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The Qur'an: Text, Society & Culture 2011

Key information

Date
to
Time
9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Venue
Brunei Gallery
Room
Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

About this event

Conveners: Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem & Dr Helen Blatherwick

The Seventh Biennial Conference on the Qur’an will be held at SOAS from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 November 2011. Envisaged as having a broad and inter-disciplinary scope, ‘The Qur’an: Text, Society & Culture’ conference aims to bring together papers representing a diverse range of areas and approaches within Qur’anic studies. While the conference will remain committed to the textual study of both the Qur’an itself and the history of the religious, intellectual and artistic activity that developed around it and drew on it, attention will also be given to non-textual cultural, sociological and anthropological studies relating to the Qur’an. Our objective is to stimulate discussion, debate and research on all aspects of Qur'anic studies.

Provisional Programme

Thursday 10 November
Time Event
9.00–9.45 Coffee and registration
9.45–10.00 Opening Address: Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem
10.00–11.15

Panel 1: The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an (Chair: Joseph Lowry)

Andrew Rippin (University of Victoria): ‘The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an and Tafsir: An Overview’
Morteza Karimi-nia (Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation): ‘Contemporary Qur’anic Studies in Iran and its Relationship with Qur’anic Studies in the West’
Mehmet Akif Koc (Ankara University): ‘The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an and Tafsir in Turkey’

11.15–11.35 Break
11.35–1.10

Panel 2: Textual Study of the Qur’an I (Chair: Mustansir Mir)

Mathias Zahniser (Greenville College): ‘The One God and the Final Day in Sura 19: An Exploration into the Method of Semitic Rhetoric’
Todd Lawson (University of Toronto): ‘Frye’s Qur’an’
صلاح الدين زرال، جامعة فرحات عباس سطيف | "الدراسة الدلالية التطبيقية في القرآن مدخلا للتأويل: إيزوتسو نموذجا"
Oliver Leaman (University of Kentucky): ‘The Corpus Coranicum Project: Problems and Possibilities’

1.10–2.15 Lunch
2.15–3.30

Panel 3: Landscapes and Soundscapes of the Qur’an (Chair: Shawkat Toorawa)

Ann Shafer (American University in Cairo): ‘The Qur’an in Space:  Text and Experience in the Contemporary Urban Landscape’
Wendy M.K. Shaw (Universität Bern): ‘Islamic Visuality between the Qur’an and Poststructuralism: Reconceptualising the Boundaries from Religious to Cultural Interpretation’
Bruce Lawrence (Duke University): ‘Rhyme’s Reason:  Performing and Hearing the Qur’an in English’

3.30–4.00 Break
4.00–5.15

Panel 4: The Qur’an and its Exegesis in Non-Arabic Traditions (Chair: François Déroche)

Nuria Martínez-de-Castilla (Universidad Complutense, Madrid): ‘Qur’anic Manuscripts from Late Muslim Spain (XVIth–XVIIth Centuries)’
Peter Riddell (Melbourne School of Theology): ‘Camb. MS Or. Ii.6.45: The Oldest Surviving Commentary on the Qur’an in Southeast Asia’
Anastasia Grib (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg): ‘The Symbolic Repertoire of the Qur’anic Board in West Africa and the Maghreb’

Friday 11 November
Time Event
9.30–10.45

Panel 1: Exegesis I (Chair: Marianna Klar)

Jamal Elias (University of Pennsylvania): ‘Sufi Tafsir and the Qur’an as a Non-linear Text’
Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies): ‘Women’s Testimony and the Re-interpretability of the Qur’an’
Robert Gleave (University of Exeter): ‘The Expendable Qur’an in Modern Shi’i Messianism’

10.45–11.05 Break
11.05–12.45

Panel 2: Exegesis II (Chair: Josef van Ess - tbc)

Walid Saleh (University of Toronto): ‘Al-Maturidi (d. 333/944) and the History of Early Tafsir’
Martin Nguyen (Fairfield University): ‘The Exegetes of Nishapur: A Preliminary Survey of Previously Unexamined Qur’an Commentaries’
Johanna Pink (Freie Universität Berlin): ‘Qur’an Hermeneutics in the Islamic 19th Century: Reform, Reformation, Modernity’
Suleiman A. Mourad (Smith College): ‘What is Mu‘tazila Tafsir? Toward a Definition of a Sub-genre in Qur’anic Exegesis

