Conference Schedule

The Qur’an: Surah Studies
11/19/2021
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Virtual

Shawkat Toorawa, Presiding

Nevin Reda, Presiding

Valentina A. Grasso, University of Cambridge
Jinn among Humans and Birds: The Making of Qur’anic Cosmology (30 min)

Johanne Louise Christiansen, University of Southern Denmark
The Metaphorical Problem of Q al-Naml 27:80: Is Death really a (Spiritual) Disability? (30 min)

Mohammad Salama, Independent Scholar
“Before you blink”: Rhetorical Dynamics of mu‘jiza and ‘ilm in Surat al-Naml (30 min)

David Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)
Surat-al-Fil, the Elephant Surah: The Story and the Backstory (30 min)

The Societal Qur’an
11/19/2021
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Virtual

Lauren Osborne, Whitman College, Presiding

Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter
Contesting Islam and the Imam in Persianate Exegesis at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (30 min)

Latifeh Aavani, Harvard University
Nor Anything Moist or Dry, but that it is in a Clear Book: The Significance of Two Approaches to Qur’anic Hermeneutics for the Iranian Constitutional Movement of 1906-7 (30 min)

Mykhaylo Yakubovych, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Vernacularisation as Mainstream: Experience of Qur’anic Culture among Polish-Lithuanian Tatars (30 min)

Majid Daneshgar, University of Freiburg
Engine Behind Tafsir Production in the Malay-Indonesian World at the Turn of the 20th Century (30 min)

Ian VanderMeulen, New York University
Remediating the Ramziyya: Qur’anic “readings” and textual authority in Morocco (30 min)

The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
11/19/2021
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Virtual

Nora Katharina Schmid, Oxford University, Presiding

Holger Zellentin, University of Tuebingen, Presiding

Abdulla Galadari, Khalifa University of Science & Technology
The Will and Testament of Jesus Christ: The Intertextuality between Q al-Ma’idah 5:116–120 and John 17 (30 min)

Anna Canton, Sapienza University (Rome-Italy)
Is the Eschatological Window Closing? The Hour between Q al-Kahf 18:32–44 and the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16–21) (30 min)

Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Haverford College
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Stones, Lythic Metaphors, and Sacred Space in the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Late Ancient Interpretive Traditions (30 min)

Saqib Hussain, Oxford University
Adam and the Names (30 min)

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, Trinity College – Dublin
Bereshit in the Qur’an: Hebrew presence in qur’anic narrations of Genesis (30 min)

International Qur’anic Studies Association
11/19/2021
7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Room: Virtual

Theme: Presidential Address

Asma Hilali, University of Lille, IQSA President (40 min)
Qur’an and Political Crises: Example of Siffîn (657 e. c.)

International Qur’anic Studies Association
11/19/2021
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Room: Offsite

Margaritaville – San Antonio
849 E Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78205

Theme: General Reception

Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
11/20/2021
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Virtual

Theme: Quranic Narrative and Hermeneutics

Celene Ibrahim, Presiding

David Solomon Jalajel, King Saud University and Shoaib Malik, Zayed University
Adam and Eve’s Garden in Islamic Thought: Heaven or Earth? (30 min)

Khalil Andani, Augustana College
Creation as Prophetic Initiation: Ismaili Exegesis (ta’wil) of the Quranic Adam Story (30 min)

Adi Shiran, University of Chicago
Bloody Wrath and Healing Touches: Joseph and his Brothers in Early Twelver Shi‛i Tafsir (30 min)

Javad Hashmi, Harvard University and Haci Gunduz, Harvard University
The Qur’anic Story — Not Literal History But Literary Art: Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah’s Forbidden Dissertation (30 min)

Alena Kulinich, University of Oxford/Seoul National University
Justifying Wealth and Poverty by the Qur’an: A Medieval Muslim Perspective (30 min)

International Qur’anic Studies Association
11/20/2021
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Room: Offsite

Theme: Graduate Student Luncheon

Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
11/20/2021
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Virtual

Khalil Andani, Presiding

Havva Guney-Ruebenacker, Yale Law School
The Foundational Structure and The Methodology of Interpretation of the Qur’an as the Qur’an Tells (30 min)

Kamal Ahmed, Princeton University
Epistemology of Exegesis: Tafsir and Ta’wil in Early Sunni Qur’an Commentaries (30 min)

Nicholas Boylston, Seattle University
Troubling Tafsir bi’l-Ra’y: Sayyid Haydar Amuli’s Negotiation of Hermeneutic Authority Between Twelver Shi‘ism and Sufism (30 min)

