Yaseen Christian Andrewsen

Supervisor:

Afifi al-Akiti

College:

Pembroke

Research Overview:

My research engages with the intellectual production of al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī, a Muslim scholar of West Africa living in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The path of knowledge; its acquisition and practice; and the relationship between acquisition and practice are of primary interest. The West African scholar’s works are given primary focus and considered in light of his context in the broader tradition of Islamic thought and his position in the Sahara and West Africa. Broadly, the project engages with the meaning of al-Mukhtār’s thought and draws on a variety of disciplinary tools in history, philosophy, and sociology. From understanding his thought and its representation of a particular tradition as a paradigm, we can in turn consider the complex relationship and interdependence of practices and principles of knowledge.

Research Area/s: 

Study of Religion, Islamic Studies

About:

I hold a bachelor’s degree in Islamic law and theology (Zaytuna College, 2019) and a master’s degree in religious studies (University of Chicago, 2021).

Academic Interests: 

Conceptions of knowledge; Theories of practice; Relationships between practice and principle; Islamic theology (ʿaqīda); Sufism; Islamic intellectual history; Intellectual history in West Africa.