Registration is STILL OPEN for the IQSA Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the SBL/AAR Annual Meetings in Boston, Massachusetts from November 17-20, 2017. You can save on the registration fee by joining IQSA and registering for the Annual Meetings as an Affiliate Member! The membership fees for IQSA are $25, $50, and $75 depending on the level. To become an IQSA member click HERE. We hope you’ll join us and meet us in Boston!
Call for Papers NOW CLOSED
The International Qur’anic Studies Association has opened its call for papers for the 2017 Annual Meeting to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from November 17-20, 2017. The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s six program units:
- Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
- The Qur’an: Surah Studies
- Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
- The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
- The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
- The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism
Please find detailed calls for papers and submission links for each program unit HERE. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link (note: NOW CLOSED). The paper proposal submissions are due by March 7, 2017. For additional information about a specific program unit, you may contact the unit chairs listed on the website via email. If you experience difficulties or have questions about the SBL submission form, please email contact@iqsaweb.org. Abstracts should be written in English, have a length of around 400 words, and include the name and affiliation of the author. IQSA welcomes all submissions and looks forward to an exciting program in Boston.
Conference Schedule: IQSA Events
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
11/17/2017
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Beacon A (Third Level) – Sheraton Boston Hotel (SB)
Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham, Presiding
Devin Stewart, Emory University
Abraham’s Lies and Verbal Ambiguity in the Qur’an (30 min)
Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford
“The creed of your father Abraham”: Towards an intertextual and literary profile of the Qur’anic Abraham passages (30 min)
Gavin McDowell, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
What Did Judaism Borrow from Muhammad? The Qur’an and Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer Reconsidered (30 min)
Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College
“The Jews say the Hand of God is Chained”: Q 5:64, the midrash, and the Favor of God (30 min)
Faris Casewit, Harvard University
The Sayings of Jesus (‘Isa) in Harrali’s (d. 1241) Exegetical Treatise Sa’d al-wa’i wa-uns al-qari (30 min)
P17-301
11/17/2017
4:00 PM to 5:15 PM
Room: Essex Center (Third Level) – Westin Copley Place Hotel (WCP)
Speaker: Gerald Hawting (IQSA President)
Presidential Address:
The House and the Book’. Some reflections on scripture and sanctuary in early Islam.
Respondent: Sean Anthony (Ohio State University)
P17-304
11/17/2017
5:15 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Essex North (Third Level) – Westin Copley Place Hotel (WCP)
Theme: Reception
S18-142
Qur’an and Biblical Literature; International Qur’anic Studies Association
Joint Session With: Qur’an and Biblical Literature, International Qur’anic Studies Association
11/18/2017
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Room: Belvidere B (Second Level) – Hilton Boston Back Bay
Theme: Roundtable Discussion of Islam and Its Past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity and the Qur’an, edited by Carol Bakhos and Michael Cook
John Kaltner, Rhodes College, Presiding
Carol Bakhos, University of California-Los Angeles, Introduction (10 min)
Karen Bauer, Panelist (20 min)
Daniel Madigan, Georgetown University, Panelist (20 min)
Shawkat Toorawa, Panelist (20 min)
Joseph Lowry, University of Pennsylvania, Panelist (20 min)
Discussion (30 min)
P18-249
Graduate Student Reception
11/18/2017
11:15am-12:45pm
Room: Off Site (RSVP to contact@iqsaweb.org)
IQSA invites graduate students and emerging scholars to engage with experts in the field in a relaxed setting over light refreshments off-site.
