Rate My Professor Shainool Jiwa

Dr Shainool Jiwa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Academic Research at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, where she has held various leadership positions since joining in 1999. She currently serves as Head of the Constituency Studies Unit since 2012, previously as Head of the Department of Community Relations from 2005 to 2012, Head of the Department of Graduate Studies in 2004-2005, and Founding Coordinator of the Quranic Studies Unit from 2001 to 2004. Earlier roles at the Institute include Research Associate, Programme Coordinator, and Academic Counsellor for the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities. Her academic qualifications include a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Edinburgh (1989), with a thesis entitled 'A Study of the Reign of the fifth Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Aziz billah (972-996 CE)'; an MA in Islamic Studies from the joint IIS-McGill University programme (1984); an Mlitt in Islamic Studies from the University of Edinburgh (1981); and a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Karachi (1979). She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of London and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018). Prior to the Institute, from 1991 to 1999, she established and managed Saheliya, the first community-based mental health project for Black and Ethnic Minority women in Scotland.

A specialist in Fatimid studies, Dr Jiwa's research focuses on Ismaili history and the Fatimid Caliphate within the medieval Mediterranean world, including a forthcoming monograph on the fifth Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Aziz billah. She has authored The Fatimids: The Rise of a Muslim Empire (2018) and The Fatimids 2: The Rule from Egypt (2023), both published by I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute. She edited The Fatimid Caliphate: Diversity of Traditions (2017) and The Shi‘i World: Pathways in Tradition and Modernity (2015), translated medieval Arabic texts such as Towards a Shi‘i Mediterranean Empire: Fatimid Egypt and the Founding of Cairo (2009) and The Founder of Cairo (2013), and contributed numerous articles and chapters, including in Encyclopaedia of Islam Three and Al-Masaq. As Founding Series Editor of the World of Islam series and Living Ismaili Traditions series, her works have been translated into Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Urdu. In teaching, she leads the module Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali in Muslim Discourse in the Graduate Programme and directs short courses on Shi’i Islam: History, Thought & Practice and Walking in the Footsteps of the Fatimids. She directed the 2021 international conference on Fatimid Cosmopolitanism, delivered keynotes such as 'The Fatimids: A 10th–12th century Mediterranean Empire' (2025), and served on Institute committees including Jamati Programmes and Human Resources. She is listed in Who’s Who in Scotland since 2000.