Draft:Nayla Tabbara

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Nayla Tabbara

Nayla Tabbara (Arabic: نايلا طبارة; born February 21, 1972) is a Lebanese Muslim theologian, author, and university professor in religious and Islamic studies, as well as a co-founder and the president of Adyan Foundation. She is best known for her work on curricula development (formal and non-formal) for multifaith education and inclusive citizenship. She has received the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2022 for her personal work and for Adyan Foundation, the Gold Medal of the French Renaissance Award, the Special Jury Award of the Father Jacques Hamel Award in 2019, and the Prix Écritures & Spiritualités for her book L’islam pensé par une femme.

Tabbara has participated in numerous research projects and organizations including the following: She was a speaker at the Holy See's conference on the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate; a research coordinator of the reflection group "L’Arche and Islam" (L’Arche Internationale and Adyan); a member of the International Federation of Catholic Universities research group on religions and cultures, focusing on the topic, "Conflicts Related to Religious and Cultural Diversity"; and a researcher on a UNESCO Lebanese-Russian project on youth and intercultural and interfaith dialogue. Tabbara also gives frequent interviews for numerous international media outlets, both print, and television.

Among her works are the books L’islam pensé par une femme, which has received three awards, and Divine Hospitality co-written with Fadi Daou and published in five languages (Arabic, French, English, German, and Italian). She has also edited several books and manuals within Adyan, among others Islamic Social Responsibility for Citizenship and Living Together, A Companion for Higher Islamic Learning (2021), What About the Other? A Question for Intercultural Education in the 21st Century (2012), and The trainer’s guide for Active and Inclusive Citizenship (2017). She has also co-edited with Dimitri Spivak the UNESCO publication Christianity and Islam in the Context of Contemporary Culture (2009).

Tabbara's areas of expertise include Quranic exegesis, Sufism, interfaith dialogue, Muslim feminism, world religions, and cross-cultural education.

Early life and education

Nayla Tabbara was born in Beirut in 1972. She was three years old when the Lebanese Civil War broke out. Her parents lived in a religiously mixed area of western Beirut. Although Muslim, she and her siblings went to the Catholic school Carmel Saint Joseph. She attended high school at Collège Protestant Français. This background paved the way for her mission towards promoting interfaith dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

Tabbara got a first bachelor's degree in history in 1994 from the American University of Beirut, where she studied with Tarif Khalidi and Kamal Salibi. She got a second Bachelor's degree in ancient and medieval history in 1997 from Saint Joseph University, where she completed her master's and diplôme d'études approfondies in medieval history, focusing on "The Role of Women in Transmitting Religious Knowledge in Islam in the Middle Ages". Her research has shown that women played a much bigger role than one would expect in the transmission of Islamic knowledge in the Middle Ages, and that many of them were teachers of the most famous Islamic scholars. Yet few of them, after the initial phase, played a role in the production of religious knowledge.

During her post graduate studies she started engaging in dialogue between religions at the invitation of her professor in medieval history, Fr. Louis Boisset, who was in charge of the Institute of Muslim-Christian Studies at the Université Saint Joseph. Following that, she received a scholarship from the Pontifical council for Dialogue between Religions to study Catholic theology at Pontifical Universities for a semester in 2001, and she took courses at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Gregoriana), the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and the Pontifico Istituto Orientale. That semester proved later to be a turning point in her life.

Tabbara earned her doctorate degree in science of religion, in 2007, from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and Saint Joseph University.

Work and Career

• Lecturer, 2004–present, Saint-Joseph University, Lebanon, Faculty of Science of Religions, Institute of Islamo-Christian Studies (IEIC), Superior Institute of Religious Sciences (ISSR), and Institute of Oriental Languages
• Teacher of world religions for children (ages 7–11), 2005–2008, Collège Protestant Français, Lebanon
• Invited professor, 2006, University of Montréal, Canada
• Trainer in interreligious dialogue - Permanent formation to dialogue, 2005–present
• Advisor of theses (MA and Ph.D.), 2008–present, Saint-Joseph University
• Coordinator of programs in science of religion, 2007–2009, Saint-Joseph University
• Director of Alwan department, for education on diversity, coexistence, and citizenship in Lebanese schools, 2008–2011, Adyan Foundation
• Lecturer, 2011, Near East School of Theology
• Director of Cross-Cultural Studies Department, 2011–2019, Adyan Foundation
• President of Adyan Foundation (2020–present)
• Co-president of Religions for Peace

Honorary office and memberships

• Researcher, International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), 2007–2011
• Member of Adyan Foundation, 2006–present
• Member and researcher at the Groupe de Recherches Islamo-Chrétien (GRIC), 2005–2010
• Researcher, UNESCO chair of the comparative study of religions, mediation, and dialogue, 2008–2011
• Member of the Consultative Committee of the Faculty of Humanities, Beirut Arab University, 2013–2014

Adyan Foundation

In 2006, alongside Fadi Daou, Samah Halwany, Mireille Matar and Tony Sawma, she founded Adyan Foundation, a Lebanese civil society organization that works for pluralism, inclusive citizenship, freedom of religion and belief, religious social responsibility, spiritual solidarity and education on diversity.

