The Qur'an: Text, Society & Culture, 2013

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

The Eighth SOAS Conference on the Qur’an was held from Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 November 2013. A downloadable PDF of the programme is accessible via the link to the right.

The Qur'an conference series seeks to provide a forum for investigating the basic question: how is the Qur’anic text read and interpreted? Our objective is to encompass a global vision of current research trends, and to stimulate discussion, debate and research on all aspects of the Qur’anic text and its interpretation and translation.

Group Photo - SOAS Qur'an Conference 2013

Selected papers will be published as articles in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies, subject to standard outside refereeing.

The primary conference language is English, but papers were presented in English and Arabic.

‘The Qur'an: Text, Society & Culture' Conference

Thursday 7 November

Opening Address Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem (SOAS, University of London)

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Opening Address and Welcome - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 1:  Exegesis I (chair: Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

• WALID SALEH (University of Toronto), ‘Dualism, Logic and the Theology of Q. 21:22’
• ELLIOTT BAZZANO (Le Moyne College), ‘Assessing Ibn Taymiyya’s Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Ibn al-‘Arabi and the Faith of Pharaoh’
• TEHSEEN THAVER (Lehigh University), ‘Wrestling with Ambiguity: Mu‘tazili and Twelver Shi‘i Exegetical Approaches to Ayat Mutashabihat’

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Panel 1: Exegesis I - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 2: Translation (chair: Professor Abdel Haleem, SOAS, University of London)

• KRISTIAN PETERSEN (Gustavus Adolphus College), ‘The First Chinese Qur’an: Exegesis through Translation’
  ما جان مينغ (كلية الدراسات العربية بجامعة نينغشيا)، "جهود علماء الصين في بيان معاني القرآن باللغة الصينية"
• NORA S. EGGEN (University of Oslo), ‘Universalised versus Particularised Conceptualisations of Islam in Translations of the Qur’an in Scandinavia’

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Panel 2: Translation - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 3: Ethics IA, HOW sponsored panel (chair: tbc, SOAS, University of London)**

• OVAMIR ANJUM (University of Toledo), ‘The Concept of Power in the Qur’an’
• BADR SHAFIE (Cairo University), ‘The Ethic of Reform in the Qur’an and its Political Consequences: A Case Study of the Reform Experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’

Panel 4: The Qur’an in Art and Literature (chair: Joseph Lowry, University of Pennsylvania)

• OLIVER LEAMAN (University of Kentucky), ‘Modern Islamic Art and the “Qur’an-Washing” Issue’
• SHAWKAT M. TOORAWA (Cornell University), ‘Kaf Ha’ Ya’ ‘Ayn Sad:  Modern Arabic Literature and the “Meaning” of the Muqatta‘at’

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Panel 4: The Qur’an in Art and Literature - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 5: The Material Text (chair: Shawkat Toorawa, Cornell University)

• YASIN DUTTON (University of Cape Town), ‘A “Hijazi” Fragment of the Qur’an and its Variants, or When did the Shawadhdh become Shadhdh?
• IGNACIO SÁNCHEZ (Humboldt University, Berlin), ‘Reading for the Dead: The Uses of Waqf Qur’ans in Medieval Islam’

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Panel 5: The Material Text - Qur'an Conference 2013

Friday 8 November

Panel  6: Text, Style and Theme (chair: Abdul Hakim al-Matroudi, SOAS, University of London)

• الهواري بلقندوز (جامعة د. مولاي الطاهر بسعيدة)، تداولية الفصل والوصل في الخطاب القرآني مقاربة لسانية نصية
• محمد سالم سالم العوضي (جامعة السلطان الشريف علي الإسلامية)، الفرائد القرآنية: دراسة في الإعجاز اللغوي والبياني (فرائد الأسماء أنموذجاً)
• DEVIN J. STEWART (Emory University), A Re-Appraisal of D.H. Müller’s and Rudolf Geyer’s Work on Strophes in Qur’anic Prosody

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Panel 6: Text, Style and Theme - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel  7: Exegesis II (chair: Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter)

