The Classical Institute (TCI)

We create an intellectual space that engages with Eastern & Western classical traditions, driven by two principles: scholarly depth & accessibility at its core.

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

✧ A Special Seminar This Evening in The Science and Terminology of Hadith Studies Programme ✧

The Classical Institute is pleased to announce that this evening's session on the Science and Terminology of Hadith Studies will be led by Dr Mariam Attia, Reader in Classical Educational Theory.

A departure from our regular sessions in the programme, this special seminar turns to the pedagogical methodologies of the muḥaddithūn, examining how the early hadith scholars conceived of teaching, transmission, and the ethics of learning, and what their approach still has to offer contemporary educational thought.

Drawing on her expertise in classical educational theory, Dr Attia will bring the disciplines of hadith scholarship and modern pedagogy into conversation, surfacing the principles of adab, presence and sincerity that shaped the transmission of knowledge across generations.

✧ Taught online this evening ✧

Friday 10 July 2026 | 9:00pm-10:30pm (BST)

Part of the ongoing Science and Terminology of Hadith Studies programme

Enrolment remains open, and we would be delighted to welcome students and interested guests this evening.

Programme information:
https://t.co/f9aQOier8K

#HadithStudies #Pedagogy #ClassicalEducation #IslamicIntellectualHistory #EducationalTheory #HigherEducation #ClassicalInstitute

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

◈ The Interpreter of Ardent Desires ◈

Ibn ʿArabī's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq and the Foundations of Akbarian Metaphysics

The Classical Institute is pleased to announce that enrolment is now open for a new programme offering a comprehensive introduction to the life, thought, and writings of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), widely regarded as one of the most profound and influential figures in the Islamic intellectual tradition. The programme will be led by Dr Ali Hussain Senior Lecturer in Islamic Mysticism.

Taken as its central text Ibn ʿArabī's celebrated poetic compendium, the Tarjumān al-Ashwāq (The Interpreter of Ardent Desires), read alongside the author's own commentary, the Dhakhāʾir al-Aʿlāq, the programme uses the Tarjumān as a lens through which to encounter the breadth of Ibn ʿArabī’s metaphysical system. Comprising sixty-one poems composed in Mecca, the work is cast in the language of love, longing, and beauty; yet beneath its lyrical surface lies a vast vision of the relationship between eros, imagination, spiritual unveiling, and divine self-disclosure.

Beginning with Ibn ʿArabī's life and the foundations of his thought, the programme proceeds through the Tarjumān verse by verse, reading each poem in light of his own commentary. To read the work with the depth it demands is to engage the full scope of Akbarian thought, and Dr Hussain will accordingly draw extensively upon Ibn ʿArabī's two major works, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Openings) and Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (The Ringstones of Wisdom), addressing his ontology, epistemology, cosmology, his doctrine of the imagination (khayāl), and his conception of the Perfect Human (al-insān al-kāmil), alongside his understanding of sacred language and the hermeneutics of poetic expression.

Dr Ali Hussain holds a doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan, where his research centred on the figure of Jesus in the writings of Ibn ʿArabī and the later mystical tradition. At the University of Michigan, Dr Hussain taught Classical and Qurʾanic Arabic in the same department alongside a range of courses in Islamic mysticism.  His academic formation is complemented by extensive traditional study. Alongside his scholarship, he is the founder of the Studio of Meaning, which has cultivated an international community devoted to Ibn ʿArabī's thought and its contemporary relevance.

◈ Commencing on Thursday 6 August 2026 ◈

The programme is delivered through live fortnightly online seminars. Further information and enrolment are available via the link below.

https://t.co/M8ieDWfBEs

#IbnArabi #IslamicStudies #IslamicIntellectualHistory #Sufism #ClassicalEducation

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original - Session One Recap

This week, The Classical Institute was delighted to open its new programme, Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original, led by Dr Colin Turner, Visiting Reader in Classical Islamic Thought and Persian Literature.

Our inaugural cohort reflects an international academic community, with participants joining us from Birmingham to New York. Some are taking their first steps in Persian; others are returning to a language long admired. What unites them, as Dr Turner observed, is the desire to encounter the Mathnawi in the language in which it was written.

Dr Turner set out the programme's distinctive method, with the Mathnawi itself becoming the classroom. Participants have set out on a journey of reading the text in the original, attending closely to its verbs, sentence structures and recurring vocabulary, whilst savouring its stories, imagery, humour and spiritual psychology.

Fittingly, the session began where the Mathnawi itself begins, with the imperative Beshnō, "listen":

Listen to the reed as it tells a tale, complaining of separations.

