Deadline Approaching! IQSA Call for Papers (London 2024)
Deadline Approaching! IQSA Call for Papers (London 2024)
There is only one week left to submit your proposals for the International Qur’anic Studies Association’s Annual Meeting to be held in person from July 15-18, 2024, hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London!
We are accepting proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtable discussions. Proposals will be considered on any aspect of the academic study of the Qur’an or its reception history. Proposals are due on January 31, 2024.
Individual papers: Individual paper proposals should be no more than 400 words long and should include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of the presenter, and a 100-150-word biography.
Panel papers: Papers belonging to pre-arranged panels should indicate the name of the panel in the appropriate field in addition to providing a 400-word abstract and title for the individual paper. Only panel organizers should include a panel abstract in the submission. There is a dedicated field for submitting the panel abstract.
Roundtables: We will accept a limited number of proposals for lightning roundtable discussions. These are roundtables of up to seven participants, where two to three questions are given and each participant has no more than three minutes to address each question. Ample opportunity should be given for audience participation. Only roundtable organizers should submit an abstract which would include the rationale and the questions to be asked.
Please only submit one paper proposal (either individual or as a part of a panel); roundtable discussants may also give a paper.
Proposals for single and panel papers must include:
Author name and affiliation.
100-150-word short bio (written in English).
Paper title.
400-word paper abstract (written in English).
Proposals can be submitted here by January 31, 2024. For your proposal to be accepted and to attend the conference you must be an active IQSA member. You can join IQSA here. If you are a graduate student, contingent faculty, or are from the global south and are unable to pay, please contact us (contactus@iqsaweb.org).
The International Qur’anic Studies Association is delighted to hold its Annual Meeting in person from July 15-18, 2024, hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London!
A friendly reminder that we are now accepting proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtable discussions to be held in-person at the Aga Khan Centre, King’s Cross, London. Proposals will be considered on any aspect of the academic study of the Qur’an or its reception history. Proposals are due on January 31, 2024.
Individual papers: Individual paper proposals should be no more than 400 words long and should include the title of the paper, the name and affiliation of the presenter, and a 100-150-word biography.
Panel papers: Papers belonging to pre-arranged panels should indicate the name of the panel in the appropriate field in addition to providing a 400-word abstract and title for the individual paper. Only panel organizers should include a panel abstract in the submission. There is a dedicated field for submitting the panel abstract.
Roundtables: We will accept a limited number of proposals for lightning roundtable discussions. These are roundtables of up to seven participants, where two to three questions are given and each participant has no more than three minutes to address each question. Ample opportunity should be given for audience participation. Only roundtable organizers should submit an abstract which would include the rationale and the questions to be asked.
Please only submit one paper proposal (either individual or as a part of a panel); roundtable discussants may also give a paper.
Proposals for single and panel papers must include:
Author name and affiliation.
100-150-word short bio (written in English).
Paper title.
400-word paper abstract (written in English).
Proposals can be submitted here by January 31, 2024. For your proposal to be accepted and to attend the conference you must be an active IQSA member. You can join IQSA here. If you are a graduate student, contingent faculty, or are from the global south and are unable to pay, please contact us (contactus@iqsaweb.org).
Registration for the conference will open soon and information will be made available regarding accommodations including discounted rates, travel grants, and child care.
Questions? Email contactus@iqsaweb.org. We look forward to receiving your submissions!
Deadline TODAY! Call for Papers – IQSA Annual Meeting 2023
Today is the deadline to submit paper proposals for IQSA’s Annual Meeting to be held in San Antonio, Texas from November 17-20, 2023. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 14, 2023 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Paper proposals will be accepted through 11:59 PM (23:59) US Eastern Time (UTC-4). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.
Please note that all proposals must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
400 word paper abstract (written in English)
Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:
Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting
Please also note that:
To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system(users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s seven program units:
The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the study of the Qur’an from a literary standpoint and examine aspects such as rhetorical devices, literary motifs, characterization, themes, voices, sound, structure of passages or surahs, etc. While the unit welcomes proposals that explore any of these aspects, this year we particularly encourage papers that utilize linguistic, literary, and thematic perspectives to study the legal and prescriptive material found in Medinan surahs and verses.
The aim of the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit.
The focus of this unit is the Qur’an’s relationship to the Biblical tradition in the broadest sense: the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the various languages of their original composition and later translations (regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups), as well as the exegetical, homiletic, and narrative traditions of the Bible in written or oral form. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition unit welcomes proposals that engage any aspect of the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an.
The Methodology and Hermeneutics Unit invites proposals for papers that focus on the theological and hermeneutical relationship between the Qur’an and extra-Qur’anic sources of truth or authority, including the prophetic Sunna, communal Sunna, consensus (ijma’), the Shi’i Imams and their Sunna, hadith literature, biographical literature (sira), formative exegetical literature (tafsir), the rulings of Muslim scholars (‘ulama’), the Sufi shuyukh or Sufi poetry, mystical unveiling (kashf), studies of the material universe, intellect, and so forth.
