Maria M Dakake

Associate Professor

Islamic thought, Qur'anic Studies, Shi'ite and Sufi traditions, women's issues

Dr. Dakake researches and publishes on Islamic intellectual history, Quranic studies, Shi`ite and Sufi traditions, and women's spirituality and religious experience. She has just completed work on a major collaborative project to produce the first HarperCollins Study Quran, which comprises a verse-by-verse commentary on the Quranic text (November 2015). This work draws upon classical and modern Quran commentaries, making the rich and varied tradition of Muslim commentary on their own scripture, written almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian, accessible to an English-speaking audience for the first time in such a comprehensive manner. She is also currently working with Daniel Madigan on a co-edited volume, The Routledge Companion to the Qur'an, and is working independently on a monograph on the concept of religion as a universal phenomenon in the Quran and Islamic intellectual tradition.

Selected Publications

The Study Qur'an (with S.H. Nasr, C. Dagli, J. Lumbard, and M. Rustom), HarperOne, 2015.

The Charismatic Community: Shi`ite Identity in Early Islam, State University of New York Press, 2007. (Paperback released 2008).

“Writing and Resistance: The Transmission of Knowledge in Early Shi`ism” in The Study of Shi`i Islam: History Theology, and Law (eds. F. Daftary and G. Miskinzoda), I.B. Tauris, 2013.

“Sacred Land in Qur’an and Hadith and its Symbolic and Eschatological Significance.” Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, v. 10, no. 1, 2011.

“Hierarchies of Knowing in Mulla Sadra’s Commentary on the Usul al-Kafi,” Journal of Islamic Philosophy, vol. 6, 2011.

“‘Guest of the Inmost Heart’: Conceptions of the Divine Beloved among Early Sufi Women.” Journal of Comparative Islamic Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007.

Expanded Publication List

Books

The Study Qur’an (general editor and contributor, with S.H. Nasr (editor-in-chief), J. Lumbard and C. Dagli, Harper Collins, (forthcoming, 2015).

The Charismatic Community: Shi`ite Identity in Early Islam, State University of New York Press, 2007. (Paperback released 2008).

Articles

“Where Waters Meet: A Conversation with Maria Dakake,” in Michael Birkel (ed.), The Qur’an in Conversation, Baylor University Press, 2014.

“Hermeneutics and Allegorical Interpretation (Ta’wil)” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Philosophy, Science, and Technology (ed. Ibrahim Kalin), Oxford University Press, 2014.

“A Good Word is as a Good Tree: An Islamic Response to the Interfaith Challenges of Vatican II” in Modern Theology, October 2013.

“Writing and Resistance: The Transmission of Knowledge in Early Shi`ism” in The Study of Shi`i Islam: History Theology, and Law (eds. F. Daftary and G. Miskinzoda), I.B. Tauris, 2013.

“Sacred Land in Qur’an and Hadith and its Symbolic and Eschatological Significance.” Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, v. 10, no. 1, 2011.

“Hierarchies of Knowing in Mulla Sadra’s Commentary on the Usul al-Kafi,” Journal of Islamic Philosophy, vol. 6, 2011.

“Theological Parallels and Metaphysical Meeting Points: Christ, Adam, and the Word in Christianity and Islam” in Muslim and Christian Understanding (eds. Waleed El-Ansary and David Linnan) Palgrave, 2010.

“Human Conjecture and Divine Argument: Faith and Truth in the Qur’anic Story of Abraham” in Crisis, Call and Leadership (eds. Peter Ochs and Stacy Johnson), Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009.

“Religion” in Encyclopedia of the Modern World, (ed. Peter Stearns), Oxford University Press, 2008.

“‘Guest of the Inmost Heart’: Conceptions of the Divine Beloved among Early Sufi Women.” Journal of Comparative Islamic Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007.

“Hiding in Plain Sight: The Doctrinal and Practical Significance of Secrecy in Shi`ite Islam.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, v. 74, no. 2, June 2006.

“The Battle of Siffin” in The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Brill, 2006.

“The Soul as Barzakh: Trans-substantial Motion and Mulla’s Sadra’s Theory of Human Becoming,” The Muslim World, vol. 94, no. 1, January 2004.

“Walking upon the Path of God Like Men?: Women and the Feminine in the Islamic Mystical Tradition,” in Sophia: A Journal of Traditional Studies, v. 8, no. 2, 2002.

“Ghadir Khomm in Shi`ite Literature.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Ahmad Ashraf, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Courses Taught

RELI 211: Religions of the Near East
RELI 272: Islamic Religious Life
RELI 374: Islamic Thought
RELI 375: Qur'an and Hadith
RELI 365: Muhammad: Life and Legacy
RELI 636: Religion and the Natural Environment

Education

PhD in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University (2000)

MA in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University (1998)

BA in Government, Cornell University (1990)