Karjoo-Ravary, Ali

Richard W. Bulliet Assistant Professor of Islamic History

Office Hours

Fall 2025: Tuesdays, 10:10 am - 12:00 pm

 

Ali Karjoo-Ravary works on the intellectual, social, and material history of Islam in Arabic, Persian, and Turkic language sources. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and is currently working on his book project, The Alchemy of Kingship: Politics and Cosmology in Medieval Islam. His other work looks at visual representation and iconography in medieval Sufism, the interplay between Sufism and economic history, science fiction and religion, and the relationship between architecture, print culture, and intellectual history in the broader Muslim world. Karjoo-Ravary’s research has been featured in a number of scholarly and popular venues, including bylines in Slate and AlJazeera English, as well as interviews with the BBC and CBC. He is also involved in the digital humanities, including his project, Mapping the Unseen.

 

Publications

“Imaging the Cosmos: Adapting Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Cosmographical Diagrams to Digital Media,” Journal of Digital Islamicate Research Vol 3, Issue 1 (2025)

"Mapping the Unseen: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Maps in al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya,” in Journal of Sufi Studies, 12.1 (2023).

“Mirrors in the Dream of the Alone: A Glimpse at the Poetry of Bīdil,” in Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation: Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, ed. Mohammed Rustom (Brill 2023).

“Illustrating the Forms: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Images in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya” in Visualizing Sufism: Studies on Graphic Representations in Sufi Literature (13th to 16th Century), ed. Giovanni Maria Martini  (Brill 2023).

“Adorning the King of Islam: Weaving and Unraveling History in Astarabadi’s Feasting and Fighting,” in MAVCOR Journal 6, no. 2 (2022).

“From the Remainder of Adam’s Clay: Chapter Eight of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya” in Journal of Sufi Studies, 10.1-2 (2021).

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2018

M.A., University of Pennsylvania , 2016

B.A., SUNY Stony Brook, 2011

 

Experience

Fellowships:

  • Bard Graduate Center, Visiting Fellow, Fall 2020

  • Wolf Humanities Center, Graduate Research Fellow, 2016-2017

 

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