Blain Auer
Blain Auer
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Education
Ph.D. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 2009
M.A. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 2004
M.A. South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999
B.A. South Asian Languages and Literature, University of California-Berkeley, 1991
Research
Dr. Auer's general study is on the religious, cultural, and historical dimensions of Islamicate societies. He specializes in Islam in the context of pre-modern South Asia. In particular, he studies the representations of Islamic authority exhibited through the use of the Qur'an, Hadith, exegesis, and history writing produced during the Delhi Sultanate. A second area of research focuses on modern ritual, pilgrimage, and relics connected with the burial places of the special dead in Islam.
Publications
Books
Symbols of Authority in Medieval Islam: History, Religion and Muslim Legitimacy in the Delhi Sultanate. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012, (forthcoming May 2012).
Articles
“Persian Historical Works Written in South Asia.” In John Perry/Ehsan Yarshater (eds.), Persian Prose from outside Iran: The Indian Subcontinent, Anatolia, Central Asia after Timur, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, (forthcoming).
“Cultural and Religious Contexts: Teaching about Abraham.” In Allen Webb, Teaching the Literature of Today’s Middle East, New York: Routledge Press, 2011.
“The Intersection between Sufism and Power: Historiography and Sacred Biography of the Delhi Sultans and the Shaykhs of Northern India, 1200-1400.” In J. Curry/E. Ohlander (eds.), Sufism and Society: Arrangements of the Mystical in the Muslim World, 1200-1800 C.E., 17-33. New York: Routledge Press, 2011.
“Concepts of Justice and the Catalogue of Punishments under the Sultans of Delhi (7th–8th/13th–14th Centuries).” In M. Fierro/C. Lange (eds.), Public Violence in Islamic Societies: Power, Discipline, and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th—19th Centuries CE, 238-55. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Encyclopedia Entries
The Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States. Edited by Jocelyne Cesari. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2007. "Allah," "Islamic Calendar," "Eid al-Adha," "Eid al-Fitr," "Fasting," "Hijra," "Kashmir," "Pilgrimage," "Qawwali Music," "Tariq Ramadan," "Sacrifice."
Teaching
Dr. Auer teaches Religion 2060: Islam. He also offers courses on the topics of Islam, Colonialism, Nationalism, and Modernity; The Friends of God: Islamic Mysticism; The Qur’an; Islam in India; Islamic Identities: Religion in the Public Sphere; and Islam in America.