Publications

Library of Translations

The Tokat Library of Islamic Classics (Fons Vitae) endeavors to present the timeless writings of the Islamic tradition to contemporary readers in robust and lively English translations. With full awareness of the breadth and creativity of Islam’s literary achievements across languages such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Punjabi, Malay, and Chinese, the Library encompasses works from a wide variety of genres, namely philosophy, mysticism, theology, scriptural commentary, legal theory, science, poetry, history, travel writing, and biography.

Each translation in the Tokat Library of Islamic Classics is of the highest quality and is undertaken by a skilled translator who is also a widely recognized expert in the text’s subject matter, thereby ensuring both readability and scholarly precision.

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General Editor

Mohammed Rustom, Carleton University/Tokat Institute for Advanced Islamic Studies

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Advisory Board

William Chittick, Stony Brook University

Dick Davis, Ohio State University

Jamal Elias, University of Pennsylvania

Ahmet Karamustafa, University of Maryland

James Montgomery, University of Cambridge

Sachiko Murata, Stony Brook University

Wen-chin Ouyang, School of Oriental and African Studies

Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Oxford

Shawkat Toorawa, Yale University

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Our mission

We were founded on a single conviction: that the Islamic intellectual tradition contains ideas the world urgently needs — and that serious engagement with those ideas should not require admission to a university, residence in a particular city, or a private income.

How we began

A room that did not
otherwise exist.

Tokat was established in 2024 by a small group of scholars and readers who shared a frustration: that the most serious work on the Islamic intellectual tradition was locked inside universities, while the public internet offered only its thinnest popularisations.

There was no place where an interested adult — a teacher in Lahore, a doctor in Toronto, a student between degrees — could sit with a scholar of the first rank and read difficult texts slowly, over weeks, with the chance to ask a real question and receive a real answer.

So we built one. The Institute takes its name from Tokat, the Anatolian city whose madrasas were, for centuries, a node in the vast network of learning that bound the Islamic world together. We mean to extend that network, not to replace it.

Our vision

Four things we
hold to.

These are not slogans. They are the standards against which we measure every course, lecture, and decision the Institute makes.

Rigour

University-grade scholarship without the institutional barriers of admission or geography. We do not lower the standard to widen the door.

Access

Merit scholarships reviewed individually, awards of 20–80%. Financial constraint is not a permanent barrier to study here.

Depth

Eight-week live courses with Q&A. Certificates require a capstone paper. We reward commitment, not consumption.

Legacy

Prizes and grants support scholars producing the next generation of serious Islamic scholarship.

Since 2024

Universities

Home institutions of our teaching faculty.

2,400

Students

Enrolled across courses since founding.

62%

On scholarship

Share of students receiving partial funding.

40+

Lectures

Public lectures delivered and archived.

The people behind Tokat

Leadership →

Leadership

Those who run it

The director, faculty council, and staff responsible for the Institute’s academic and operational life.

Meet the team →

Advisory Board

Those who guide it

Senior scholars who advise on curriculum, standards, and the long-term direction of the Institute.

See the board →

Prizes & Grants

Those we support

The scholars and projects the Institute funds to produce the next generation of serious scholarship.

Our programmes →

Join the Institute.

Membership begins free — the lectures, the newsletter, and the scholarship application are open to all.

Become a Member →Our approach

Library of Translations

General Editor

Advisory Board

A room that did nototherwise exist.

Four things wehold to.

The people behind Tokat

Join the Institute.

A room that did not
otherwise exist.

Four things we
hold to.