ANNUAL MEETING 2015

Registration is now open for the Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the SBL/AAR Annual Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia. You can save by joining IQSA and registering for the Annual Meetings as an Affiliate Member! Register through the SBL website HERE. We hope you’ll join us and meet us in Atlanta!

The Call for Papers is now closed.

The full schedule of the IQSA Annual Meeting is now available! Please see below.


The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
Towards a “Long Late Antiquity”: Continuities from the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Era
Co-sponsored by the AAR Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity group

Friday 20 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M104 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Michael Pregill, Boston University, Presiding

Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston: Law and Tradition in the Long Seventh Century (570-705) – Between Qur’an and Church Canon

Walter Ward, University of Alabama at Birmingham: The Pre-Islamic Image of the Word “Saracen” and its Implications for Early Christian and Islamic Interactions

Cecilia Palombo, Princeton University: “Why Do the Rabbis and Religious Authorities Not Forbid them from Uttering Sinful Words?”: Qur’anic and Late Antique Attitudes towards Religious Scholars

Mushegh Asatryan, University of Calgary: Is Ghulat Religion Islamic Gnosticism? (1) The Shi’ite “Extremists” of Early Islamic Iraq

Dylan Burns, Freie Universität Berlin: Is Ghulat Religion Islamic Gnosticism? (2) Syro-Mesopotamian Gnostic Traditions


Presidential Address

Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College: The Problematic of Prophecy

Ebrahim Moosa, University of Notre Dame, Respondent

Friday 20 November
4:00-5:15 p.m.
Room: M104 (Marquis Level) – Marriott


IQSA Reception

Friday 20 November
5:15-6:30 p.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott


Qur’an Seminar

Saturday 21 November
9:00-11:00 a.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Mehdi Azaiez and Clare Wilde, Chairs

Mehdi Azaiez, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Fred M. Donner, University of Chicago (TBC)
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston
Rahel Fischbach, Georgetown University
Daniel Madigan, Georgetown University
Gabriel S. Reynolds, University of Notre Dame
Sarra Tlili, Univeristy of Florida
Clare Wilde, University of Groningen
Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington


Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
The Question of Chronology of the Qur’anic Text: Contribution of Literary Analyses

Saturday 21 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M103 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Adam Flowers, University of Chicago: The Qur’anic Conditional: Syntactic Evidence for the Periodization of the Qur’an

Lauren E. Osborne, Whitman College: Listening in the Qur’an: The Semantic Field of S-M-`

Emmanuelle Stefanidis, University Sorbonne Paris IV: Oral Proclamation and Written Text: Situating Chronological Approaches in Qur’anic Studies

Mohammad Hasan Ahmadi, University of Tehran, and Seyyed Reza Moaddab: The Relationship between Historical Development of Qur’an and Historical Development of Its Exegesis

Ryan David Woloshen, Wayne State University: An Analysis of Shifting Rhymes in Sura 52

Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford, Respondent

Discussion (20 min.)


Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
The Qur’an and Politics: Hermeneutical Approaches

Saturday 21 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University: Qur’anic Premises in Rhetorical Analogy: The Case of al-Ma’mun’s Mihna

Omar Shaukat, University of Johannesburg: Hermeneutics and/as Politics: Defending the Qur’an (and Muslims) against the ‘Scandal’ of Abrogation

SherAli Tareen, Franklin and Marshall College: Translating the Qur’an as a Manifesto for Revolution: ‘Ubaydullah Sindhi’s Qur’ani Shu’ur-i Inqilab

Alexander Abbasi, University of Johannesburg: Reciting the Revolution: Dr Ali Shariati’s Liberationist Approach to the Qur’an

Rahel Fischbach, Georgetown University: Rereading the Qur’an – Challenging Traditional Authority: Political Implications of Contemporary Qur’an Scholarship

Abdullahi An-Naim, Emory University, Respondent


Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
Roundtable Discussion: The Current State of Qur’anic Studies and Its Future

Saturday 21 November
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg, Chair

Kecia Ali, Boston University
Herbert Berg, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Joseph Lumbard, Brandeis University
Yusuf Rahman, Ushuluddin and Graduate School UIN Jakarta
Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford
Devin Stewart, Emory University
Shawkat Toorawa, Cornell University


The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition I
Joint Session with Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims

Saturday 21 November
4:00-6:30 p.m.
Room: L508 (Lobby Level) – Marriott

Meira Polliack, Tel Aviv University, Presiding

Josey Bridges Snyder, Emory University: Selective Memory: Lot’s wife in the Qur’an and Later Islamic Interpretation

