Ninth SOAS Conference on the Qur’an: Call for Papers*
Ninth SOAS Conference on the Qur’an: Call for Papers*
Proposals are invited for the Ninth SOAS Conference on the Qur’an: “The Qur’an: Text, Society And Culture,” to be held on 11-13 February 2016. The conference series, hosted by SOAS, University of London, seeks to address a basic question: How is the Qur’anic text read and interpreted? The goal is to encompass a global vision of current research trends, and to stimulate discussion, debate, and research on all aspects of the Qur’anic text and its interpretation and translation. While the conference will remain committed to the textual study of the Qur’an and the religious, intellectual, and artistic activity that developed around it and drew on it, contributions on all topics relevant to Qur’anic studies are welcomed. Attention will also be given to literary, cultural, politico-sociological, and anthropological studies relating to the Qur’an.
The primary conference language is English, but papers may be presented in English or Arabic. Further information on the conference series is available on the SOAS Centre of Islamic Studies site HERE. The submission deadline for abstracts is 24 August 2015.
* Text adopted from the official CFP available on the SOAS website.
Iranian calligraphy master Seyed Mohammad Vahid Mousavi Jazayeri is on a mission to revive the magnificent but now largely unpracticed art of Kufic Arabic calligraphy, and has chosen as his subject the text of the Qur’an, the original inspiration for the development of Kufic calligraphy in Islamic manuscript traditions and decorative arts. In collaboration with master illuminator Jamshid Sarhaddi, his new limited-edition book, Early Arabic Kufic Calligraphy of Mousavi Jazayeri: Surat al-Mulk, is the first in a planned series of books devoted to qur’anic sūrahs that will eventually comprise a complete contemporary copy of the Qur’an in this ancient script.
Calligraphy of the opening of Sūrat al-Mulk, including the title of the sūrah and the basmalah.
With its strong horizontal lines and sparsity of words per page, Mousavi Jazayeri’s rendering of Sūrat al-Mulk resembles the sort of medieval Qur’an manuscript typically given as waqf (religious endowment), yet it is distinctive in the way that letter groups are evenly spaced and words flow beyond the ends of lines and pages, giving his rendering a remarkably seamless style.
A master calligrapher, type designer, and graphic designer, Mousavi Jazayeri has spent years visiting archaeological sites, historic buildings, cemeteries, mosques, libraries, and museums to study the material culture of Kufic Arabic.
S. M. V. Mousavi Jazayeri dotting a Kufic manuscript during a workshop at the 2015 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. All images courtesy of Kuficpedia.
In the course of his studies he rediscovered a forgotten technique for cutting the calligraphic pen (qalam) for primary Kufic, and by adopting this technique in his own work he is able to create pieces that are reflective of the rich history of the calligraphic arts. He has put on a number of well-received exhibitions and workshops, most recently a workshop at the 2015 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
The publications and workshops of Mousavi Jazayeri are part of Kuficpedia, an ongoing collaborative project with an international group of scholars and designers who share an interest in the Kufic script.
The Arabian Context of the Qur’an: Dissertation Highlight
by Süleyman Dost*
He claimed to be an Arab prophet and he was. We shall see him consciously borrowing – he is quite frank about it. But to begin with, the materials which he uses, though they may remind us ever and again of Jewish and Christian phrases and ideas, are in reality Arab materials. (Richard Bell, The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment [London, 1925], 69)
Around all these Koranic narratives there is, and was from the first, the atmosphere of an Arabian revelation, and they form a very characteristic and important part of the prophet’s great achievement. (Charles Cutler Torrey, The Jewish Foundation of Islam [New York, 1933], 126)
Above are the testimonies of two distinguished scholars writing at a time when the debate for anchoring the origins of the Qur’an to one of the two major religious traditions was still hot. The titles of their works do little to hide their standpoints, but they both talk curiously—if scantily—about an Arabian background to the Qur’an. Are they talking about the rich pre-Islamic treasure of mythopoeia that was exemplified in the so-called pre-Islamic poetry? Is it the ever-increasing number of inscriptions that were being located in and around the Arabian Peninsula? Whatever this Arabian background meant for Bell and Torrey, they were both unconvinced about the completely explanatory power of a Judeo-Christian or Biblical context for the Qur’an.