For example, proposed papers could consider:
The hermeneutical relationship between the Qur’an and the prophetic Sunna; for instance, in how hadith, sīra, or “occasions of revelation” (asbāb al-nuzūl) impact exegesis;
How principles from Islamicate philosophy (falsafa) or theology (kalām) are used to exegete the Qur’an, or how specific verses become significant within Muslim ontological and cosmological discourse;
How the idea of the Imams as the authoritative interpreters of the Qur’an influences exegesis in Shiʾī Islam;
How Sufi works of literature like the Mathnawī of Rūmi or Divān of Hāfiz distill the Qur’an for popular audiences;
How Sufi exegetes read the Quran through the lenses of mystical principles and spiritual experience;
Ways in which modern and contemporary Qur’anic interpretation adheres to or departs from influential premodern methods of tafsīr, and so forth.
The Surah Studies Unit invites proposals for individual papers on any of the 37 surahs in the 30th juz’ (Juz’ ‘Amma), viz. from Surat al-Naba’ (78, “The Announcement”) to Surat al-Nas (114, “Humanity”). Proposals about any aspect of any surah—or cluster of surahs—are welcome. Proposals which can take our collective thinking in new directions are especially encouraged. These might broach (1) such general themes as: addressee(s), chronology and dating, the eschaton, oaths and oracular language, rhyme and rhythm, or textual cruxes; (2) topics specific to particular surahs, such as: astral imagery and phenomena in Surat al-Buruj (85, “The Constellations”) or Surat al-Takwir (81, “Rolling Up”), non-human beings in Surat al-Nazi‘at (79, “The Dispatchers”), Surat al-‘Alaq (96, “The Clot”), and Surat al-Fil (105, “The War Elephant”), or the language of commerce and trade and wealth in Surat al-Takathur (102, “Vying”) and Surat al-Ma‘un (107, “Liberality?”); or (3) devotional, liturgical and recitational aspects of the surahs and the juz’. The Surah Studies Unit welcomes diverse methods and new approaches. The raison d’être of the Unit is specifically to bring different perspectives into dialogue with one another.
For the 2023 IQSA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals that utilize various types of material or evidence—be that literary, documentary, or epigraphic—to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. We are especially interested in papers that present and discuss new and comparative methodologies to approach the interplay between Late Antique phenomenon and the Qur’an.
The Societal Qur’an unit invites proposals for papers that investigate the Qur’an in its lived and societal contexts throughout history, from Late Antiquity to contemporary Late Modernity. Papers might, for instance, discuss topics such as:(1) ritual uses of the Qur’an; (2) practices of teaching the Qur’an; (3) talismanic and medical uses of the Qur’an; (4) the production of manuscript, print, and new media versions of the Qur’an and their commodification; (5) the role of the Qur’an in public debates, political organisation, and identity building; (6) the Qur’an in arts and media; (7) multilingual representations of the Qur’an. Proposals are encouraged that engage with sociological, anthropological, and political science theories and methods in their pursuit of the societal and lived Qur’an.
Questions? Email contactus@iqsaweb.org! We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!
Call for Papers: IQSA Annual Meeting 2023
The International Qur’anic Studies Association has opened its call for papers for its Annual Meeting to be held in San Antonio, Texas from November 17-20, 2023. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 14, 2023 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.
Please note that all proposals must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
400 word paper abstract (written in English)
Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:
Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting
Please also note that:
To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system(users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s seven program units:
The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the study of the Qur’an from a literary standpoint and examine aspects such as rhetorical devices, literary motifs, characterization, themes, voices, sound, structure of passages or surahs, etc. While the unit welcomes proposals that explore any of these aspects, this year we particularly encourage papers that utilize linguistic, literary, and thematic perspectives to study the legal and prescriptive material found in Medinan surahs and verses.
The aim of the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit.
The focus of this unit is the Qur’an’s relationship to the Biblical tradition in the broadest sense: the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the various languages of their original composition and later translations (regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups), as well as the exegetical, homiletic, and narrative traditions of the Bible in written or oral form. For the 2023 meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition unit welcomes proposals that engage any aspect of the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an.
The Methodology and Hermeneutics Unit invites proposals for papers that focus on the theological and hermeneutical relationship between the Qur’an and extra-Qur’anic sources of truth or authority, including the prophetic Sunna, communal Sunna, consensus (ijma’), the Shi’i Imams and their Sunna, hadith literature, biographical literature (sira), formative exegetical literature (tafsir), the rulings of Muslim scholars (‘ulama’), the Sufi shuyukh or Sufi poetry, mystical unveiling (kashf), studies of the material universe, intellect, and so forth.
