Talal Asad
E157260
Talal Asad is a prominent anthropologist known for his critical work on secularism, religion, and the formation of the modern secular state, drawing on postcolonial and genealogical approaches.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Talal Asad canonical | 8 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1362024 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Talal Asad Context triple: [Edward Said, hasInfluenced, Talal Asad]
-
A.
Edward Said
Edward Said was a prominent Palestinian-American literary critic, cultural theorist, and public intellectual best known for his foundational work "Orientalism" and his influence on postcolonial studies.
-
B.
Seyla Benhabib
Seyla Benhabib is a prominent contemporary political philosopher known for her work on deliberative democracy, cosmopolitanism, and feminist theory.
-
C.
Stuart H. Pappé
Stuart H. Pappé is a film editor best known for his work on the romantic comedy-drama film "The Preacher's Wife."
-
D.
Alfred W. McCoy
Alfred W. McCoy is an American historian and author known for his influential work on U.S. foreign policy, empire, and the global drug trade.
-
E.
Najeeb Halaby
Najeeb Halaby was an American businessman, lawyer, and former head of the Federal Aviation Administration who was also the father of Queen Noor of Jordan.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Talal Asad Target entity description: Talal Asad is a prominent anthropologist known for his critical work on secularism, religion, and the formation of the modern secular state, drawing on postcolonial and genealogical approaches.
-
A.
Edward Said
Edward Said was a prominent Palestinian-American literary critic, cultural theorist, and public intellectual best known for his foundational work "Orientalism" and his influence on postcolonial studies.
-
B.
Seyla Benhabib
Seyla Benhabib is a prominent contemporary political philosopher known for her work on deliberative democracy, cosmopolitanism, and feminist theory.
-
C.
Stuart H. Pappé
Stuart H. Pappé is a film editor best known for his work on the romantic comedy-drama film "The Preacher's Wife."
-
D.
Alfred W. McCoy
Alfred W. McCoy is an American historian and author known for his influential work on U.S. foreign policy, empire, and the global drug trade.
-
E.
Najeeb Halaby
Najeeb Halaby was an American businessman, lawyer, and former head of the Federal Aviation Administration who was also the father of Queen Noor of Jordan.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic
ⓘ
anthropologist ⓘ person ⓘ scholar of religion ⓘ |
| citizenship |
Saudi Arabia
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
University of Edinburgh
ⓘ
University of Oxford ⓘ |
| employer |
City University of New York
ⓘ
Graduate Center of the City University of New York ⓘ
linked to:
CUNY Graduate Center
|
| field |
Islamic studies
ⓘ
anthropology ⓘ anthropology of religion ⓘ political anthropology ⓘ postcolonial studies ⓘ secularism studies ⓘ |
| influenced |
anthropology of Islam
ⓘ
critical secularism studies ⓘ political theology debates ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Michel Foucault
ⓘ
critical theory ⓘ postcolonial theory ⓘ |
| knownFor |
analysis of the modern secular state
ⓘ
critical work on religion ⓘ critical work on secularism ⓘ genealogical approach to secularism ⓘ postcolonial critique of anthropology ⓘ theory of discursive tradition in Islam ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| notableConcept | discursive tradition ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter
ⓘ
Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity ⓘ Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam ⓘ On Suicide Bombing ⓘ Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative Reason ⓘ |
| occupation |
professor
ⓘ
researcher ⓘ writer ⓘ |
| positionHeld | Distinguished Professor of Anthropology ⓘ |
| researchInterest |
Islam
ⓘ
colonialism ⓘ modern state ⓘ power and discipline ⓘ religion ⓘ secularism ⓘ violence ⓘ |
| theoreticalApproach |
genealogical method
ⓘ
historical anthropology ⓘ postcolonial critique ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Talal Asad Description of subject: Talal Asad is a prominent anthropologist known for his critical work on secularism, religion, and the formation of the modern secular state, drawing on postcolonial and genealogical approaches.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.