Conference Schedule

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA) / The Qur’an: Surah Studies (IQSA)
Joint Session With: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA), The Qur’an: Surah Studies (IQSA)
11/22/2019
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qur’an (I): Insights into the Composition of the Text

Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota, Presiding

Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg
Boiling Drink, Denial of Resurrection, Hur in Paradise, and a Qur’an within a Scripture: Intratextuality and the Structure of Surat al-Waqi‘ah (Q 56) (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Hythem Sidky, University of Chicago
Understanding the Limits of Stylometry in Deducing Qur’anic Authorship (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame
On Doublets and Redactional Criticism of the Qur’an (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Saqib Hussain, Oxford University
Surat al-Waqi‘ah (Q 56) as a Group-Closing Surah (20 min)
Discussion (22 min)

The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
11/22/2019
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Muhammad, the Qur’an, and the Sirah Tradition: New Perspectives

Johanne Christiansen, University of Copenhagen, Presiding

Juan Cole, University of Michigan
“Apostles to the Gentiles”: Paul and Muhammad (25 min)
Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University
Was the Hijrah a Historical Event? A Survey of the Evidence (25 min)
Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge
The Qur’anic Community, Their Prophet, and Their Personal Encounters with Jews and Christians (25 min)
Michael Pregill, University of California-Los Angeles
Muhammad and the Prophets from Mahdiyyah to Nishapur: Reflexes of Late Antique Supersessionism in Two Sectarian Medieval Islamic Texts (25 min)
Discussion (50 min)

The European Qur’an (IQSA)
11/22/2019
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA)
11/22/2019
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Presidential Address

Devin J. Stewart, Emory University
Noah’s Boat and Other Missed Opportunities (40 min)
Todd Lawson, University of Toronto, Respondent (20 min)

The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
11/23/2019
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Panel 1: Theology of the Body in the Biblical Tradition and in the Qur’an

Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge, Presiding

Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford
The Qur’an on Divine Embodiment (30 min)
Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford
The Embodied Appropriation of God’s Word in the Qur’an and in Ascetic Circles (30 min)
Yoseob Song, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Different Ways of Looking at Joseph’s Body (30 min)
Andrew O’Connor, St. Norbert College
Paraenesis, Recreation, and the Revocation of Bodily Agency in Surat Ya Sin (Q 36) (30 min)
Johanne Louise Christiansen, University of Copenhagen
The (not so) Monstrous Qur’an: On Beasts and Monsters and Where to Find Them in the Qur’an and Bible (30 min)

Graduate Student Luncheon 
11/23/2019
11:30 AM
Location: Offsite
RSVP Details Forthcoming

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
11/23/2019
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qur’an (II): From Text to Concepts

Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg, Presiding

Ghazala Anwar, Independent Scholar
Gender Fluidity of Qur’anic Grammar (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington
The Rainwater Metaphor in the Qur’an’s Communitarian Rhetoric: “Do You Not See that Allah Sends Down One Water From the Sky and Yet Brings Forth From it Fruits of Different Colors?”(Q 35:27) (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Matthew Niemi, Indiana University
The Din of Islam: Ambiguity and the Qur’an’s Religion without Religion (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Adam Flowers, University of Chicago
The Qur’an’s Biblical Vernacular (20 min)
Discussion (7 min)
Leyla Ozgur Alhassen, University of California-Berkeley
Hubris in Qur’anic Stories: Ethical Formation in the Stories of Nuh’s and Adam’s Sons (20 min)
Discussion (22 min)

The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
11/23/2019
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Michael Pregill, University of California-Los Angeles, Presiding