For example, proposed papers could consider:
The hermeneutical relationship between the Qur’an and the prophetic Sunna; for instance, in how hadith, sīra, or “occasions of revelation” (asbāb al-nuzūl) impact exegesis;
How principles from Islamicate philosophy (falsafa) or theology (kalām) are used to exegete the Qur’an, or how specific verses become significant within Muslim ontological and cosmological discourse;
How the idea of the Imams as the authoritative interpreters of the Qur’an influences exegesis in Shiʾī Islam;
How Sufi works of literature like the Mathnawī of Rūmi or Divān of Hāfiz distill the Qur’an for popular audiences;
How Sufi exegetes read the Quran through the lenses of mystical principles and spiritual experience;
Ways in which modern and contemporary Qur’anic interpretation adheres to or departs from influential premodern methods of tafsīr, and so forth.
The Surah Studies Unit invites proposals for individual papers on any of the 37 surahs in the 30th juz’ (Juz’ ‘Amma), viz. from Surat al-Naba’ (78, “The Announcement”) to Surat al-Nas (114, “Humanity”). Proposals about any aspect of any surah—or cluster of surahs—are welcome. Proposals which can take our collective thinking in new directions are especially encouraged. These might broach (1) such general themes as: addressee(s), chronology and dating, the eschaton, oaths and oracular language, rhyme and rhythm, or textual cruxes; (2) topics specific to particular surahs, such as: astral imagery and phenomena in Surat al-Buruj (85, “The Constellations”) or Surat al-Takwir (81, “Rolling Up”), non-human beings in Surat al-Nazi‘at (79, “The Dispatchers”), Surat al-‘Alaq (96, “The Clot”), and Surat al-Fil (105, “The War Elephant”), or the language of commerce and trade and wealth in Surat al-Takathur (102, “Vying”) and Surat al-Ma‘un (107, “Liberality?”); or (3) devotional, liturgical and recitational aspects of the surahs and the juz’. The Surah Studies Unit welcomes diverse methods and new approaches. The raison d’être of the Unit is specifically to bring different perspectives into dialogue with one another.
For the 2023 IQSA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals that utilize various types of material or evidence—be that literary, documentary, or epigraphic—to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. We are especially interested in papers that present and discuss new and comparative methodologies to approach the interplay between Late Antique phenomenon and the Qur’an.
The Societal Qur’an unit invites proposals for papers that investigate the Qur’an in its lived and societal contexts throughout history, from Late Antiquity to contemporary Late Modernity. Papers might, for instance, discuss topics such as:(1) ritual uses of the Qur’an; (2) practices of teaching the Qur’an; (3) talismanic and medical uses of the Qur’an; (4) the production of manuscript, print, and new media versions of the Qur’an and their commodification; (5) the role of the Qur’an in public debates, political organisation, and identity building; (6) the Qur’an in arts and media; (7) multilingual representations of the Qur’an. Proposals are encouraged that engage with sociological, anthropological, and political science theories and methods in their pursuit of the societal and lived Qur’an.
Questions? Email contactus@iqsaweb.org! We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!
IQSA International Meeting CfP Deadline Approaching
Friends of IQSA,
A friendly reminder that the Call for Papers deadline for IQSA’s fourth biennial International Meeting held in partnership with the “Giorgio La Pira” Library and Research Centre in Palermo, Sicilyhas been extended, and all paper and panel proposals are due this Friday May 7th, 2021.The organizing committee will send a notification of acceptance for abstracts by May 23, 2021.
Please note that all proposals for single papers must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
200-word paper abstract (in English)
while proposals for panels must include:
Chair name and affiliation
Panel title
200-words panel abstract (in English)
speakers contacted and selected by the proponent and title of each paper.
Applicants are kindly asked to submit their abstracts to the attention of Dr. Alba Fedeli at iqsa2021@fscire.it.
Conference registration fees are structured as follows:
Students to assistant professors – IQSA members: $50 USD / Non-IQSA members: $100 USD
Associate professors and above – IQSA members $75 USD / Non-IQSA members: $150 USD
Members of the public – $150 USD
Affiliates to the “Giorgio La Pira” Library will receive a special code for registration.
Individuals in the Global South interested in attending the conference should email contactus@iqsaweb.org for accommodations. Any other questions concerning the registration process should also be addressed to contactus@iqsaweb.org.
The organizing committee thanks the IQSA community for its understanding and flexibility during these extraordinary times, and looks forward to convening in July!
Deadline Approaching: IQSA 2020 Annual Meeting Paper Proposals
The deadline is approaching for the International Qur’anic Studies Association’s call for papers for its Annual Meeting to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from November 20–23, 2020! Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 11, 2020 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.
Please note that all proposals must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
400 word paper abstract (written in English)
Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:
Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting
Please also note that:
To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system (users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s eight program units:
Q: How do I register for the IQSA Annual Meeting?
A: To register for this year’s meeting, visit the SBL Annual Meeting Page and choose Register for the Annual Meeting. Then, complete a New Registration under the Affiliate Members category, and choose International Qur’anic Studies Association when prompted.
Q: What are the dates of IQSA’s Annual Meeting?