Participants recited the opening couplet aloud before turning to the grammar of the language itself. The session closed with reflection on the couplet itself: the reed, cut from the reed-bed, as an image of the human soul complaining not of one separation, but of many. We reconvene in a fortnight to continue our reading.

Enrolment remains open for those who wish to read the Mathnawi in its original Persian, joining a growing international community committed to the serious study of one of the world's great literary and intellectual traditions.

https://t.co/yzKIxyOrXr

#TheClassicalInstitute #Persian #ClassicalPersian #Mathnawi #Rumi #PersianLiterature #ClassicalLanguages #HigherEducation

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

The Classical Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ali Hussain as Senior Lecturer in Islamic Mysticism at The Classical Institute.

Dr Hussain's arrival marks a significant addition to the Institute's academic faculty. Commencing on Thursday 6 August 2026, Dr Hussain's inaugural programme, The Interpreter of Ardent Desires: Ibn ʿArabī's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq and the Metaphysics of Love, offers a comprehensive introduction to the life, thought, and writings of Ibn ʿArabī, one of the most profound figures in the Islamic intellectual tradition.

Dr Hussain is a scholar of the Akbarian tradition. After completing a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence Dr Hussain completed his doctorate at the University of Michigan, studying the life and teachings of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) as well the later Sufi tradition more broadly. He went on to teach Classical and Qurʾanic Arabic in the same department, alongside a range of courses in Islamic mysticism, among them studies of Jesus in Sufism, the history of Sufism in America, and the portrayal of the human body in Islamic texts.

His scholarship spans the metaphysical, the literary, and the comparative. He is the author of numerous academic studies, including The Metaphysics of Creativity: Imagination in Sufism, from the Qurʾan into Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn al-ʿArabī and Joseph Campbell: Akbarian Metaphysics and the Myth of Contemporary Art, as well as the volume The Art of Ibn al-ʿArabī. His research places the Andalusian master in dialogue with major figures of modern thought, from Jacques Derrida and Charles Taylor to Joseph Campbell.

This academic expertise is grounded in and supported by traditional study, including time spent in Tarim, Yemen, and a long association with Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani. Dr Hussain has also lectured well beyond the university seminar room, delivering regular guest lectures at institutions including Harvard University, Princeton University and the Berklee College of Music. Through his Studio of Meaning, one of the fastest growing communities on Substack,  he has cultivated an international community devoted to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī's thought and its contemporary relevance.

Taking as its central text Ibn al-Arabi’s celebrated poetic compendium, the Tarjumān al-Ashwāq, read alongside the author's own commentary, the Dhakhāʾir al-Aʿlāq, Dr Hussain's inaugural programme at TCI uses the Tarjumān as a lens through which to encounter the full breadth of his metaphysical system, encompassing its ontology, epistemology, cosmology, and spiritual psychology. Sustained reference will also be made throughout to his two major works, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya and the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. The programme is scheduled to begin on 6 August 2026. Full details on enrolment will be announced shortly.

The Institute warmly welcomes Dr Hussain to its academic community and looks forward to the contribution his scholarship and teaching will bring in the years ahead.

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

The Classical Institute's 2026 schedule is now available.

The programme brings together live teaching across philosophy, theology, languages, literature, and the classical intellectual traditions, with teaching delivered by an international faculty of scholars.

Highlights of this year's programme include:

⟡ Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original
Led by Dr Colin (Kazem) Turner | Commencing Thursday 2 July 2026

⟡ The Interpreter of Ardent Desires: Ibn ʿArabi's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq and the Metaphysics of Love
Led by Dr Ali Hussain | Commencing Thursday 6 August 2026

⟡ Finding Meaning and Moral Responsibility: A Tawḥīdī Perspective on the Human Journey. Led by Dr Mahshid Turner | Commencing Sunday 13 September 2026

The Institute also continues its established provision in Hadith Studies, Classical Islamic Thought, Sufi Traditions from the Early Sources, Qur'anic Reading & Commentary, Classical Arabic, and the Hadith Traditions Series, alongside Advanced Islamic Philosophical Theology, God, Space and Body, Traditionalism and the Critique of Modernity, The Great Books, and forthcoming seminars with Dr Simon Trépanier and Chaplain Carol Mayes.

Explore the full 2026 schedule:
https://t.co/6lCmOdw8xG

#TheClassicalInstitute #ClassicalEducation #HigherEducation #Humanities #ClassicalStudies #Philosophy #Theology #IslamicStudies #HadithStudies #PersianLiterature #GreatBooks

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

Few works have exercised such a lasting influence upon the Persian literary tradition as the Mathnawi.

