Consortium for Islamic Religious Studies in South-Eastern United States

Abstract

The famous Hadith ‘seek knowledge, even in China’ expresses a passion that true scholars will always have, although the ways and means of seeking knowledge have changed greatly over the centuries. The hajj was for centuries an important means for Muslims to learn about the world and Islam beyond the local madrasa. Steamship, rail, and air travel made Western scholarship on Islam and Muslim scholarship in the West far more accessible than when this Hadith first began to circulate. Computers and the Web have added a whole new dimension of accessibility. Among institutions, consortia of scholars and departments of Islamic Studies, such as those associated with ISIM, are creating fields such as Islamic Studies across many universities into single venues of study. Another example of interinstitutional cooperation in Islamic religious studies in the south-eastern United States is the Carolina Duke Emory Institute for the Study of Islam (CDEISI).