A: The IQSA Annual Meeting begins and ends November 22-25, 2019 one day before the regular SBL/AAR Meeting.
Q: How do I register for the Annual Meeting as an IQSA member?
A: Register as an AFFILIATE MEMBER on SBL’s Meetings and Events page. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the Affiliate link and choose “International Qur’anic Studies Association” in the drop-down menu.
Q: Do I have to be an IQSA member to register for the Annual Meeting?
A: YES – current IQSA membership is required and verified by staff upon registration. However, SBL/AAR membership is not required to attend the IQSA Annual Meeting. You can renew your IQSA membership HERE.
Q: I already registered for the Annual Meeting as an SBL/AAR member. Do I have to register again as an affiliate to attend IQSA events?
A: No – duplicate registration is not required to attend IQSA events if one has already registered as an SBL/AAR member. However, you must register as an active IQSA member if you are presenting at an IQSA session.
Q: Where can I find a schedule of events for the Annual Meeting?
A: IQSA and SBL/AAR’s Program Book will be distributed in print and online as the meeting date draws closer. Members can chose to access the Program Book via mobile app, online, or in print while completing the registration process.
Q: Where can I find information about Housing and Travel Accommodations?
A: Visit SBL’s Meetings and Events page and/or choose your hotel during your online registration.
Q: Does IQSA provide funding or reimbursement for its members to attend the meeting?
A: At this time, IQSA does not have the resources to provide financial assistance for housing and travel at the Annual Meeting. However, IQSA encourages its members to seek financial aid through institutional grants and other funding.
Q: I will be traveling internationally. How do I obtain a non-immigrant Visa Letter? A: Check the required box during online registration (see below) and email contact@iqsaweb.org to arrange for a Visa Letter.
Results: IQSA International Meeting Accepted Presenters
The International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA) is happy to announce the accepted presenters for its third biennial conference from July 25-26, 2019, hosted by the Tangier Global Forum of the University of New England, Tangier, Morocco. This year’s Call for Papers brought in hundreds of submissions, and the International Programming Committee had the daunting task of selecting the top 35 papers from a very strong pool of applicants.
The finalists chosen to present at the 2019 IQSA International Meeting are as follows:
1. Amidu O. Sanni – Contestations on “Errors” in Consonantal Qur’an: a Rare Apologia from al-Bāqillānī (d.403/1101)
2. Gulfishan Khan
3. Juan Cole – The Eastern Roman-Sasanian War (603-629) as a Key Symbolic Context for the Qur’an
4. Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau – “Le statut d’autorité attribué au Coran dans les milieux sunnites de l’âge d’or abbasside : l’exemple des témoignages rassemblés par Abû ‘Ubayd b. Sallâm (m. 224/838).”
5. Gabriel S. Reynolds – Divine Pathos and Tawba in the Qur’an
6. Devin J. Stewart – Notes on Generic Punishment Stories in the Qur’an
7. Anissa eL Gargari -سريانية القرآن وقريانية محمد عند الفرنسي كلود جيليو
8. Hamza Zafer – {Do you not see that Allah sends down one water from the sky and [yet] brings forth from it fruits of different colors?} (Q35.27) : The Rainwater Metaphor for Communal Difference and Ecumenism in the Quran’s Communitarian Texts.
9. Michel Cuypers & Sami Larbes – L’analyse rhétorique de la sourate al-Anfāl (8)
10. Marco Demichelis – Late Byzantine Christological debate and the Qur’ān. Arab Christian Miaphysitism and ‘Īsā ibn Maryam as bi-Rūh al-Quds
11. Faycal Naim – المظاهر الفنية بالمخطوطات القرآنية المحفوظة بالجزائر – بين الطراز المغربي و الطراز العثماني
12. Nadeen M. Alsulaimi – سورة الإنسان مكية أم مدنية: قراءة موضوعية بلاغية لسورة الإنسان بالتوازي مع سورة القيامة
13. John Tolan – Napoleon as reader of the Qur’an
14. Emmanuelle Stefanidis – Les controverses autour du Coran au IVe-Ve siècles : Pouvoir, théologie et textualité sous l’empire abbaside
15. Fred Donner
16. Bahador Ghayem – الديانة الصابئية فی القرآن و تطبيق اصولها الثلاثة – التوحيد و المعاد و النبوة – بالقرآن
17. Zahrul Fata – القراءة الحديثة للنص القرآني وأثرها في الدراسات القرآنية في إندونيسيا
18. Holger M. Zellentin – Qur’anic Law and Anti-Rabbinic Polemics
19. Suleyman Dost – The Rise and Fall of a Genre: The Maṣāḥif Books in Context
20. Mehdy Shaddel – Satanic corruption of scripture between the pseudo-Clementina and the Quran
21. Marijn van Putten – The Overrepresentation of Non-Canonical Readings in Early Manuscripts: A study of BnF Arabe 329d
22. Morgan Davis – Punishment Stories in the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Book of Mormon
23. Hasan Bazayniyah – ترجمة القرآن ومنازع التأويل: ترجمة بلاشير لسورة النّجم أنموذجا
24. Saber Ahmed – كتاب القرآن: الاتصال والانفصال بالكتاب المقدس
25. Monya El Almi – انتلجنسيا المناهج التفسيريّة بشمال إفريقيا من التّأصيل إلى التّحديث -تونس أنموذجا-
26. Jamel el-Hamri –« Malek Bennabi ou Le phénomène coranique comme « vérité travaillante » au service d’un projet de société réformiste au Maghreb »