12.45–2.15 Lunch
2.15–3.55

Panel 3: Exegesis III (Chair: Gavin Picken)

Ulrika Mårtensson (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology): ‘The Qur’an as Sign-enthymeme: Legal-political Implications’
Marianna Klar (SOAS, University of London): ‘Adam and the Fall between History and Tafsir: An Initial Exploration into al-Tabari’s Methodological Strategies’
Gregor Schwarb (Freie Universität Berlin): ‘Mu‘tazilism in a 20th Century Zaydi Qur’an Commentary: ‘Ali b. Muhammad al-‘Ajri’s Miftah al-sa‘ada’
Robert Morrison (Bowdoin College): ‘Natural Theology and the Qur’an’

3.55–4.20 Break
4.20–6.00

Panel 4: Exegesis IV (Chair: Ayman Shihadeh)

Devin Stewart (Emory University): ‘Forgetting Rhyme: Ibn al-Athir’s Criticism of al-Zamakhshari’
Anthony H. Johns (Australian National University): ‘Unveiling the Qur’an: The Contribution of al-Suyuti to Tafsir al-Jalalayn’
Mustansir Mir (Youngstown State University): ‘The Structure of Surat al-Baqara According to Amin Ahsan Islahi’
وليد بن محنوس الزهراني، جامعة الباحة | القراءة الصوفية للنص القرآني: الغزالي نموذجا

Saturday 12 November
Time Event
9.30–11.10

Panel 1: Textual Study of the Qur’an II (Chair: Christopher Melchert)

Ahmed Ragab (Harvard University): ‘Reiteration and Representation: Asbab al-nuzul and the Discursive Formation of the Qur’anic Narrative’
أحمـد بوعـود، الأكاديمية الجهوية للتربية والتكوين تطوان | "الهيرمنوطيقا وعبور الفجوة التاريخية في فهـم النـص القرآني"
Amidu Sanni (Lagos State University): ‘Accuracy and Correctness in the Consonantal Qur’an: Aspects of Oral and Written Renditions in the Context of lahn in Medieval Discourse’
Orhan Elmaz (University of Vienna): ‘Tempting God with a Hapax’

11.10–11.40 Break
11.40–1.20

Panel 2: Textual Study of the Qur’an III (Chair: Muhammad Abdel Haleem)

Sarah bin Tyeer (SOAS, University of London): ‘Moses and the Sorcerers: the Qur’anic Use of the ‘Point of View’ as a Device of Thematic and Stylistic Unity’
نادية الشرقاوي، الرابطة المحمدية للعلماء | "تفسير "يا أخت هارون" على ضوء الدراسات المقارنة في علم الأديان"
محمد عبدالله علي العبيدي، جامعة قطر | "الاتساق التقابلي في القرآن الكريم سورة محمد أنموذجاً"
حسن الشافعي، جامعة القاهرة | القواعد الاعتقادية في القرآن الكريم: سورة المائدة نموذجا

1.20–2.30 Lunch
2.30–3.45

Panel 3: The Qur’an in Literature (Chair: Helen Blatherwick)

Asad Q. Ahmed (Washington University in St Louis & Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton): ‘The Significance of Qur’anic Quotations in the basmala’
Jeffrey Einboden (Northern Illinois University): ‘Moby-Dick and mushaf: The Qur’an Translating American Classics’
Shawkat M. Toorawa (Cornell University): ‘The Modern Literary (After)lives of al-Khidr’

3.45–4.15 Break
4.15–5.05

Panel 4: Law and Ethics (Chair: Abdul-Hakim al-Matroudi)

Sarra Tlili (University of Florida): ‘All Animals are Equal, or Are They? The Ikhwan al-Safa’s Animal Epistle and its Unhappy End’
Dheen Mohamed (College of Shari‘a and Islamic Studies): ‘The Ethical Foundations of Sufi Interpretation of the Qur’an and its Impact on the Interaction between World Religions Today’

5.05–5.20 Closing Address: Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem

Further Information

Please visit this page again for further updates concerning the Conference programme.

No registration is required for this conference and all are welcome to attend.
Venue : SOAS, University of London, Brunei Gallery, Russell Square, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG ( maps, travel and hotel information ).

If you have any enquiries, please contact Dr Helen Blatherwick at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, fax: +44 (0) 20 7898 4379, or by email at quran.conference@soas.ac.uk

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