Her experience in Rome, studying at pontifical universities, learning in depth about the Christian faith and sharing spiritual experiences with her Christian classmates, had in fact convinced her that she needed to dedicate her life to building bridges and creating mutual understanding.

Within Adyan, she took on school projects related to education on diversity, then directed the Cross-Cultural Studies Department within the organization, and finally oversaw the Institute of Citizenship and Diversity Management. In 2019, she stepped down from Management and got elected in 2020 as Adyan’s president.

Publications

• Tabbara, Nayla (2008). La Parole de Dieu dans l’exégèse coranique : Du particulier à l’universel [The word of God in Qur’anic exegesis: From the particular to the universal]. In F. Daou (ed.), Ecritures et traditions, diversité des lectures (pp. 107 - 122). Beirut: ISSR - USJ.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2008). Ma’rifatu Allah fil Islâm [Knowing God in Islam]. Dialogue of Truth for Life together, 2, 13-37.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2008). Knowing God in Islam through His Names. Dialogue of Truth for life together, 2, 15-42.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2008). Demeures, Nafs, Chakras : Comparaisons entre expériences mystiques Chrétienne, Musulmane et Védique [Comparisons between mystical experiences in Islam, Christianity and Vedic traditions]. L’Orient des Dieux, VII-IX, 91-106
• Tabbara, Nayla (2008). Chrétiens et musulmans au Proche-Orient arabe: Quelle rencontre? [Christians and Muslims in the Arab near-east: What encounter?]. Proche Orient Chrétien, 58, 95-121.
• Spivak, Dimitri; Tabbara, Nayla, eds. (2009). Christianity and Islam in the context of contemporary culture: perspectives of interfaith dialogue from Russia and the Middle East. St. Petersburg: Eidos. ISBN 5-88607-032-X.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2011). Le dialogue comme voie de renouveau en theologie musulmane [Dialogue as a track for renewal in muslim theology]. Sur le chemin de l'autre: éduquer au dialogue interreligieux en méditerranée [On the path of the other: educating on interreligious dialogue in the mediterranean region] (pp. 175-187). Marseille: Chemins de Dialogue.
• Daou, Fadi; Tabbara, Nayla (2017). Divine Hospitality: A Christian-Muslim conversation. Translated by Amos, Alan J. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications. ISBN 978-2-8254-1692-1.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2012). (Al-tarbiya ala al-ta'adudiya al-diniya) [Education on religious diversity]. In Daou F. (ed.), (Al-tarbiya ala al-ayich al mushtaraq fi zul muwatana hadina lil tanawu' al-dini) [Education on coexistence in the framework of intercultural citizenship] (pp. 76-93). Lebanon: ADYAN and Saint Paul Publications.
• Tabbara, Nayla, ed. (2012). What About The Other? A question for cross-cultural education in the 21st century. NDU/Adyan. ISBN 978-9953-558-27-1. OCLC 1136106415.
• Tabbara, Nayla (2018). L’islam pensé par une femme (in French). Paris: Bayard. ISBN 9782227493858.

Awards and achievements

• (2001): Recipient of the scholarship for theological studies in Rome from the Pontifical Council for the Dialogue between Religions
• (2007): Recipient of the scholarship for the summer academy of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study
• (2008): Berytech Incubation Award (received for Adyan Foundation for the best project for e-courses and teaching and training resources on religious issues)
• (2011): Niwano Peace Prize (for Adyan Foundation) received by "Wahdatouna Khalasouna"
• (2019): Recipient of the Academie des Sciences d’Outre mer award for the book L’islam pensé par une femme (France)
• (2019): Fr. Jacques Hamel Prize for the book L’islam pensé par une femme (France)
• (2019): Gold Medal of the French Renaissance Award
• (2019): Recipient of the (Ecritures et Spritualites) award for the book L’islam pensé par une femme (France)
• (2022): Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought, together with Adyan Foundation

References

Category:21st-century Muslim theologians

Category:People from Beirut