2025 Juynboll Lecture by Ahmed El Shamsy | Wednesday November 12, 17:00 hrs

On Wednesday November 12 at 5 pm Ahmed El Shamsy (University of Chicago) will give the 2025 Juynboll lecture entitled “Sunni constitutional theory in light of an early hadith about obedience.”  The lecture takes place at Leiden University in Lipsius 005.

In this lecture El Shamsy shows that the claim that Sunnism is politically quietist, is an oversimplification. Using a widely circulating, but overlooked, hadith he shows that early Sunnis saw acquiescence to political authority as conditional. He will trace how the hadith spread and its integration in Umayyad and Abbasid political rhetoric.

The lecture is freely accessible and will be followed by a drinks’ reception. Everyone is welcome!

To read more about the lecture and to sign up, please visit: Sunni constitutional theory in light of an early hadith about obedience – Leiden University

The Juynboll lecture commemorates the scholar Gautier Juynboll (1935-2010) and his work on early Islamic history and hadith scholarship. It is generously funded by the Juynboll foundation.