Ayatollah Amini Award for Academic Excellence

The Al-Mahdi Institute awarded Andrew Newman the Ayatollah Amini Award for Academic Excellence in honour of his ‘outstanding contribution towards the study of Islam and Persian history’. His publications; ‘The Formative Period of Shi'i Law: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad’ and ‘Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire’ ‘have not only been inspirational but are also used as core texts in many Islamic educational centres around the world, including Al-Mahdi Institute.’ For this, he was thanked for his ‘commendable efforts, work and contributions in further developing Islamic studies within western academia’.