The Qur’an: Surah Studies
11/18/2017
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Room: Orleans (Fourth Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
Marianna Klar, Presiding
Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania
Legislative Framing and Communal Focus in Surat al-Ahzab (30 min)
Matthew Anderson, Georgetown University
Between Scripture and Tradition: Q 33:57-61 and the Development of Classical Islamic Blasphemy Law (30 min)
Ghazala Anwar, Graduate Theological Union
Reading Sura 33 al-Ahzab in relation to Sura 42 al-Shura (30 min)
Bruce Bennett Lawrence, Duke University
The Puzzle of Surat Al-Ahzab (Q 33) v.35 in English translation (30 min)
P18-323
11/18/2017
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Room: Fairfield (Third Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
Theme: Roundtable: The Islamic Jesus
Mustafa Akyol’s recent monograph “The Islamic Jesus” examines “how the king of the Jews became a prophet of the Muslims” and raises, among other things, the question of the importance of Jewish Christianity for the emergence of Islam. He will be joined by other experts of the Qur’an as well as Syriac and Rabbinic literature in order to explore these and other topics.
Gabriel Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Presiding
Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham, Panelist
Shari Lowin, Stonehill College, Panelist
Gerald Hawting, School of Oriental and African Studies, Panelist
Sidney Griffith, Catholic University of America, Panelist
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Panelist
Mustafa Akyol, Panelist
P18-325
Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
11/18/2017
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Beacon B (Third Level) – Sheraton Boston Hotel (SB)
Theme: Surah Titles: Connections to Structure, Themes, and Rhetoric of Revelation
Andrew C. Smith, Brigham Young University
Suwar al-Sajdah: Prostration as Surah Title for Q 32 and Q 41 (25 min)
Stephen Burge, Institute of Ismaili Studies
Theological Onomastics: Spiritual Didacticism in Al-Suyuti’s Twenty One Names for Surat al-Fatiha (25 min)
Emad Mohamed, Université du Québec à Montréal
How did Muslims Name the Chapters of the Quran: a Computational Analysis (25 min)
Afnan H. Fatani, King Abdul-aziz University
S for Salat: Prostration as an Organizational Principle of Spatial Movement in Surat Sad (Q. 38) (25 min)
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Strasbourg (France)
Naming the Revelation: Titles, Isolated Letters and Metatexts in the Hâwâmîm (25 min)
Omar Edaibat, McGill Institute of Islamic Studies
On Sura Titles and the Four-Fold Process of Spiritual Transformation in the Quran: An Intra-TextualApproach (25 min)
P18-344
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
11/18/2017
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Room: 208 (Second Level) – Hynes Convention Center (HCC)
Theme: Re-Orienting the Study of Late Antiquity before and after Muhammad
This session is co-sponsored by the Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity unit (AAR).
Michael Pregill, Boston University, Presiding
Khodadad Rezakhani, Princeton University, Panelist
Jennifer Hart, Elon University, Panelist
Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Haverford College, Panelist
Sara Ronis, Saint Mary’s University (San Antonio), Panelist
Kevin Jaques, Indiana University Bloomington, Panelist
P19-152
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
11/19/2017
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Provincetown (Fourth Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
Theme: Qur’anic Themes, Language, and Rites in Late Antique Perspective
Michael Pregill, Boston University, Presiding
Abraham Winitzer, University of Notre Dame
Akkadian kipir kishâdim and the Fate of Islam’s kâfirûn in Q 8:12; 47:4 (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Javad “Jay” Hashmi, University of California-Berkeley
War and Peace in Early Islam (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Johanne Christiansen, Aarhus Universitet
“And their prayer at the House is nothing but a whistling and a clapping of hands” (Q8:35): Negotiating Processions in the Qur’an (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Ari M. Gordon, University of Pennsylvania
Wherever you Turn, the Face of God is There: Liturgical Direction in the Qur’an and Religions of Late Antiquity (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Karen Bauer, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Grief in the Qur’an and its Milieu (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)
IQSA Business Meeting (Open to Public)
11/19/2017
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Room: Provincetown (Fourth Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
P19-244
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
11/19/2017
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Provincetown (Fourth Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
Cornelia Horn, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Presiding
Rachel Dryden, University of Oxford
Angels from Biblical History in the Qur’an (30 min)
Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham
The Prohibition of Incest in the Qur’an in its Biblical and Late Antique Context (30 min)
Thomas Hoffmann, Københavns Universitet
The Doxological Mode of Religiosity in the Qur’an (or how not to repeat the errors of the Jews and Christians) (30 min)
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame
Speaking Biblically: On the Qur’an’s Use of Biblical Turns of Phrase (30 min)
Cornelia Horn, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Oral and Written Transmissions at the Intersection of the Bible and the Qur’an (30 min)
P20-139
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
11/20/2017
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Boston University (Third Level) – Boston Marriott Copley Place (MCP)
Theme: Minority and Marginalized Hermeneutics
This panel examines the hermeneutical strategies of minority and marginalized groups.
