After eight years of planning, the University of Toledo has established an endowed chair of Islamic studies named in honor of a cleric who led the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo for many years.
The university, which established an endowed chair of Catholic studies in 2000, has appointed Mashhad Al-Allaf, a professor of philosophy and Islamic studies, to the Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies.
The position will be based in the school’s department of philosophy in the college of arts and sciences.
A UT steering committee, which initiated the creation of an Islamic studies professorship, decided to name the million-dollar endowment in honor of the late Imam Abdelmoneim Mahmoud Khattab, who led the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo from 1980 to 1998.
“This is a very exciting time for us at the university,” said Sue Ott Rowlands, interim dean of the college of arts and sciences.
“We have been working for many years to create a program that would add to the religious and cultural enrichment of the school and the city,” she said.
Ms. Rowlands said the creation of the endowment, which was approved by the school’s board of trustees in 1998, was contingent on UT’s ability to raise $1 million for the endowment before a professor could be appointed to the position.
The school has been collecting donations and grants since, said Saleh Jabarin, a professor of chemical engineering and director of UT’s Polymer Institute who served as chairman of the steering committee that established the endowment.
He said that in 2001, when the endowment was named for the late Imam Khattab, the steering committee had raised about $300,000, and it reached the $1 million mark early this year. That’s when a search committee was put in place to fill the position.
Mr. Jabarin said the objective of the professorship is to create a program that not only encompasses all areas of Islam but delves into aspects of Middle Eastern culture, language, religion, philosophy, and history.
The Islamic studies endowment will complement the Catholic studies chair, Mr. Jabarin said, “creating what we hope will be a center of religious understanding at the university.”
Mr. Al-Allaf, 49, who was officially received by the university community at a reception held in the Driscoll Center on Tuesday, told his colleagues that “the task of building the Islamic studies curriculum is very essential to our university and our community in this specific era.”
A naturalized American, Mr. Al-Allaf was born and reared in Nineveh, a city that sits between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in northern Iraq. He received his bachelor’s and masters’ degrees in philosophy from the University of Baghdad, and his doctorate in philosophy concentrating in modern philosophy, science, and metaphysics from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
“He was the best man for the job,” said Dr. Mohammed Ahmed, a trauma surgeon at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, who was on the search committee that selected Mr. Al-Allaf.
“I was impressed by his research, his teaching style, his openness, and willingness to freely accept criticism and answer questions with honesty,” said Dr. Ahmed, noting that Mr. Al-Allaf was selected after the committee interviewed four finalists following an international search.
Mr. Al-Allaf, who has taught a variety of courses in philosophy and Islamic studies at Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis University, was most recently an assistant professor of philosophy at Webster University, also in Missouri.
He is the author of several books, including The Essential Ideas of Islamic Philosophy (2006).
He was a co-author of the forthcoming Islamic Biomedical Ethics: A Multicultural Approach and Islamic Philosophy of Science and Logic.
Now on a tenure track at UT, Mr. Al-Allaf, who will be paid $62,000 a year, started teaching on Aug. 14 and is offering two classes this fall: Introduction to the Qur’an and Special Topics in Islam.
In the spring, he will teach two classes: Islamic Philosophy and World Religion.
“I am very delighted to be here. This is an interesting time to teach philosophy and Islamic studies,” Mr. Al-Allaf said.
“It is a wonderful time to interact with students and people in the community to test the ethical and aesthetic values of our cultures and religions like Islam.”
Contact Karamagi Rujumba at: krujumba@theblade.com or 419-724-6064.