Much has happened since then. Heinrich Speyer almost exhausted the Biblical and extra-Biblical parallels to the Qur’an in his brilliant Die biblischen Erzählungen im Qoran; Margoliouth and Taha Husayn call the authenticity (or rather, pre-Islamicity) of pre-Islamic poetry into question; work on a critical edition of the Qur’an was abandoned due to disastrous events partly related to World War II, only to be revived half a century later; most importantly, Wansbrough’s Qur’ānic Studies bulldozed the whole field.
Now that the dust of the commotion that Wansbrough caused in the field are settling and that manuscript studies of the Qur’an have matured, what is left of this Arabian background? Wansbrough’s argument for a Qur’anic context that was later in time and more distant in location than traditionally assumed is hardly tenable now, and a more accurate contextualization of the Qur’an is needed more than ever. If the Arabian background of the Qur’an cannot be accounted for in Biblical and extra-Biblical material, and can no longer be lumped in with the too-good-to-be-true pre-Islamic poetry and early Muslim historiography, then where is this background to be found?
The “inscription of Abraha;” image courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, http://www.mnh.si.edu/epigraphy/e_pre-islamic/fig04_sabaean.htm.
My dissertation project attempts to shed light on the Arabian context of the Qur’an by using sources that securely predate the Qur’an from in and immediately around the Arabian Peninsula, aiming to contribute to the traditionsgeschichte of the Qur’an through a focused examination of lexical and thematic continuities from pre-Qur’anic Arabian texts to the Qur’an. The sources that inform my study are necessarily extensive, and I consider a large variety of inscriptional sources in Old South Arabian, Ancient North Arabian, Nabataean, Palmyran, “Sinaitic,” and, in a rather limited fashion, Greek, Latin, and Syriac.
The field of ancient Arabian languages has been particularly lively for some time, but little has been done to align these sources with the Qur’an, with the important exceptions of Hubert Grimme and the more recent attempts of Christian J. Robin, Hani Hayajneh, and Ahmed al-Jallad. The ancient Arabian sources provide crucial information where Biblical tradition falls short or where Muslim sources need correction or corroboration. I use these sources to argue for an Arabian context of the Qur’an.
The first chapter of my dissertation compares Qur’anic divine nomenclature with the divine landscape of the Arabian Peninsula as attested in epigraphy. The aim here is to show not only that the immediate context of the Qur’an purveys a unique pantheon of gods that find their equivalents in the inscriptions from the Peninsula, but also that the names and attributes of the Qur’anic God reflect the regional preferences for divine appellations, with the tension between Allāh and al-Raḥmān particularly residual in the Qur’an.
My second chapter builds on the first by exploring some central concepts in the Qur’an that have to do with the relationship between humans and the divine, showing how the Qur’anic vocabulary that dominates the human-divine axis is informed by its Arabian context.
The third chapter addresses the portrayals in the Qur’an of Biblical history along with what appears to be nearly contemporaneous events in and around the Peninsula. I argue that there is a visible break of temporal perception in the Qur’an concerning the transition from what I call “biblical pseudo-history” to episodes of “Arabian” events that informed the local history surrounding the provenance of the Qur’an. I examine these local events in light of available epigraphic and literary sources.
The fourth and the fifth chapters bring the discussion back to the Judeo-Christian plane that has been familiar to Qur’anic studies for two centuries, but this time with an eye toward identifying a trend in the Qur’an’s employment of Biblical figures. These two chapters problematize the indebtedness of the Qur’an to the central Biblical discourse of the time and try to explain the oddities in the Qur’an’s portrayal of Judeo-Christian material through sources that remained peripheral at best to the main centers of Judaism and Christianity. Here I use South Arabian texts of Jewish and Christian provenance as well as those sources that primarily circulated in the Ethiopic language like the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch.
My dissertation is an attempt to historicize the Qur’an in a post-Wansbrough and post-Ṣanʿāʾ-manuscripts world by treating it as a primary source rather than as a text with unwanted exegetical baggage. I believe that narrowing down the context of the Qur’an to a workable and meaningful scale of time and space, with philological commonsense and sensitivity to intra-Qur’anic diachrony, can do wonders for our understanding of the Qur’an.
* Süleyman Dost is a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.
