About Us
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Director
Dr Bashir Aliyu Umar
In view of the:
- Dearth of literature and overall awareness regarding the contribution of Islam to the development of modern knowledge, especially as regards the role of Sudanic Africa;
- Evident influence of Islam on the arts, architecture, culture, languages and overall heritage of the numerous Muslim peoples that together constitute the Muslim World, including the Western Sudanic Islamic tradition;
- Need for a concerted effort at studying Islamic contributions to the development of the modern world, while at the same time exploring its continued relevance in addressing the challenges of modern times especially those of peaceful co-existence;
- Imperative of addressing the numerous fault lines of modern societies through intra and inter faith dialogue among other socio-cultural dimensions;
Bayero University, Kano - Nigeria, on 8 August 2015 deemed it most appropriate to establish the Centre for Islamic Civilisation and Interfaith Dialogue.
Vision
To be a centre of excellence for the study of Islamic civilization and its relevance in addressing the challenges of modern times.
Mission
The Centre will be committed to pursuing quality research on the broad aspects of Islamic civilization and inter faith dialogue, formulating Islamic perspectives to modern disciplines and promoting alternatives to address contemporary challenges, guided by thoroughness in the pursuit of excellence, sound ethics and a multidisciplinary approach in its research and studies.
Objectives
- To provide expertise in the field of Islamic thought and civilisation, and in inter-civilisation dialogue;
- To conduct innovative research on various aspects of Islamic civilisation;
- To unearth the invaluable contributions of Muslims to modern civilization;
- To protect and preserve the heritage of the Muslim world and particularly in the Western Sudan;
- To restore divine, ethical and moral values to contemporary knowledge;
- To re-establish the relevance of Islamic civilization in solving contemporary challenges;
- To assist in strengthening Islamic institutions;
- To make the principles of the Islamization of Knowledge relevant to the future;
- To organize capacity building Programmes in areas of the Centre’s specialisation for relevant sectors of the society;
- To serve as an interdisciplinary meeting point for scholars and researchers in diverse fields relevant to the study of Islamic thought and civilisation;
- To foster studies in the fields of Islamic culture and civilisation in cooperation with other institutions and centres within and outside Nigeria;
- To disseminate, via different media and languages, relevant works on Islamic thought and civilisation both traditional and contemporary;
- To promote dialogue and good exhortation among groups and schools of thought within the Islamic fold and between Muslims and adherents of other faiths.
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Research...
The centre carried out the following research.
- Digitization and Study of the Sulhu (Reconciliation) Proceedings of Emirs’ Palaces in Muslim Northern Nigeria (ongoing).
- Islamic Digital Humanities Project (Preliminary Study ongoing in collaboration with an IT expert with Hadith sources as pilot)
Training
Capacity Building targeting Students, teachers, researchers, representatives of NGOs through Regular Training Programmes, Certificate Courses.Scope to include:
- The Islamization Perspectives of Modern Disciplines for school teachers
- History of Islamic Civilization for NGOs.
- Strengthening Islamic Institutions.
- Comparative Analysis of Islamic and Western Civilizations.
- Studies on peaceful co-existence and conflict resolution.
Outreach
Regular outreach activities that would disseminate the results of the research findings of the Centre to the wider research community and to the general populace To include:Lectures, Roundtable Discussions, Workshops and Conferences (Annual Event)
Bibliographies and Manuscripts
In order to achieve the objective of preserving and protecting the heritage of the Muslim world and facilitate research. Programme to include:
- Sourcing manuscripts especially from local collections.
- Following best practice in their cataloguing, conservation, digitisation and academic publishing.
- Preparation of bibliographies and catalogues of printed works, periodicals, academic theses and other reference materials on themes relevant to Islamic civilisation and its contribution to the modern world, and inter-civilisation dialogue.
