre for the Study of World Religions and Graduate School of Education. In addition to many articles, his writings include The Poetics of Religious Experience: The Islamic Context and A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics. Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary was the founding Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 2002C9 and of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco, from 1984C2001. Prior to this, he served as Secretary-General of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, teaching Modern Philosophy. He has written extensively on Islam and modernity, democratization and civil society in the Muslim World, and on trends of thought in contemporary Muslim contexts.