CFP Highlight: Qur’an Manuscripts and Material Culture
For the IQSA 2015 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Material Culture program unit will host two panels. For the first panel, we invite papers that deal with all eras and regions of the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition, as well as the variety of palaeographic, art historical, codicological, and historical issues one encounters in the discipline.
MS Mingana Islamic Arabic 1563, f.26v, l.2
For example, a paper topic may focus on a particular manuscript or group of manuscripts, a feature of orthographic development, a particular script style, the dating of manuscripts, issues of textual criticism, systems of qira’at, the Qur’anic arts of the book, or another feature of Qur’anic manuscript studies not listed here but that fits the general parameters of the program unit.
For the second panel, we invite contributions on any aspect of the Qur’an’s history and pre-history that lies outside the manuscript tradition. The second panel aims to provide a forum for the study of the Qur’an as it was applied to objects of daily use as well as elite artifacts and buildings, and for the investigation of scholarly reactions to these developments in hadith collections and other textual sources. For example, topics relating to Qur’anic citation in the epigraphic (including graffiti as well as formal inscriptions), architectural, ceramic, numismatic and papyrological records and the use of the Qur’an in funerary, apotropaic, and prophylactic contexts would be most welcome. Topics concerning pre-Islamic inscriptions that might have a bearing on the later formulation of the text of the Qur’an are also welcome.
Proposals should include a title and an abstract of approximately 400 words. Click here to submit a proposal to the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Material Culture program unit.
Qur’an manuscript from North Africa, 16th century; Yattara Family Private Library, Timbuktu. All images courtesy of Yattara Family Private Library.
Access to specific Qur’an manuscripts is important for the study of the Qur’an’s manuscript history and material culture. While physical access to manuscripts is often limited, access to digital images helps researchers gain ready familiarity with Qur’an manuscripts, make expeditious research travel plans, and sustain their research wherever they go. The Yattara Family Private Library is pleased to share with IQSA some images and a physical description of a 16th-century North African Qur’an manuscript held in our collection in Timbuktu, Mali. It is a valuable example of local traditions for the representation and preservation of the Qur’an text.
The manuscript is a complete Arabic text of the Qur’an, written over 500 pages on 250 parchment folios, probably of sheep skin. The folios are bound in a leather cover of goat skin. The book measures 11.5 x 4.75 in. (29.84 x 12.06 cm.) when fully opened, with a height of 2 in. (5.08 cm.) when closed. Each leaf measures 4.75 x 4.50 in. (12.06 x 11.43 cm.).
This Qur’an manuscript was previously displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts for three years, and is currently under consideration for acquisition by the African Art department of the High Museum in Atlanta. It will be featured at the High Museum’s Collectors Evening on 31 January 2015.
Manuscripts in the Yattara Family Private Library date back as far as the 12th century, and cover a diverse array of literary fields, including theology, mathematics, astronomy, and law. The carefully preserved and highly revered manuscript collections in Mali (Timbuktu, Jenne, and Gao) collectively represent a major hub for the rich development and global influence of the African literary heritage.
* Jean Lefe Ag Nouh is owner of the Yattara Family Private Library in Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa. Curt Meyer is the Library’s Representative.
