These two fellowships, established by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, support the research, tuition, fees, and stipends for graduate students at Harvard who are pursuing Islamic studies.

The General Committee on Scholarships at The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences selects qualified graduate students for this fellowship.

Nuri Friedlander is in his first year of graduate studies at Harvard. He received a BA in English and comparative literature as well as an MA in Arabic studies from the American University in Cairo. His master’s thesis was entitled, The Intoxication of the Spirit: An Annotated Translation of Ahmad ibn Ajiba’s Commentary on the Wine Song of ‘Umar ibn al-Farid. He is especially interested in how the study of Islamic law and the way it functions in the contemporary context can help break down the barriers between Western and Islamic civilizations.

In addition to Nuri’s formal education, he spent time at the Abu Nour Institute in Damascus, Syria, studying Arabic, as well as introductory material in the Islamic sciences, including Islamic jurisprudence, theology, Quranic sciences, and Hadith and its sciences. Nuri continued his examination of Islamic jurisprudence, logic, theology, Hadith, and Sufism in Cairo at al-Azhar University.

Nuri has served Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyah as managing director of communications and public relations, as well as international media advisor to the Grand Mufti of Egypt. In 2006 he participated in the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in Copenhagen.

Ulil Abshar Abdalla is from Central Java, Indonesia. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Islamic Law at Al-Aqidah Institute of Islamic Studies (AIIS) in Jakarta. He then completed an MA in religion at Boston University with a thesis entitled, The Prophecy in Islam Revisited: Looking at Islamic Theory of Prophecy through the Lens of Maimonides. In between academic degrees, Ulil served as director of the Freedom Institute in Jakarta and executive director of the Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information (ISAI), an NGO that advocates freedom of expression and free press in Indonesia.

Ulil has played leadership roles in enhancing understanding among Islamic intellectuals and promoting world peace. He co-founded and acted as head of Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islam Network), widely known in Indonesia as JIL, as well as created the Indonesian Centre for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP). Ulil was also involved in establishing and served as executive director of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), a national chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP) based in New York. He is a member of the Society of Interreligious Dialogue (MADIA) in Jakarta. The Asia Foundation recognized Ulil for his contribution to democracy and religious tolerance in Indonesia, and the University of Michigan invited him as a visiting fellow to its Centre for Southeast Asian Studies.

Overall, Ulil is interested in the intellectual history of Islam, with emphasis on the classical era. At Harvard he hopes to focus his doctoral research on Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Islam: A Study of the Concept of "Bid’ah" and Its Utilization in the Sectarian Debates in the Classical Islam.