We are pleased to announce that Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original will now commence on ⟡ Thursday 2 July 2026 ⟡

Enrolment has been extended and will close on Monday 29 June 2026.

Study one of the great works of world literature in its original language under Dr Colin Turner, Visiting Reader in Classical Islamic Thought and Persian Literature at The Classical Institute.

https://t.co/bU0xTl1O7V

#TheClassicalInstitute #Persian #Mathnawi #Rumi #PersianLiterature #ClassicalStudies

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

✦ Live Just Now | Plato, Socrates and the Law ✦

What do we owe the state?

Can injustice ever justify injustice in return?

This evening's seminar on Plato's Crito with John Claughton @ClaughtonJohn explored these questions as students reflected on justice, obedience, friendship, and principle.

If one is treated unjustly, should one return injustice in kind? More than 2,000 years later, the question remains unsettled.

Perhaps what unsettles us is not Socrates at all, but the uncompromising demands of truth itself and the discomfort that comes when it exposes us more than we would like.

At The Classical Institute, classical texts remain living dialogues, inviting students to engage great ideas and examine themselves in their light.

A fuller reflection will follow in the coming weeks.

#TheClassicalInstitute #Plato #Socrates #Crito #AncientPhilosophy #Classics #ClassicalStudies #GreekPhilosophy #HistoryOfIdeas #Humanities

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

Socrates chose not to flee. In his final defence, he asks a question that still unsettles us today: how ought one to live when principle comes at a cost?

Join us for the concluding seminar of The Invention of History, Philosophy, and Tragedy: Athens 460-380 BCE.

✦ Part II – The Great Escape – or not: Socrates defends his decision to face the death penalty for which his fellow citizens voted.

Sunday 21 June 2026, 7:00pm-7:45pm (UK Time) | Enrolment Remains Open | Online Only

Led by John Claughton @ClaughtonJohn, former Chief Master of King Edward's School and a distinguished classicist.

A fitting end to a remarkable series, and an excellent opportunity to encounter one of the greatest minds of the ancient world in conversation with the questions of our own.

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

The final instalment of The Classical Seminar Series, The Invention of History, Philosophy, and Tragedy: Athens 460-380 BCE, led by John Claughton, turns to one of the most influential figures in intellectual history: Socrates ✦

Through Plato's Apology and Crito, participants will explore the trial, imprisonment, and death of Socrates, engaging with questions that continue to shape legal, political, and philosophical discourse today.

Part I ✦ The Apology: Socrates on Trial: how to get yourself sentenced to death.

Sunday 7 June 2026, 7:00pm-7:45pm (UK Time) | Enrolment Now Open | Online Only

Part II ✦ The Great Escape- or not: Socrates defends his decision to face the death penalty for which his fellow citizens voted.

Sunday 21 June 2026, 7:00pm-7:45pm (UK Time) | Enrolment Now Open | Online Only

Led by John Claughton @ClaughtonJohn, former Chief Master of King Edward's School and a distinguished classicist.

Registration now open:
https://t.co/eYfd3NN8JD

#Classics #AncientGreece #Plato #Socrates #Philosophy #Humanities #HigherEducation #TheClassicalInstitute

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

🔴 LIVE NOW at The Classical Institute with Professor Anthony O'Hear

What happens when reason confronts the irrational?

Tonight, we explore Euripides' Bacchae: from the birth of Dionysus to his rejection, imprisonment, and ultimate vindication.

Pentheus seeks order through domination. Dionysus exposes the limits of that ambition.

More than two millennia later, the Bacchae remains one of the most penetrating explorations of reason and passion, civilisation and nature.

#Classics #GreekTragedy #Euripides #TheBacchae #Humanities

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

🔴 Live Now

What is the nature of the Divine?

This evening, Dr Simon Trépanier is guiding participants through the thought of Heraclitus and the emergence of philosophical theology in the ancient Greek world. Questions concerning the Logos, order, intelligibility, and the Divine remain no less compelling today than they were over two millennia ago.

"The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor hides, but gives signs."

#Classics #Philosophy #AncientGreece #Heraclitus #GreekPhilosophy #Theology #HistoryOfIdeas #Humanities #ClassicalEducation #TheClassicalInstitute

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

Few works have exercised such a lasting influence upon the Persian literary tradition as the ⟡ Mathnawi ⟡

Through this new programme, students will have the opportunity to engage the text in its original language under the tutelage of Dr Colin Turner.