Syed A.H. Zaidi, Islamic Civilizations – Emory University
Relations from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. The Use of the Qur’an in the Brethren of Purity’s (Ikhwan al-Safa’) conception of God (30 min)

Sheza Alqera Atiq, Harvard University
Revelation and Rhetoric in Early Mu’tazili Writings (30 min)

The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
11/20/2021
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Virtual

Theme: The Prophet and the Prophetic in the Qur’an (Part 1)

Michael Pregill, Presiding

Eric DeVilliers, University of Notre Dame
Is There No Doubt About the Hour?: The Limits of Prophetic Knowledge and the Historical Muhammad (30 min)

Zahra Moeini Meybodi , University of Chicago Divinity School
Giving and Prophetic Time: A Thematic Re-reading of Surat al-Fajr (30 min)

Mourad Takawi , University of the Incarnate Word
The Arboreal Presentation of Muhammad and the Believers in Q Al-Fath 48 (30 min)

Juan Cole, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
God’s Biography of Muhammad in the Qur’an (30 min)

Discussion (30 min)

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
11/21/2021
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: 225B (Meeting Room Level) – San Antonio Convention Center

Theme: Philology, Theology, and Hermeneutics

Hythem Sidky, Presiding

Andrew J. O’Connor, St. Norbert College
Guidance Stories: A Prophetological Profile of Q al-Naml 27 (30 min)

Gabriel Said Reynolds, Notre Dame
On Reported Speech in the Qur’an: A Preliminary Inquiry (30 min)

Mourad Takawi, University of the Incarnate Word
The Arboreal Presentation of Muhammad and the Believers in Q Al-Fath 48 (30 min)

Eric DeVilliers, University of Notre Dame
Is There No Doubt About the Hour?: The Limits of Prophetic Knowledge and the Historical Muhammad (30 min)

Discussion (30 min)

International Qur’anic Studies Association
11/21/2021
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Room: Virtual

Theme: IQSA Business/General Meeting

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
11/21/2021
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 225B (Meeting Room Level) – San Antonio Convention Center

Theme: The Qur’an and Its Audience

Andrew O’Connor, St. Norbert College, Presiding

Jáchym Šenkyrík, Charles University
Rhetorical Strategies Used in the Qur’an for Creating the “Other”: Examples from Surahs 5 and 9 (30 min)

Daniel Bannoura, University of Notre Dame
A Critical Literary Examination of Q 38: Its Theology and Redaction History (30 min)

Hythem Sidky, Independent
Consonantal Dotting in the ‘Uthmanic Archetype (30 min)

Han Hsien Liew, Arizona State University
Sidestepping Controversy: A Reassessment of al-Mawardi’s Mu‘tazili Leanings in His Qur’anic Exegesis (30 min)

Discussion (30 min)

The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
11/21/2021
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Virtual

Theme: The Prophet and the Prophetic in the Qur’an (Part 2)

Johanne Louise Christiansen, Presiding

Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston
Contesting Female Power in Q 53 (30 min)

Diaa Abdelmobdy, University of Copenhagen
Ambiguity as a Bridging Identity: The Role of Semantic Ambiguity in Forming the Prophetic Identity of Muhammad (30 min)

Mehdi Azaiez , Université catholique de Louvain
A (Im)possible Biography of the Qur’anic First Addressee (30 min)

Michael Pregill, Chapman University
Is There a Prophet in This Text? The Qur’anic Author and the State of Muhammad Studies (30 min)

Discussion (30 min)

The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism
11/22/2021
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Virtual

Marijn van Putten, Independent Scholar, Presiding
R. Michael McCoy III, Chair

Daniel Alan Brubaker, Independent
Judging the Significance of Single Occurrence Non-orthographic Qur’an Manuscript Variants (25 min)

Adam Flowers, University of Chicago
P.Utah.Ar.120: A Late-7th/Early-8th-Century CE Qur’anic Quotation on Papyrus (25 min)

Yousef Wahb Aly, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor
Qur’an vs Qira’at: Early Legal Discourses on Textual Authenticity (25 min)

Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota
Pagans, Jews, and the Torah in Late Antique Arabia (25 min)

Mu’ammar Zayn Qadafy, Freiburg University
An Early Chronological Interpretation of the Qur’an (Ibn ‘Atiyyah [d. 542/ 1147] on the Zakah Verses (25 min)

Devin J. Stewart, Emory University
Typological Language in the Qur’an (25 min)