• JOHANNA PINK (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), ‘Objections to naskh in Modern Exegetical Discourse’
• JUSTINE HOWE (Case Western Reserve University), ‘Interpreting the Qur’an in the US: The Texts and Contexts of Revelation’
• SHURUQ NAGUIB (Lancaster University), ‘Guiding the Sound Mind: Tafsir Abi’l-Su‘ud and Rhetorical Interpretation of the Qur’an in the Post-Classical Period’

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Panel 7: Exegesis II - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 8: Qur’an and Bible (chair: Marianna Klar, SOAS, University of London)

• SEAN ANTHONY (University of Oregon), ‘Why was the Baker ‘Crucified’? Notes on ‘Crucifixion’ (Salb) in the Qur’anic Lexicon’
• ULRIKA MÅRTENSSON (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology), ‘The Historical Origins of the Qur’an: New Readings of Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari’
• AMIDU OLALEKAN SANNI (Lagos State University), ‘Qur’anic Interaction with Biblical Literature: Issues in Etymology and Narratology from Mingana to Reynolds’

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Panel 8: Qur’an and Bible - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel  9: The Study of the Qur’an in the Western Academy (chair: Walid Saleh, University of Toronto)

• ALEXANDRE CAEIRO (Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies), ‘Historical Truth, Political Commitment, and Religious Sensitivity: The State of Qur’anic Studies in the Western Academy after 9/11’ (co-authored with Emmanuelle Stefanidis)
  بندر بن عبد اللة الشويفي (جامعة الإمام محمد بن سعود الإسلامية)، منهج توظيف المرويات الحديثة في كتاب (تاريخ القرآن) للمستشرق تيودور نولدكه: دراسة نقدية
  البخاري السباعي (جامعة عمار ثليجي بالأغواط)، عادات القرآن: بين النظرية التراثية والفهم الاستشراقي

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Panel 9: The Study of the Qur’an in the Western Academy - Qur'an Conference 2013

Saturday 9 November

Panel 10: Exegesis III (chair: Amidu Sanni, Lagos State University)

• MARIA MASSI DAKAKE (George Mason University), ‘The Cave at the Centre: Surat al-Kahf and the Qur’anic Conception of Prophethood’
• MICHAEL E. PREGILL (Elon University), ‘Measure for Measure: Prophetic History, Qur’anic Exegesis, and Anti-Sunni Polemic in a Fatimid Propaganda Text’
• MUSTANSIR MIR (Youngstown State University), Why did the Egyptian Noblewomen Cut Their Hands? Islahi’s Interpretation of Qur’an 12:3**

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Panel 10: Exegesis III - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 11: Ethics IB, HOW sponsored panel (chair: Hamid Quisay, HOW)*

• TARIQ RAMADAN (University of Oxford), ‘Qur’an, Social Ethics and Human Agency’
• HEBA RAOUF EZZAT (Cairo University), ‘Fitra: Human Nature Between Revelation and Reason’

Panel 12: Literary Readings (chair: Helen Blatherwick, SOAS, University of London)

• ANTHONY H. JOHNS (Australian National University), ‘Surat al-Mu’minun: A Reading and Reflection’
• BRUCE FUDGE (University of Geneva), ‘Patience and the Plot: The Case of Moses and the Servant in Q 18:60–82’
• MARIANNA KLAR (SOAS, University of London), ‘Through the Lens of the Adam Narrative: A Re-Reading of Surat al-Baqara’

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Panel 12: Literary Readings - Qur'an Conference 2013

Panel 13: Ethics II (chair: Mustansir Mir, Youngstown State University)

• ZAHRA M.S. AYUBI (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), ‘Revelation for Marriage: The Qur’an in Ghazali’s Formulation of Marital Ethics’
• أحمد عبد الحافظ فـواز (جامعة القاهرة)، "العدالة في الإسلام: قراءة في فكر سيد قطب واسقاطات معاصرة"
• RAMON HARVEY (SOAS, University of London), ‘Orphans in the Qur’an: Justice between Generations’

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Panel 13: Ethics II - Qur'an Conference 2013

Closing Address: Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem

* Rights for the HoW panel audio are held by HoW

** Audio not published

Enquiries

• For general enquiries, please contact the conference administrator at conference@how-foundation.org .
• For academic enquiries only contact Dr Helen Blatherwick at hb20@soas.ac.uk .

Organiser: Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, University of London

Sponsor: House of Wisdom