Aaminah Patel

Programme Lead, Arabic

a.p@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk

Academic Bio

Dr Aaminah Patel is a Teaching Fellow in Arabic at Cambridge Muslim College. She holds a BA in English Literature from UCL and completed her PhD in Islamic Studies from Kings College London. She has over a decade of experience in teaching and studying Arabic and the Islamic sciences; she received her training in Arabic in Jordan and Mauritania, as well as at esteemed institutes in the UK. Her research focuses on the story of Adam in classical Tafsir, exploring how Islamic exegetes reconcile the theological tension between prophetic infallibility and the common narrative of Adam ‘sinning’ or ‘falling from grace.”

Education

  • PhD, King’s College London
  • MA, Islamic Studies, SOAS, University of London
  • BA, English Literature, UCL

Research Interest

  • Prophethood in Islam
  • Sufi themes in Shakespearean tragedy
  • Shi’i and Sunni theological perspectives on infallibility
  • Development of Qur’anic exegesis

Select Publications

“The Metamorphoses of Adam: Prophetic Infallibility in Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Tafsir of Adam’s story” (Forthcoming), in Itinerant Prophets, edited by Mehdi Azaiz et al., De Gruyter (Expected Feb 2025)

Recent & Regularly Taught Courses