Background 

Adam Gaiser (Ph.D. ’05, University of Virginia, History of Religions) teaches courses in Islamic studies. His research focuses on the development of early Kharijites and Ibadiyya, and on medieval Muslim sectarianism in general. Dr. Gaiser also teaches courses on Shi‘ism, Islam in North America, Islamic Law, the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an.    

Research Interests 

• Early Islamic Sectarianism: Kharijites, Ibadites and Shi‘ites
• Early Islamic Spain and North Africa
• Islam in Europe and the Americas

Current Research Projects 

An Introduction to Ibadi Islam (Contracted with Cambridge University Press)

Abstract: An Introduction to Ibadi Islam provides a scholarly and comprehensive introduction to Ibadism and the Ibadiyya, a group of Muslims who are neither Sunni nor Shi’i. Beginning with the core doctrinal distinctions that mark the Ibadiyya off from other forms of Islam, the work then moves to investigate their historical development from their origins in 8th century Iraq to their current presence in North Africa, the East African Coast and the Arabian Peninsula. While concise, this work intends to reflect the most updated scholarship in the field of Ibadi studies, while introducing the many aspects and histories of Ibadism under one cover.

Publications 

Books

• Sectarianism in Islam: The Umma Divided (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press).
• Shurāt Legends, Ibādī Identities: Martyrdom, Asceticism, and the Making of an Early Islamic Community (University of South Carolina Press, 2016).
• Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origin and Elaboration of the Ibāḍī Imamate Traditions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Guest Edited Journal Issue

• (with Miriam Ali de Unzaga) “Facets of Exchange between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula,” The Journal of North African Studies (Spain-North African Project Special Issue), 19/1.

Articles 

• “Ballaghanā 'an an-Nabī: Early Ibāḍī understandings of Sunna and Siyar, Āthār and Nasab.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 83 (2020): 437-448.
• (with James Riggan). “Stamps of the Fallen (Part 1): On Martyrs, Nations, and Postage Stamps.” Mizān: Journal of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Muslim Societies and Civilizations (2017): 1-8. Retrieved from http://www.mizanproject.org/stamps-of-the-fallen-part-1/.
• (with James Riggan). “Stamps of the Fallen (Part 2): Martyrs on the Postage Stamps of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Mizān: Journal of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Muslim Societies and Civilizations (2017): 1-9. Retrieved from http://www.mizanproject.org/stamps-of-the-fallen-part-2/.
• “A Narrative Identity Approach to Islamic Sectarianism,” in Nader Hashemi, & Danny Postel (Eds.), Sectarianization: Mapping the Politics of the New Middle East (pp. 61-75). London: Hurst, 2017.
• “Slaves and Silver across the Strait of Gibraltar: Politics and Trade between Umayyad Iberia and Khārijite North Africa,” in Medieval Encounters (Spain North-Africa Project Special Issue), 19 (2013): 41-70.
• “The Kharijites in Contemporary Scholarship,” in Oxford Bibliographies Online, 35 (2013).
• “What do we Learn about the Early Khārijites and Ibāḍiyya from their Coins?” in Journal of the American Oriental Society 103/2 (2011): 167-187.
• “The Ibāḍī ‘Stages of Religion’ Re-examined: Tracing the History of the Masālik al-Dīn,” in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73/2 (2010): 207-22.
• “Source-Critical Methodologies in Recent Scholarship on the Khārijites,” in History Compass 7/5 (2009): 1376-90.
• “Satan’s Seven Specious Arguments: al-Shahrastānī’s Kitāb al-Milal wa’l-Nihal in an Ismā‘īlī Context,” in Journal of Islamic Studies 19/2 (2008): 178-195

Courses

fall 2023

• REL3363: Islamic Traditions
• REL4393/RLG5368: Islam in North America

spring 2024

• REL3367: Islamic Traditions II: Islam up to the Modern World
• RLG5030: Religion in the Classroom