M. Abdul Fatah Nurani Secures ₹5.5 Crore Fellowship for PhD at New York University

Calicut: M. Abdul Fatah Nurani, a scholar from Kerala and an alumnus of Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya, has been selected for the PhD programme in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, with a fully funded fellowship estimated at ₹5.5 crore.

The prestigious funding package includes the MacCracken Fellowship, the Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship, and the Dean’s Humanities Scholars Program. His doctoral research will explore religious spatialities and moral ecologies of life and death among Malayali Muslims in the Gulf, particularly in the context of climate change and sustainability discourses.

Mr. Nurani has also received PhD offers from several leading global institutions, including the University of Toronto, Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the City University of New York.

Earlier, he secured admission to the Master’s programme in Islamic Studies and Muslim Cultures at Columbia University with a fully funded fellowship.

He completed a rigorous seven-year Bachelor’s programme in Islamic Studies from Jamia Madeenathunnoor, a prominent institution under Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya. He later earned a Master’s degree in Political Science with a gold medal from the University of Hyderabad and is also a recipient of the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

An active academic, he has presented research papers at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Markaz Founder Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and the management of Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya congratulated and appreciated Mr. Nurani for his remarkable achievement.

A native of Kadakkattuppara in Malappuram district, Mr. Nurani is the son of Abdurahman Saqafi and Zainaba.