Beacon of Knowledge Conference in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Abstract

Beacon of Knowledge: Conference in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr was
held November 2-3, 2001 at the George Washington University, Washington,
DC. The conference featured eight panels, thirty-six speakers, an
exhibit of caJiigraphy and paintings, poetry recitation, and a concert of classical
Persian music. The conference drew a crowd of around two hundred
people.
The Beacon of Knowledge conference was convened to honor Professor
Seyyed Hossein Nasr and his contributions to the field oflslamic and Iranian
studies, perennial philosophy, and the relations between Islam and the West.
In his opening remarks, Stephen J. Trachtenberg, president of the George
Washington University, underlined the importance of the scholarly career of
Dr. Nasr in bridging the gaps between the sciences and humanities on the
one hand, and Islam and the West, on the other. He also noted that the
approach Dr. Nasr advocates in the fields of culture and civilization has
gained further importance in the wake of the September 11th attacks on
America.
The keynote speech was delivered by Keith Critchlow of the Visual
Islamic and Traditional Arts Department (VITA) of the Prince of Wales'
Foundation, London, UK. As an old friend and colleague of Dr. Nasr,
Critchlow emphasized Dr. Nasr's contributions to the revival of the study of
traditional arts and the establishment of the VITA while at the same time
providing insights into the personal friendship between him and Dr. Nasr
over the last thirty years . Dr. Critchlow also made a wonderful presentation
of the activities of VITA with slides and showed some remarkable examples
of the works of the students studying at VITA.
The first panel of the conference was devoted to the personal testimonies
of some friends and students of Dr. Nasr. N. Assar; S. Nemitz; P.
Felsenthal; A. al-Hibri; D. Burrell; and M. Shirazi talked about their friendships
with Dr. Nasr, some of which go back to the 1940s and 1950s (before ...