DR. ALAN GODLAS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, where he also is the Undergraduate Coordinator. In addition, he is the Director of the UGA-Morocco Maymester program. At UGA he teaches Islamic Studies and Arabic courses as well as a course in Western Religions. Dr. Godlas is on the steering committee for the UGA Center for Asian Studies, and he is also a member of the Linguistics faculty, the Medieval Studies Program, and the African Studies Program.

He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991, under the supervision of Prof. Hamid Algar. Dr. Godlas studied for a number of years in the Islamic world, studying Persian literature at the University of Tehran from 1974-1976, advanced Arabic as a fellow at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) in Cairo in 1983-84, and advanced Turkish as a fellow at Bosporus University in I984. He has taught at the University of Georgia since 1991.

Dr. Godlas has conducted extensive research in manuscript libraries in Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey. His areas of research include Quranic commentary (tafsir), hadith, Islamic mysticism (also known as Sufism) and consciousness transformation, and the relationship between Islam, modernism, and postmodernism. The Islamic texts that he studies are primarily in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. A final area of his research is the development of a disciplinary framework for the study of Religion.

His professional experience includes being on the editorial board of the journal, Sufi Illuminations, and being a member of the steering committee of the Study of Mysticism and Study of Islam sections of the American Academy of Religion. Dr. Godlas was granted a National Endowment to the Humanities fellowship for the study of mysticism with Professor Huston Smith in 1993. Most recently (in the Summer of 1997), Dr. Godlas received a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship for study in Uzbekistan.

Recent Publications: Editor of Remembrance: Proceedings of the First Annual International Milad an-Nabi Conference. Chicago: 1995. This can be ordered from Dr. A. Mirza at NFIE. ғHadith and the Qudsiya of Khwajah Muhammad Parsa, in Remembrance.Chicago: 1995, 50-73. ԓThe Naqshbandi Lineage of Shaykh Masum Naqshbandi (al-Kurdi),Ҕ in Remembrance. Chicago: 1995, 91-96. Psychology and Self-Transformation in the (Arabic) Sufi QurӒan Commentary of Ruzbihan al-Baqli(AraҒis al-bayan),“Sufi Illuminations, 1(1996) 31-62. This new journal can be ordered from Dr. A. Mirza at NFIE. A Commentary on ӑWhat is Tasawwuf?-An Anonymous Persian Poem,Ҕ Sufi Illuminations, 1(1996) 63-80. RifaӒiya, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. by John Esposito (New York: Oxford, 1995) 437-439. ԓNimatallahiya,Ҕ in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. by John Esposito, (New York: Oxford, 1995) 252-53. In addition, Dr. Godlas is currently studying, translating, and editing Ruzbihan al-Baqlis QurҒanic commentary, Araђis al-bayan (The Brides of the Quran). His contract with his publisher calls for him to finish the translation by January 1, 2004.

http://www.uga.edu/islam