Conor Dube, Harvard University
Eschaton or Eschatons? A New Approach to the Qur’anic Rhetoric of the End (20 min)
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston
The Female Vessel of Qur’anic Revelation (20 min)
Thomas Hoffmann, University of Copenhagen
“So Race with One Another to Do Good: You Will All Return to God and He Will Make Clear to You the Matters You Differed About” (Q 5:48): Fashioning a New Ethico-Islamic Agon in the Qur’an (20 min)
S. Beena Butool, Florida State University and Jesse C. Miller, Florida State University
Inscriptions of an Empire: Qur’an and the Imperial Visual Landscape (20 min)
Ryann Elizabeth Craig, Catholic University of America
The Creed and the Qur’an: Christological Controversies and the Qur’anic Crucifixion (20 min)
Discussion (50 min)

The Societal Qur’an (IQSA)
11/24/2019
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Thomas Hoffmann, University of Copenhagen, Presiding

SherAli Tareen, Franklin & Marshall College
Qur’an Translations and Commentaries in South Asia (20 min)
Lien Iffah Naf’atu Fina, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Yogyakarta
Learning From the Qur’an, Not Learning the Qur’an: The Practice of Tadabbur in Contemporary Sufi Gatherings in Indonesia (20 min)
Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Be a Hero! Qur’anic Education, Ethics, and Popular Culture (20 min)
Elliott Bazzano, Le Moyne College
The Qur’an in the Liberal Arts: Reflections on Pedagogy and Purpose (20 min)
Discussion (40 min)

International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA)
11/24/2019
11:00 AM to 11:45 AM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Business Meeting

The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
11/24/2019
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Panel 2

Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford, Presiding

Daniel Bannoura, Bethlehem Bible College
The Qur’anic Theology of the Land: An Inter-Textual Analysis of the Land Verses in the Qur’an (30 min)
Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College
If All the Seas Were Ink: Tracking the Evolution of a Motif across Islamic and Rabbinic Literature (30 min)
Rachel Claire Dryden, University of Oxford
Iblis, al-Shaytan and Shayatin: Qur’anic Demonology and the Reception History of Jewish and Christian Traditions in Late Antiquity (30 min)
David Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)
“By the Lote Tree”: Call Narratives in Surat Al-Najm and Isaiah 6 (30 min)
Sharif Randhawa, CASQI
“Immortality and Kingdom That Never Fades”? Adam, Satan, and the Forbidden Tree in the Qur’an (30 min)

The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
11/24/2019
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Shady Hekmat Nasser, Harvard University, Presiding

Éléonore Cellard, Collège de France
Scribal Practices in Early Qur’anic Manuscripts from Fustat: The Role of the Copyist in the Transmission of the Qur’an (25 min)
Daniel A. Brubaker, Independent
Partial Correction? A Discussion of one Non-Palimpsest and Variant Qur’an Fragment, Possibly Seventh Century (25 min)
Roy M McCoy III, University of Oxford
‘Mother’ or ‘Birth’ in Surat al-Ma’idah (Q 5:110)? Theological and Linguistic Observations on the Rasm of Early Qur’an Manuscripts (25 min)
Marijn van Putten, Leiden University
Before Canonization: Qur’anic Manuscripts as Evidence for Pre-Canonical Reading Traditions (25 min)
Manal Najjar, University of Tabuk
The Distinction of the Ottoman Orthography in the Holy Qur’an : A Pragmatic Reading (25 min)

Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
11/25/2019
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: 23B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center

Theme: Divine Revelation, Scripture and Speech in Qur’anic and Islamic Thought

Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Presiding

Khalil Andani, Harvard University
From Transcendent Kitab to Piecemeal Qur’ans: A Qur’anic Model of Revelation (20 min)
Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota
A Common Archetypal Scripture, or Major and Minor Scriptures? Narratives of Scriptural History in Academic and Exegetical Writings (20 min)
Arezu Riahi, Harvard University
Conceptualizing God’s Speech: The Formulations of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (20 min)
Arjun Nair, University of Southern California
Influences from the School of Ibn ‘Arabi upon Post-Classical Shiʿite Conceptualizations of God’s Speech (Kalam Allah) (20 min)
Nevin Reda, University of Toronto
What is the Qur’an? A Practical, Spiritually Integrative Perspective (20 min)