The Qur’an: Historical Context, Manuscripts, and Material Culture (IQSA) 11/21/2014 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: Room 23 B (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Panel 2: The Qur’an: Historical Context and Material Culture Wadad Kadi, Oriental Institute, Chicago ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Katib’s Use of the Qur’an in His Legal, Theological, and Historical Letters (30 min)
Francesca Leoni, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Mighty (S)words: Protective and Apotropaic Uses of the Qur’an (30 min)
Peter Webb, University of London Inhabiting the Book: The Qur’an and Space in Mamluk Religious Architecture (30 min) Robert Hoyland, Oriental Institute, Oxford Writing the Qur’an in Stone: Use of the Muslim Scripture in Early Arabic Inscriptions (30 min)
International Qur’anic Studies Association 11/21/2014 4:00 PM to 5:15 PM Room: Room 23 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Keynote LectureEmran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Presiding
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Introduction (10 min)
Angelika Neuwirth, Freie Universität Berlin Qur’anic Studies and Historical-Critical Philology. The Qur’an’s Staging, Penetrating, and Eclipsing Biblical tradition (45 min) Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria (BC), Respondent (20 min)
International Qur’anic Studies Association 11/21/2014 5:15 PM to 6:30 PM Room: Room 24 A (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Reception
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
11/22/2014 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Room: Room 24 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:The Qur’an and Justice: How Removable are the Contradictions? Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg The Qur’an on Black and White: Exploring Possible Traces of Race and Racism in Tafsir (20 min)
Jerusha Tanner Lamptey, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York Muslima Theology and Relational Qur’anic Hermeneutics (20 min)
Karen Bauer, The Institute of Ismaili Studies Interpreting away the Qur’an: Hermeneutical Strategies for Reconciling Text and Values (20 min)
Fred M. Donner, University of Chicago Approaching the Qur’an’s Contradictory Statements on Ahl al-Kitab (20 min) Discussion (20 min)
International Qur’anic Studies Association 11/22/2014 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Room: Room 1 B (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC)
Mentorship Lunch (Details TBA)
The Qur’an: Historical Context, Manuscripts, and Material Culture (IQSA) 11/22/2014 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: Room 24 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Panel 1: Historical Context and Qur’an Manuscripts François Déroche, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes MS R38 from Kairouan, Tunisia and Its Umayyad Context (20 min)
Daniel Brubaker, Rice University Manuscript and Tradition: Exploring Scribal Alterations in Early Qur’ans in View of the Qira’at and Masahif Literature (20 min)
Umberto Bongianino, University of Oxford Early Qur’anic Manuscripts from the Muslim West: A Typological Survey (20 min)
Nuria Martínez-de-Castilla-Muñoz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Sixteenth-Century Spanish Translations of the Qur’an: The Almonacid de la Sierra Atelier (20 min) Discussion (50 min)
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA) Joint Session With: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA), Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts 11/22/2014 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Room: Room 24 B (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:The Qur’an and Christian Oriental Traditions Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham, Presiding
Sidney Griffith, Catholic University of America The Suhuf of Abraham and Moses (25 min)
Abdulla Galadari, Masdar Institute The Camel Passing through the Eye of the Needle: A Comparison between the Qur’an, the Greek Gospels, and Tatian’s Syriac Diatessaron (25 min)
Cornelia B. Horn, Catholic University of America Parallel Structures, Polemical Interpretations: An Intertextual Approach to Jesus’ Miracles in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Normative and Interpretive Texts (25 min) Nicolai Sinai, Oxford University The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’anic Surahs in Light of Syriac Literature (25 min) Paul Neuenkirchen, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes The Qur’anic “Vision Pericopes” in Light of a Christian Apocrypha (25 min)
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
11/23/2014 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Room: Room 24 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Bible, Qur’an, and Jewish Traditions Cornelia Horn, Catholic University of America, Presiding
Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington Jonah and the Ninevites: Prophecy to Communal Outsiders in the Qur’an (25 min)
Emad Botros, McMaster Divinity College The Recalcitrant Prophet: Jonah Between the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible Traditions (25 min)
Michael Pregill, Elon University Another Brick in the Wall: The Intertwining of Biblical and Qur’anic Exegesis in Islamicate Midrash (25 min) Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (California Branch) Shabbat Violation in Qur’anic Discourse (25 min) Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham The Qur’an and Rabbinic Judaism: “Mecca” and “Medina” between Palestine and Babylonia (25 min) Business Meeting (30 min) – All IQSA Members are expected to attend!