Andrew Geist, University of Notre Dame: A Loan to God: Wealth, Charity, and Usury in the Qur’an

Ilana Sasson, Sacred Heart University: Who wrote the Book of Proverbs? A Medieval Karaite Approach

Yousef Casewit, American University of Sharjah: Biblical Proof-Texts in the Qur’anic Exegesis of Ibn Barrajan of Seville (d. 536/1141)

Roy Michael McCoy III, University of Oxford: “Do not trust the people of the Book, but do not disbelieve them”: Suspending Judgment on the Four Canonical Gospels in al-Biqaʿi’s Tafsir


The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
Joint session with Religious World of Late Antiquity
Violence and Belief in the Qur’anic Milieu

Sunday 22 November
9:00-11:30 a.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Ra’anan Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles, Presiding

Christine Luckritz Marquis, Union Presbyterian Seminary: Violence and Community in Yemen

Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford: Militancy in the Medinan Qur’an

Michael Pregill, Boston University: Scriptural Virtuosity and the Qur’an’s Imperial Context


IQSA Business Meeting – All IQSA members should attend

Sunday 22 November
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Room: 
M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott


IQSA Graduate Student Reception

Sunday 22 November
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.
Room: L504-L505 (Lobby Level) – Marriott

All students in Qur’anic and Islamic Studies attending the IQSA sessions are welcome to join. Food/drink will be served. A number of senior professors in Qur’anic Studies will be in attendance for informal conversation/mentorship.


Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
Surat al-Baqarah (Q. 2)

Sunday 22 November
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott 

Devin Stewart, Emory University, Presiding

Shawkat M. Toorawa, Cornell University: Rhyme and Soundscape in Surat al-Baqarah

Marianna Klar, SOAS University of London: Structural Seams in Surat al-Baqarah

Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania: Law and Literary Form in Surat al-Baqarah, Considered with Reference to Other Long Medinan Suras

Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington: The Ummah Pericope (Q. 2:104-123)

Mehdi Azaiez, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Respondent


The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition II

Sunday 22 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M103 (Marquis Level) – Marriott 

Gabriel S. Reynolds, University of Notre Dame: Noah’s Lost Son

George Archer, Georgetown University: And on the Seventh Day, He Sat Down: The Qur’an, the Sabbath, and the Throne of God

Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham: Repetition, Structure, and Meaning in the Talmud and in the Qur’an

Thomas Hoffmann, University of Copenhagen: “In God’s Way”: A Path-Breaking Metaphor in the Qur’an and its Biblical Genealogies

Ari Gordon, University of Pennsylvania: Turning or Returning: The Figure of Job in the Qur’an and Biblical Literatures


The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition III

Sunday 22 November
4:00-6:30 p.m.
Room: M103 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen: Eve and Sons: Ambivalent Motherhood

Andrew O’Connor, University of Notre Dame: Qur’anic Covenant Reconsidered: Mīthāq and ‘Ahd in Polemical Context

Maria Rodriguez, The Catholic University of America: What’s in a “Word”?: Kalam/kalima and rhema/logos as Expressions of God’s Word in Q. 3 and the Gospel of Luke

Shari Lowin, Stonehill College: The Son of Noah and the Daughter Who Flew Away: Did the Qur’an Inspire a Midrash?


Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
Themes and Rhetorical Tools in the Qur’an

Monday 23 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M105 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Jessica Sylvan Mutter, University of Chicago: Iltifat and Narrative Voice in the Qur’an

Mohsen Goudarzi, Harvard University: A Tale of Two Kitabs: A Radical Reconsideration of Qur’anic Scripturology

Leyla Ozgur, University of California, Los Angeles: Ibrahim Seeking Forgiveness for His Father: Faith and Family in the Qur’an

Devin Stewart, Emory University: Challenges and Taunts: Notes on the Functions of Cognate Paronomasia in the Qur’an

Khalid Yahya Blankinship, Temple University: The Rhetorical Theory of Tafsir of Najm al-Din al-Tufi (657-716/1259-1316)
Discussion (15 min.)


The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Material Culture

Monday 23 November
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Room: M104 (Marquis Level) – Marriott

Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford, Presiding

Keith Small, University of Oxford: A Parchment Discovery From the Stacks: A 10th-Century Qur’an Fragment with a Pious Attribution

Alba Fedeli, University of Birmingham: Traces of Reading in the Writing of early Qur’anic Manuscripts

Ghali Zuhur-Adi, University of Edinburgh: The Qur’an in the Light of Prosopography

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2015. All rights reserved.