Karen Bauer, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Presiding
Khalil Andani, Harvard University
Reading Text through Pre-Text: Redefining Isma’ili Hermeneutics (25 min)
Charles Ramsey, Forman Christian College
From Farahi to Ghamidi: an introduction to the trajectory of the Indian Nazm School of qur’anic exegesis (25 min)
Orhan Elmaz, University of St. Andrews
Unveiling female emancipation: A forced blessing? (25 min)
Shehnaz Haqqani, Ithaca College
Marginalizing Gender in the Study of the Qur’an (25 min)
Joseph Stewart, Florida State University
Are the Samaritans People of the Book? An Investigation into the Interpretation of Sura 20 (25 min)
P20-220
11/20/2017
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Room: Commonwealth (Third Level) – Sheraton Boston Hotel (SB)
Theme: Towards a Sophisticated Digital Concordance of the Qur’an: A Presentation of the Qur’an Gateway Project
This session will invite scholarly feedback on ongoing efforts to create a sophisticated digital concordance of the Qur’an permitting, among other things, a search for formulaic systems in the Qur’anic corpus. Anyone engaged in research on the Qur’an is invited to attend and to contribute.
Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford, Presiding
Andy Bannister, Melbourne School of Theology, Panelist
Nick Chatrath, Panelist
Daniel Brubaker, Panelist
S20-221
Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism; The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
Joint Session With: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism, The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
11/20/2017
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Beacon H (Third Level) – Sheraton Boston Hotel (SB)
Theme: Rethinking Jewish-Christianity and Islam
Annette Reed, New York University, Presiding (10 min)
Stephen Shoemaker, University of Oregon
Jewish-Christian Phantoms at the Origins of Islam (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Michael Pregill, Boston University
Between Yahud and Nasara: “Jewish Christianity” as Hermeneutic Device in Qur’anic Studies (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Jae Han, University of Pennsylvania
Jewish-Christianity, Late Antiquity, and Nativist Prophets of Early Islam (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Elena Dugan, Princeton University
New (Enochic) Gateways in Ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist: Thinking Outside the “Jewish-Christian” Box (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)
P20-347
The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism
11/20/2017
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Back Bay A (Second Level) – Sheraton Boston Hotel (SB)
Theme: Analysis of the Qur’an’s text as found in manuscripts
This unit provides analysis of the Qur’an’s text as found in manuscripts utilizing paleographical, codicological, and other established methodologies used in textual criticism (lower criticism). Oral tradition as recorded in manuscripts is also featured.
Alba Fedeli, Central European University, Budapest, Presiding
Shady H. Nasser, Harvard University
The Second Canonization of the Qur’an (20 min)
Raymond K. Farrin, American University of Kuwait
Verse Numbering Systems of the Qur’an: A Comparative Study (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Joshua Falconer, The Catholic University of America
From Variance to Canonicity: The Superimposition of Readings in Early Abbasid Scribal Practice (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
Elif Behnan Karabiyik, Istanbul 29 Mayis University
Dating of the Quranic Manuscript (Ms. 4313) and Its Palaeographical and Textual Features (20 min)
Discussion (10 min)
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.