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What Can a Spiritualist Periodical Tell Us about Islam? Archive, Historical Method, and the Unseen in Modern Egypt

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Historian Arthur Zárate explores ʿAlam al-Ruh (The World of the Spirit), a little-studied Egyptian periodical that reveals how Islam intersected with mid-twentieth-century debates over spirits, jinn, miraculous healing, science, and the unseen. Drawing on this remarkable source held at the Penn Libraries, Zárate considers how encounters with the unseen—and the ways people determined their authenticity—changed over time.

Registration is required. There are 39 in-person seats available. There are 99 online seats available.

Registration Type

Date:
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Time:
5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location:
Class of '55 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
Audiences:
Open to All
Campus:
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

Event Organizer

Zilberman Center