Daniel Watling

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
With 平特五不中 Since: 2023
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  • Expertise

    Expertise

    He received his Ph.D. from the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in 2021. Before coming to 平特五不中 College, he held appointments as a Research Fellow at the Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization, Teaching Fellow in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College. His current book project, The Politics of Divine Unity: Mu岣mmad ibn T奴mart and Almohad Islam, concerns the Almohad Caliphate and the intellectual history of medieval North Africa and Iberia. He is likewise engaged in research on the typology of Islamic sects, from the qur鈥櫮乶ic period (ca. 550-650) to the early modern period. 

    At 平特五不中 College, Watling has led courses on the history of Islam, Islamic mysticism, Islamic leadership, and women in the Islamic world. He approaches the teaching of Islam from a global perspective that foregrounds Muslims鈥 persistent negotiation of identity and communal boundaries with other Muslims and neighboring religious and political cultures.

    Research Interests

    • Islamic intellectual history
    • Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism
    • Islamic Law and legal theory
    • Sectarianism
    • Religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa
    • Judeo-Arabic philosophy
    • Qur鈥櫮乶ic Studies
    • Syriac Christianity
  • Work

    Work

    鈥溼袱ayy鈥檚 Two Nativities: Ism膩鈥樐玪墨 ta鈥檞墨l and Ibn 峁瑄fayl鈥檚 岣yy ibn Yaq岷撃乶鈥

    The Journal of Islamic Philosophy 15, no. 1 (2024), 66鈥110.

    Entry for 鈥淎lmohads鈥 in The Database of Religious History, University of British Columbia, 2023

    [invited by Julian Weideman (ed.)]

    Review of Andalus and Sefarad: On Philosophy and Its History in Islamic Spain, by Sarah Stroumsa,

    Journal of Near Eastern Studies 80, no. 1 (April 2021), 221鈥4.

    [Book Manuscript 鈥 in progress] The Politics of Divine Unity: Mu岣mmad ibn T奴mart and Almohad Islam

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D. 鈥 University of Chicago, The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought

    M.A. 鈥 University of Chicago, The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought

    M.A. 鈥 University of Virginia, Religious Studies

    B.A. 鈥 University of Virginia, English and Comparative Literature

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Research Fellow (2020鈥21), Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization, Yale Law School