Khoja Heritage Festival

O my son, even though I have not reached the age which those before me have, yet I looked into their behaviour and pondered upon the events of their lives. (Nahj al-balagha, Letter no. 31)

This conference is intended as a community conference in the collaboration among the Khoja Heritage Project of The World Federation of KSIMC and The Council of European Jamaats. Its focus is to stimulate a rigorous discourse pertaining to the adventurous past, affluent present and challenging future of the Khoja Shia Ithna Asheri Muslim Communities.

The intriguing saga of the Khoja Community is skillfully interwoven by the elements of spirituality and cultural identity. The Community embraced the maddhab of Ahlulbayt (as) in its quest for the true path (Satpanth) and retained the cultural identity to celebrate its distinctive heritage eventually adjusting within the larger Shia Muslim Community. History serves as a model of who we are and what we are to be. We learn from our past in order to plan our future. History does not necessarily confine to narrate the ‘event occurred’ rather it invites the reader to relate to the ‘event lived’. It is deliberating on this method of reading history and its impact on the Khoja Community that this conference is primarily concerned.

The organisers of the conference are pleased to invite paper proposals on one of the areas concerning the community’s past, present and future. The conference is part of a larger endeavour aimed at fostering the appreciation of the heritage of the community. The conference is a part of Khoja Heritage Festival to be held at Al Zahra Centre in Watford on 06 & 07 April 2019.

If you would like to submit a research paper for presentation at the Khoja Heritage Festival event, please submit an abstract (not exceeding 200 words) of the research paper to secretariat@coej.org. The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is Monday 14 January 2019 and the successful applicants will be notified by 21 January 2019 and thereafter, invited to present their research for the conference.