Yesmine Karray

PhD candidate

Yesmine Karray is Temporary Teaching and Research Fellow (ATER) in Arabic Studies at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon and a doctoral candidate in philosophy and Arabic studies within the Triangle research laboratory (UMR 5206 CNRS).

Her thesis, supervised by Makram Abbès, focuses on “Political Metaphors in al-Ġazālī: A Contribution to the Study of the Relations between Mysticism, Morality and Politics”. A normalienne graduate of the ENS Ulm (philosophy, with a minor in creative writing), she holds a master’s degree in religious studies and society from the EPHE (on female trance in the Shādhiliyya order in contemporary Tunisia, supervised by Séverine Mathieu) and a master’s degree in contemporary philosophy from the EHESS (on the political dimension of Muslim mysticism, supervised by Bruno Karsenti).

Her research articulates medieval Islamic philosophy, Muslim mysticism and political theology. She has notably published “Sens gustatif: une approche comparée de l’épistémologie mystique d’al-Ghazâlī et de l’art contemporain” in Tisser le social, tisser les savoi-arts (ENS de Lyon, 2022), and a forthcoming chapter on “May Ziadé (1886-1941): Philosopher in the Salon” in the collective volume Philosophes au Féminin.

At the ENS de Lyon, she teaches several lecture courses in the Arabic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies master’s programmes, including “Introduction to Arabic Philosophy: The Elusive Ghazali”, “The Problem of Secularisation in Islam”, “Schools of Thought and Legal Doctrines in Islam”, and “Wars and Violences in the Middle East”. She is co-representative of the doctoral students’ association Diwan (history of medieval and modern Muslim worlds) at the Young Researchers’ Bureau of the GIS-MOMM.

At the Pluriel Congress in Cordoba in February 2026, she delivered a paper entitled: “Beyond the lawfulness of ecstasy: samāʿ poetry as an aesthetic and cognitive experience in al-Ġazālī”.

Disciplines

Islam Studies Philosophy

Thématiques

Ethics

Resources related toPhilosophy

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Spiritual eroticism and erotic spirituality in Sufi mystical thought

Paper presented at the 5th international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Isla...

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Defining the beautiful in Islam: between submission to and transgression of ethical norms

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The gnostic constitution of aesthetic values in Ibn ʿArabī

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Art in the face of authoritarian discourse: the contribution of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

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Beyond the licitness of ecstasy: the poetry of samāʿ as an aesthetic and cognitive experience in al-Ghazālī

Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...

videos

Ghaḍḍ al-baṣar as the paradigm of an Islamic aesthetics: interpretations and perspectives

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Ethics and aesthetics in the thought of Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī (d. 414/1023)

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Annihilation in beauty, subsistence in ethics: the unity of unveiling and ethics in Ibn ʿArabī