27. Peter Riddell – The Signposts of the Revelation by al-Baghawi (d. 1122)
28. Bruce Fudge – Odysseus’ Scar and Ibrāhīm’s Trial
29. Ali Fathi – معيارية تفسير القرآن و تحدیاتها
30. Mohamed Lamallam – Terminological Study: A Novel Exegetical Method in Morocco
31. Mohammed Al Dhfar – Tafsīr and the conflict of the Empires in the 14th Century: al-Subkī on al-Zamakhsharī’s Kashshāf
32. Enno H. Dango – Demythologizing the Miracles of the Qurʾān, Muḥammad Asad’s Rationalist Translation and Interpretation
33. Arafat Razzaque – Abraham’s Ascension and Vision of the World: Muslim Redactions of Jewish Pseudepigrapha in Tafsīr Literature
34. Rabii al-Hashimi Noqri – علاقة القرآن بالكتب السابقة من خلال مفهوم النسخ ل “غوبيو جونفييف”
35. Raashid S. Goyal – The Qur’anic Aʿrāb: A Reassessment
36. Mehdi Azaiez
37. Nishadali Wafy
Details about conference registration, accommodations, funding, and travel are forthcoming. Paper presenters should expect an email with their official acceptance this week. Attendance to the International Meeting as non-presenters is permitted and encouraged for those who submitted proposals but were not accepted.
On behalf of the IQSA International Programming Committee, we thank all who submitted proposals. We are delighted to witness such overwhelming support from the global IQSA community and look forward to an exciting program in Tangier!
Deadline Approaching: Call for Papers Annual Meeting 2019
Only TWO DAYS remains to submit your abstracts for IQSA’s 2019 Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, California from November 22–25, 2019. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 6, 2019 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.
Please note that all proposals must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
400 word paper abstract (written in English)
Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:
Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting
Please also note that:
To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system (users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s six program units:
Click on the links above to find more information about each program unit, or visit the IQSA Call for Papers page. Click here for more information and FAQ’s about the Annual Meeting.
The International Qur’anic Studies Association has opened its call for papers for its Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, California from November 22–25, 2019. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 6, 2019 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.
Please note that all proposals must include:
Author name and affiliation
Paper title
400 word paper abstract (written in English)
Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:
Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting
Please also note that:
To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system (users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s six program units:
Program Unit Chairs Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau
Mohsen Goudarzi
The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the techniques utilized in the Qur’an for crafting imagery, characters, and narratives. Proposals may attend to artistic and literary strategies as well as to the broader social, religious, and political ends towards which these strategies are deployed.
The Surah Studies Unit of IQSA invites proposals for individual papers on any aspect of Surat al-Waqi‘ah (Q 56). Proposers may, for example, wish to explore: the surah’s liturgical and devotional importance for Muslims (it appears in almost all lists of the suwar al-munjiyat, the “surahs that save”); the surah’s division of the judged into three groups (companions of the left, companions of the right, and frontrunners), rather than the more usual pairing into those in paradise and those in hell; Shiite interpretations of the surah, notably the frontrunners (al-sabiqun v. 10, al-muqarrabun v. 11); the surah’s structure and composition, notably the shift that takes place after v. 75; the rhyme scheme and the reasons for the departures from it; the surah’s eschatological and polemical themes; and much else besides.
The Surah Studies Unit encourages and welcomes diverse methods and approaches. Indeed, the raison d’être of the panel is to bring different perspectives on a given surah—especially surahs receiving little scholarly attention otherwise—into dialogue with one another.
This unit aims to understand and contextualise the methods and hermeneutics applied to the Qur’anic text, both historical and contemporary. The Methodology and Hermeneutics unit addresses questions that might implicitly govern other units, such as: What is Qur’anic Studies, and how does the study of the Qur’an differ from the study of its interpretation? What are the methodological differences between descriptive and normative approaches to the text? How does context (intellectual, social, ethical, historical) affect hermeneutical approaches to the text? The unit welcomes papers addressed to the hermeneutics and methods of particular schools of interpretation or thought, and also on hermeneutics as applied to specific subjects or concepts such as social justice and gender.
