Ta’wil and the Unfolding of Meaning in the Qur’an – The Islamic College

Maria Massi Dakake is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She currently serves as director of the MA program in Middle East and Islamic Studies and of the undergraduate Islamic Studies program at GMU. She holds an MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, and her research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Templeton Foundation, among others. Her publications lie in the field of Islamic intellectual history, with a particular interest in Qur’anic studies, Shii and Sufi traditions, and women’s religious experiences. She is associate editor and co-author of The Study Qur’an (HarperOne, 2015); co-editor of the Routledge Companion to the Qur’an (2021); and author of The Charismatic Community: Shi‘ite Identity in Early Islam (SUNY Press, 2008). Her current work includes a forthcoming monograph, Toward an Islamic Theory of Religion, and a study of the Persian Qur’an commentary by Nusrat Amin.