⟡ Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original ⟡

We are delighted to welcome Dr Turner to The Classical Institute as Visiting Reader in Classical Islamic Thought and Persian Literature. The programme forms part of the Institute's growing provision in the Classical languages and intellectual traditions.

⟡ Commencing Thursday 25 June 2026 ⟡

https://t.co/yzKIxyOrXr

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

Enrolment is now officially open for Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original, the inaugural programme of Dr Colin Turner, Visiting Reader in Classical Islamic Thought and Persian Literature at The Classical Institute.

The programme marks a significant addition to TCI’s growing study of the Classical languages and intellectual traditions, inviting students into a sustained engagement with one of the foundational works of the Persian literary tradition through guided reading in the original language.

A trained historian and theologian, Dr Turner’s principal areas of interest are Muslim philosophy and theology, the anthropology of religion, and Islamic intellectual history, with a sustained scholarly focus on the life and works of the Ottoman scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1876–1960). Few contemporary Western scholars have engaged so deeply and consistently with the Nursian corpus, and Dr Turner is widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on Said Nursi’s thought.

His scholarly output reflects this breadth of engagement. He is the author of the best-selling 'Islam: The Basics'. His monograph 'The Quran Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Said Nursi’s Epistles of Light' (Gerlach Press, 2013) offered the first comprehensive critical analysis of Nursi’s six-thousand-page work of Quranic exegesis, exploring themes ranging from Divine unity and causation to spirituality, prophethood, civilisation, and politics. His earlier study 'Islam Without Allah? The Rise of Religious Externalism in Safavid Iran' (Curzon Press, 2000) traced the theological developments that shaped Twelver Shiʿism in Safavid Iran, while 'Said Nursi' (Oxford University Press, 2009), co-authored with Hasan Horkuc, appeared in OUP’s Makers of Islamic Civilization series.

Dr Turner completed a First Class BA in Oriental Studies encompassing Arabic, Persian, Islamic Studies, and anthropology at Durham University in 1982, followed by a PhD in Islamic Studies in 1989. His doctoral research examined clergy-state relations in the Safavid era, with particular reference to Allama Muhammad Baqir Majlisi.

His most recent work includes a fresh English re-translation of Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur directly from the original Ottoman Turkish. He is also the editor of Divine Revelation and Communication: Contemporary Muslim Theological Approaches (Gerlach Press), the inaugural volume in the IFMT’s “God-talk project”. He is currently writing a book on the cultural anthropology of “immortality longing”, with special reference to the Quran.

Dr Turner’s appointment deepens the Institute’s commitment to the serious and sustained study of the seminal texts of the Classical world in their original languages, and we are honoured to welcome him to the wider intellectual life of TCI.

⟡ Programme begins Thursday 25 June 2026.
Fortnightly | 8.00-9.30pm (UK Time) | Online attendance
⟡ Enrolment opens Monday 18 May 2026.

Programme Overview: https://t.co/yzKIxyOZMZ

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

✦ The questions explored by the first philosophers continue to shape the intellectual world we inhabit today ✦

At a time when the humanities face increasing pressures across higher education, opportunities such as these are more valuable than ever.

This Saturday, Professor Simon Trépanier (University of Edinburgh) continues his exploration of Heraclitus and the emergence of philosophical theology in the ancient world.

For those interested in Classics, philosophy, theology, and the history of ideas, this is an excellent opportunity to engage with one of the foremost contemporary scholars of early Greek thought.

✦ Saturday 13 June 2026 | 7:00-8:00pm (UK Time) | Online Only ✦

Enrolment remains open.

Further details and registration below.

[The Classical Institute (TCI) @ClassicalInst]

🏛️The Classical Institute is pleased to announce the continuation of The Homeric Gods and Their First Philosophical Critics, the four-part seminar series led by Dr Simon Trépanier, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh.

The forthcoming seminar ✦ Nature and the Gods Harmonised: Ionian Science in Heraclitus ✦ turns to Heraclitus’ attempt to reconcile Ionian scientific inquiry with inherited Greek conceptions of the Divine, examining his critique of popular religion, cosmic order, and the emergence of philosophical theology in early Greece.

⟡ Seminar Two at The Classical Institute
⟡ Saturday 13 June 2026 | 7–8pm (UK Time)
⟡ Delivered Online Only

Further details and registration:
https://t.co/eYfd3NN8JD

#TheClassicalInstitute #Classics #AncientPhilosophy #GreekPhilosophy #ClassicalStudies #Heraclitus