This year the Methodology and Hermeneutics unit additionally invites submissions with a special focus on European hermeneutics and the Qur’an. The predominantly European tradition of 20th century hermeneutics that is exemplified by such seminal figures as Dilthey, Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer, Tillich, and Ricoeur has produced a rich and sustained inquiry into the possibilities of an epistemology of, and an interpretive methodology for, “the text.” Interrogating the very relationship between the reader and the text, this hermeneutical tradition has offered insights into the nature of language, readership, reception, discourse as event, interpretive predispositions, and “worlds” opened up by the text. To what extent do these insights have implications for our understanding of the Qur’an? What insights from the European tradition have had resonance with scholars of the Qur’an, and have prior attempts to incorporate such insights been successful?
Program Unit Chairs Alba Fedeli
Shady Hekmat Nasser
The aim of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition.
The unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit. In addition, the unit proposes a special thematic session for 2019: “Life of Qur’an manuscripts.” We invite proposals that touch upon issues related to the modification of manuscripts after they have been produced. Papers dealing with all eras and regions of the manuscript tradition are welcome. Submissions might focus on the insertion of marginalia notes, colophons, waqf statements, annotations, additions, amendments, the recycling of writing surfaces, etc., or on references to such practices in the traditional literature.
Program Unit Chairs Nora K. Schmid
Holger Zellentin
This unit was established in order to study the Qur’an’s relationship to the biblical tradition in the broadest possible sense of the term. We are interested, for example, in exploring the Qur’an’s reaction to the exegetical, homiletic, and narrative traditions of the Bible, in both written and oral form. We invite an engagement with the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups, and in the various languages of their original composition as well as in later translations. We especially encourage studies of the legal corpora that have developed in close dialogue with this biblical tradition prior to the emergence of the Qur’an and, subsequently, in exchange with the Qur’an.
For the 2019 Annual Meeting we further announce a themed session: “Theology of the Body in the Biblical Tradition and in the Qur’an.” This session will investigate the body as a useful site for studying qur’anic theological discourses in comparison with the biblical tradition. Since Peter Brown’s groundbreaking work, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988), the scholarly turn to the body has transformed the study of religion. In the Qur’an as well as in biblical traditions, the body figures prominently both as a site of human agency and as an agent itself. We welcome proposals for papers that deal with the diverse ways in which theological discourse shapes human attitudes towards the body (e.g., attitudes towards celibacy, diet, discipline, the embodied components of ritual, etc.), as well as papers that investigate the impact of the somatic on theological discourse (e.g., embodiment in devotional piety, corporeal aspects of apocalyptic representations, etc.), in the Qur’an and in biblical traditions.
Program Unit Chairs Johanne Christiansen
Michael Pregill
For the 2019 IQSA Annual Meeting in San Diego, the Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals that utilize various types of material or evidence—be that literary, documentary, or epigraphic—to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. We are especially interested in papers that present and discuss comparative methodologies to contribute to a better understanding of the Qur’an’s place in the cultural, political, social, and religious environment of Late Antiquity.
The Muslim holy book has been a part of European culture since its first translation into Latin by Robert of Ketton in 1142. Qur’an manuscripts and manuscripts of Qur’an commentaries, meanwhile, have been used, commented upon, and circulated in Europe since the Middle Ages. Beyond the mere fact of translating, copying, and printing the Qur’an in Europe (in Arabic, Latin, and the various European vernaculars), this panel will explore how the Qur’an was mobilized in debates about European cultural identities: in polemics between Protestants, Catholics, and Unitarians; in debates about the power of the Catholic (or Anglican) Church; in discussions about the renewal and reform of Christianity or Judaism; in debates about the place of religion in secular European societies. We invite papers on these and other instances of the impact and the utilization of the Qur’an in Europe between the twelfth and early nineteenth centuries.
The Societal Qur’an panel invites proposals for papers that investigate the Qur’an in its lived and societal contexts throughout history, from Late Antiquity to contemporary Late Modernity. Proposals are encouraged that engage with sociological, anthropological, and political science theories and methods in their pursuit of the societal and lived Qur’an. Papers might, for instance, discuss topics such as ritual and artistic uses of the Qur’an, practices of teaching the Qur’an, talismanic and medical uses of the Qur’an, the production of manuscript, print, and new media versions of the Qur’an, or the deployment of the Qur’an in terms of social identity and political organization.
Call for Papers: The Eighth North American Syriac Symposium
The Eighth North American Syriac Symposium
Brown University | Providence, RI
June 16-19, 2019
The Eighth North American Syriac Symposium will convene at Brown University on June 16-19, 2019. Held every four years since 1991, the North American Syriac Symposium brings together scholars and students for exchange and discussion on a wide variety of topics related to the language, literature, and cultural history of Syriac Christianity, extending chronologically from the first centuries CE to the present day and geographically from Syriac Christianity’s homeland in the Middle East to South India, China, and the worldwide diaspora.
Throughout its long history, Syriac Christianity has flourished in the midst of other languages, religions, cultures, and societies. However turbulent its circumstances, Syriac has enabled distinctive articulations and cultural expressions for its speakers. Moreover, not only have there been constant interactions, but Syriac has been an active medium of exchange. Contributions, borrowings, adaptations, and innovations have characterized the literary, material, philological, and cultural productions of Syriac speakers from the start. This Symposium welcomes proposals for scholarly papers on all topics that address Syriac in any of its historical time periods, within this broad theme.
