Dr. Alexandre Caeiro

Program Director and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies

Email

acaeiro@hbku.edu.qa

Phone

+974 44540337

Office location

C.01.026

Dr. Alexandre Caeiro

Program Director and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Religious Studies (Cum Laude)

MA in Sociology (Diploma in Advanced Studies; with Honors)

Entity

College of Islamic Studies

Program

Master of Arts in Contemporary Islamic Studies

Division

Islamic Studies

Biography

Dr. Alexandre Caeiro is an Associate Professor at CIS. He was trained in sociology and in Islamic studies in France, the Netherlands, and Egypt. His research deals broadly with the transformations of Islamic law in modern contexts. He is currently working on the legal history of Gulf sheikhdoms, focusing on the interaction between emirs, shari’a judges, merchants, and British agents in the context of the development of an oil economy and modern state institutions.

 

PhD in Religious Studies (Cum Laude)

Utrecht University

2011

MA in Sociology (Diploma in Advanced Studies; with Honors)

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris

2002

BA in Economics and Sociology (Two Subject Moderatorship; with Honors)

Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin

2001

  • Modern history of Islamic law
  • Law and society in the Gulf
  • Religious authority and media technology
  • Muslim minorities in the West
  • Islamic family law

Program Director of MA and Graduate Certificate of Islamic Studies

College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2023 – Present

Associate Professor of Islamic Studies

College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2019 – Present

Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies

College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2012 – 2019

Research Fellow

Erlangen Centre for Islam & Law in Europe (EZIRE), Friedrich–Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen–Nürnberg, Germany

2009 – 2012

Junior Research Fellow

International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), University of Leiden

2004 – 2008

Junior Research Fellow

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France

2003 – 2004

Caeiro, A. (2025). The appeal of religious law: Jurisdictional politics and modern state formation in the Gulf sheikhdoms, ca. 1950–2000. Law and History Review, 1–25. 

Caeiro, A. (2024). The legal politics of Islamic bioethics: Drunk driving and the reconfiguration of privacy in the modern Gulf. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 1–19. 

Caeiro, A. (2024). Islamic law, oil wealth, and the modern state in the Gulf: The scope of the sharia in twentieth-century Qatar. Die Welt des Islams, 65(2–3). 214–249. 

Caeiro, A. (2022). The Islamic law of pearling: Ritual obligation and economic practice in the Arabian Gulf, ca. 1910–1940. Islamic Law and Society, 29(4). 457–494. 

Caeiro, A. (2019). Secular governance and Islamic law: The globalization of the minority question. Sociology of Islam, 7(4): 323–343. 

Complete Publication Listing(s): Academia
 

  • Visiting Fellow, Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, Harvard Law School (Spring 2022).
  • Visiting Research Fellow, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (BGSMCS), Freie Universität, Berlin (Summer 2012)
  • QNRF-OSRA Grant for Project “An empirical study of the marriage and divorce experiences of women in Qatar” (49,560 US$) (with Dr. Rajnaara Akhtar) (2020-2024)
  • QNRF-CWSP Grant for Workshop on “Science Education in the Muslim World: The Gulf in Comparative Perspective” (25,000 US$) (organized in collaboration with the McGill Center for Islam and Science) (2017)