The Diyanet Islamic Research Institute is an academic research and education center that seeks to foster informed conversation and exchange of knowledge about Islam and Muslim societies.
An initiative of the Diyanet Center of America in Lanham, Maryland, the Diyanet Institute develops research projects, supports scholars, and establishes educational initiatives. It collaborates with academic, intellectual, and civic partners to serve American and global Muslim communities.
The Institute places special emphasis on the academic study of major problems and debates in classical Islamic sciences, especially their evolution in response to modern challenges. In doing this, the institute emphasizes proficiency in languages of Islam, including but not limited to Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Urdu, Turkish, Persian, and Malay.
In the same spirit, the Diyanet Islamic Research Institute focuses on lived religion and Islam’s place in modern societies, with particular attention to non-Muslim majority contexts. To this end, the Institute aims to put classical Islamic sciences in conversation with all branches of social sciences and humanities.
The Institute seeks to bring to the public attention Islam’s multiple colors and manifestations in arts, architecture, historical narrative, and intellectual and political thought. To this end, the institute engages academic and non-academic audiences through a vast array of activities, including small-scale workshops, large-scale conferences, and directed study groups. The Institute utilizes partner academic exchange venues to further its mission and to broaden the research agenda on Islam and Islamic studies.
In order to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas and research agendas across multiple disciplines, the Diyanet Islamic Research Institute offers grants and in-residence research fellowships to academics and promising graduate students whose work relate, in the broader sense, to improving mutual understanding and careful scholarship on the relationship between Islam and other faith traditions.
In cooperation with Diyanet Center of America, the institute hosts scholars and religious service members from Muslim majority countries in order to them to the wider religious landscape and debates on religion in the United States.