Proposals may be submitted either for individual papers or as part of a proposed panel. Individual presentations must be limited to 20 minutes, plus 5 minutes of discussion time. Please submit contact information for the presenter(s) and an abstract of 250-350 words. Those wishing to propose a panel of 3 or 4 papers (4 papers maximum) on a specific theme must submit a separate abstract for each presentation, a title for the panel, and full contact information for all presenters and the session moderator.
All proposals should be submitted electronically to nasyriacsymposium@gmail.com on or before January 2, 2019. Notification of acceptances of paper and panel proposals will be made in early February, with a view to publishing the program in early March.
In addition to papers and panels, the symposium will feature keynote lectures by:
Liv Ingebord Lied, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo
We look forward to welcoming you to Brown University in the summer of 2019!
Best wishes,
Susan Ashbrook Harvey
on behalf of the local steering committee:
Local Steering Committee: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University (Chair)
Sargon Donabed, Roger Williams University
Jae Hee Han, Brown University
Sandra Keating, Providence College
Nancy Khalek, Brown University
Ute Possekel, Harvard Divinity School
*Content courtesy of Susan Ashbrook Harvey (Director, Program in Early Cultures Interim Chair, Dept. of Religious Studies | Brown University)
Call for Papers: The Qur’ān and Ethiopia: Context and Reception
Connections between the Qurʾān and Ethiopia are vast and varied. On the one hand, Ethiopia provides an important historical context (among many others) for understanding the Qurʾān in its Late Antique milieu. After all, throughout Late Antiquity, Ethiopia was a major political power, situated just across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula. Occasionally, Ethiopia even interceded directly in affairs in the peninsula, as evidenced above all by the Najrān episode. In addition, Islamic literature relays many connections that Muḥammad and his followers had with Ethiopia, including most famously the first Ḥijrah in which companions of the prophet sought refuge in Ethiopia. Thus, it comes as no surprise that there are Ethiopic loanwords in the Qurʾān, perhaps none more saliently than the Ethiopic word maʾǝdd ‘table, Eucharist’, which is found as the name of the fifth sūrah (al-Māʾidah). While Ethiopic loanwords in the Qurʾān have long been known, a number of questions remain: What do these loanwords tell us about the context in which the Qurʾān came into existence? And, more broadly and significantly, can we move beyond loanwords? That is, what are the other ways in which Ethiopia may provide a context for understanding the Qurʾān in its historical setting?
On the other hand, the Qurʾān also had—and still has—a reception in Ethiopia. Modern day Ethiopia is home to a sizable Muslim community: The 2007 census reported that just over one-third of the country’s ca. 74 million inhabitants identified as Muslim. Similarly, in neighboring Eritrea, which is historically part of the ancient kingdom of Axum, almost half of the ca. 5.5 million inhabitants in 2011 were Muslim, according to a report by the U.S. Department of State. These modern Muslim populations have historical antecedents stretching back to the rise of Islam. Thus, Ethiopia provides fertile ground for studying the reception of the Qurʾān for well over a millennium. The reception of the Qurʾān in Ethiopia is an especially opportune topic for a symposium at The Catholic University of America, which thanks to a recent gift by Gerald and Barbara Weiner now holds an invaluable collection of more than 175 Arabic manuscripts from Ethiopia, including a number of copies of the Qurʾān as well as exegetical works (tafsīr). Thus, ultimately, this symposium aims to locate the Qurʾān in Ethiopia, both as a context for its early development and as a location for its later reception.
Abstracts describing the precise topic treated with a length of approximately 200-300 words can be sent as an electronic version (pdf and MS word document) to Aaron Butts (buttsa@cua.edu). The deadline for submission is November 1, 2018.
Papers presented at the symposium will be considered for publication in an edited volume, which aims to make this interesting topic available to a wider audience.
Questions can be addressed to:
Dr. Aaron Butts
Assistant Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures
Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures
The Catholic University of America buttsa@cua.edu
The deadline to submit paper proposals for IQSA’s 2018 Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado from November 16-19, 2018 is TOMORROW, March 7 at 11:59pm EST.
Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by midnightMarch 7, 2018 (note: SBL membership is NOT required for proposal submission). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. Please contact the chairs specified by each program unit to which you’d like to apply if you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process. Abstracts should be written in English, have a length of around 400 words, and include the name and affiliation of the author.
The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s six program units:
Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link. Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. The paper proposal submissions are due by March 7, 2018. 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 Denver.
Program Unit Chairs: Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau
Sarra Tlili
The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the Qur’an at the thematic (as opposed to the stylistic or the structural) level. Proposers may for example address themes such as Qur’anic prophetology, eschatology, cosmology, ecology, and social status, or may investigate the meaning of certain Qur’anic words.
Program Unit Chairs:
Shawkat Toorawa
Marianna Klar
The Surah Studies unit invites proposals for individual papers on any aspect of the five surahs known collectively as al-Musabbihat (Q 57, 59, 61, 62, and 64). Although traditionally considered to be a group, there is a dearth of secondary scholarship on their form, their structural parallels, their implied unity, or indeed their many differences. Barely mentioned in Neuwirth 2010, these five surahs are excluded from analysis altogether in Cuypers 2016, and garner only a small handful of references in Sinai 2017; and yet Paret (in his 1977 Konkordanz) includes a long list of internal parallels and correspondences for these surahs, hitherto uninterpreted, while Bazargan, intriguingly, considers only surahs 57, 61, and 64 of the Musabbihat to be diachronically coherent wholes (Sadeghi 2011).
A varied blend of a number of qur’anic genres, encompassing sections of hymnic praise, punishment stories, assertions of the resurrection and the truth of God’s message, eschatology, commandment passages, both inter- and intra-community polemics, and references to contemporary events and community practice, the striking similarity of their opening verses nonetheless commands attention. Proposers might also wish to explore the relationship of rhyme to structure, or assess further evidence of the presence of textual borders throughout any or all of the Musabbihat. Presenters might focus on the surahs’ use of rhetorical devices, the presence of Leitwörter, the placement of hapax legomena, the use of repetitive lexical patterns, or recurring images. The surahs’ distinctive theological concepts–God’s Light, for instance, His Balance, or the matter of Divine doubling–might be deemed worthy of individual attention. In sum, proposals are invited on any aspect of the Musabbihat, their reception, their structure, their relative surah-ness, their relationship to other surahs, their composition, their lexicon, their rhetorical features, or their style.
This unit aims to understand and contextualise the methods and hermeneutics applied to the Qur’anic text, both historical and contemporary. The Methodology and Hermeneutics unit addresses questions that might implicitly govern other units, such as: What is Qur’anic Studies, and how does the study of the Qur’an differ from the study of its interpretation? What are the methodological differences between descriptive and normative approaches to the text? How does context (intellectual, social, ethical, historical) affect hermeneutical approaches to the text? The unit welcomes papers addressed to the hermeneutics and methods of particular schools of interpretation or thought, and also on hermeneutics as applied to specific subjects or concepts such as social justice and gender.
This year the Methodology and Hermeneutics unit invites papers from any aspect of the methods and hermeneutics in the study of the Qur’an. We will also be convening a pre-arranged roundtable discussion on bias and identity politics in the field of Qur’anic Studies.
Program unit chairs:
Alba Fedeli
Shady Hekmat Nasser
The aim of this unit, originally founded and curated by Keith Small, is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting to address the variety of interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are explored in relation to its manuscript tradition. Manuscript tradition refers to the transmission of the Qur’anic text in Qur’anic manuscripts, marginal notes to the text, and citations of the Qur’anic text as found in other works of Islamic literature, such as commentaries and particularly the qira’at literature. This will provide a forum to explore the relationship between Qur’anic manuscripts and Qur’anic citations, focusing on textual variants and the historical context of the Qur’an in various historical periods. In addition to the analysis of textual data, the unit also examines other topics, such as palaeographic, codicological, and art-historical features in the study of the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition, the application of textual criticism to manuscript texts, as well as the phenomenon of textual variants as found in the Islamic qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from the subdisciplines of Qur’an manuscript studies, Qur’anic commentaries and qira’at studies will serve to enrich and strengthen these fields.
This year the programming unit will schedule a thematic session entitled “Reading and Accessing Manuscripts of the Qur’an and of Qur’anic Commentaries”. We invite papers that deal with all eras and regions of the manuscript tradition encompassing manuscripts of the Qur’an, Qur’anic commentaries, and qira’at works, as well as the variety of palaeographic, art historical, codicological, philological, historical, and text-critical issues that one encounters in this discipline in terms of access to collections and new technologies for manuscript study. For example, papers may focus on presenting a particular manuscript or collection of manuscripts, on introducing future and past projects for accessing, digitising and displaying collections or on describing new technologies for reading or analysing manuscript texts and exploring issues of textual criticism. Papers on any topic within the range of the interests of The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism programme unit are welcome. Proposals should include a title and an abstract of approximately 400 words.
Program unit chairs:
Holger Zellentin
Cornelia Horn
For the 2018 meeting in Denver, we invite papers on exegetical, narrative, legal, or any other interaction between the Biblical and Qur’anic traditions for an open session.
For the 2018 IQSA Annual Meeting, the Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals for two open panels. We seek papers that utilize various types of evidence, whether literary, documentary and epigraphic, or material/visual/archaeological, to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. We are especially interested in papers that utilize comparative methodologies to contribute to a better understanding of the Qur’an’s place in its cultural, political, social, and religious environment.
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IQSA welcomes all submissions and looks forward to an exciting program in Denver!