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
11/23/2014 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Room: Room 24 B (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Diversity Beyond Muslim/Non-Muslim Binaries Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University, Presiding
Clare Wilde, University of Auckland Contemporary Echoes of Early Christian Arabic Approaches to the Qur’an (20 min)
Sayeh Meisami, University of Toronto Qur’anic Hermeneutics and Islamic Philosophy: A Study of Ibn Sina’s Commentary on Surat al-Falaq in Comparison with His Philosophical Writings on the Problem of Evil (20 min)
David R. Vishanoff, University of Oklahoma Reenchanting the Qur’an: Hermeneutical Applications of the Ash’ari Concept of God’s Eternal Speech (20 min)
Yusuf Rahman, State Islamic University Jakarta Indonesia The Indonesian Muslim Responses to the Use of Hermeneutics in the Study of the Qur’an (20 min) Discussion (30 min)
Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria (BC), Respondent (10 min)
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA) Joint Session With: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA), Qur’an and Biblical Literature 11/23/2014 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: Room 24 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Bible and Qur’an: Confirmation, Conversation, Conflict John Kaltner, Rhodes College, Presiding
Ashoor Yousif, University of Toronto Claiming the Claimed: Islamic Exegesis of Biblical Prophecies During the ‘Abbasid Period (30 min)
Salah Mahgoub Edris, Cairo University The Christian Interpretation of the Qur’an in Syriac Literature (30 min)
Mohammad Hasan Ahmadi, University of Tehran The Qur’anic Terminology of the Biblical Tradition (30 min) Carol Schersten LaHurd, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago The Academy vs. the Grassroots: Cognitive Dissonance on Interfaith Dialogue (30 min) Roberta Sabbath, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Teaching Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur’an to Undergraduate English Majors and Elective Students (30 min)
Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA) 11/23/2014
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Room: Room 24 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Themes and Rhetorical Tools in the Qur’an Sarra Tlili, University of Florida, Presiding
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Groningen, Presiding
D.S. Adnan Majid, University of California-San Diego Virgins of a Virginal Paradise: The Use of Synecdoche in Surah Rahman (18 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Thomas Hoffmann, Københavns Universitet Delivering the Qur’an: Metaphors of Qur’anic Maternality and Natality (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Devin Stewart, Emory University Anomalous Rhyme-Words in the Qur’an and Their Implications (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Break (10 min)
Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University The Economy of Excellence: A Thematic Study of Fadl in the Qur’an (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Andrew G. Bannister, Melbourne School of Theology Retelling the Tale: A Computerized Oral-Formulaic Analysis of the Qur’an (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Respondent (25 min)
Qur’an Seminar (IQSA) 11/24/2014 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: AB (Level 3 (Aqua)) – Hilton Bayfront (HB) Theme:Surah 74 and Q 18:60–102 Participants will discuss together the two selected Qur’anic passages.
Mehdi Azaiez, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Gerald Hawting, School of Oriental and African Studies, Panelist
Thomas Hoffmann, Københavns Universitet, Panelist
Daniel Madigan, Georgetown University, Panelist
David Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN), Panelist
Gabriel Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Stephen Shoemaker, University of Oregon, Panelist
Tommaso Tesei, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Panelist
Sarra Tlili, University of Florida, Panelist
Qur’an Seminar (IQSA) 11/24/2014 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: AB (Level 3 (Aqua)) – Hilton Bayfront (HB) Theme:Surahs 19 and 88 Participants will discuss together the two selected Qur’anic passages.
Mehdi Azaiez, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Gerald Hawting, School of Oriental and African Studies, Panelist
Thomas Hoffmann, Københavns Universitet, Panelist
Daniel Madigan, Georgetown University, Panelist
David Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN), Panelist
Gabriel Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Stephen Shoemaker, University of Oregon, Panelist
Tommaso Tesei, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Sarra Tlili, University of Florida, Panelist
Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA) 11/24/2014 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Room: Room 17 B (Mezzanine level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC) Theme:Detecting Ring Patterns: Insights into the Qur’an’s Structure and Meaning This panel is dedicated to the emerging field of Semitic Rhetoric/Ring Composition theory applied to the Qur’an.
Sarra Tlili, University of Florida, Presiding
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Groningen, Presiding
Dalia Abo-Haggar, Harvard University Symmetry and Asymmetry in the Qur’an (18 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Giuliano Lancioni, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, and Raoul Villano, Università degli Studi Roma Tre The Self-Similar Koran (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
AbdelMadjid Benhabib, University of Tlemcen – Algeria Lexical Repetition in Noah’s Discourse in the Qur’an (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Break (10 min)
Raymond Farrin, American University of Kuwait Ring Structure in Sura 9: Repentance Emphasized (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Rick Oakes, North-West University (South Africa) The Semitic Rhetoric of Surat al-Nisa’ 153-162 Imparts Meaning to Shubbiha in Aya 157a (18 min) Discussion (5 min)
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Groningen, Respondent (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
The aim of this unit, chaired by Keith Small and Luke Treadwell, is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting in which to explore questions concerning the Qur’an’s text in the areas of its manuscript history and its textual representation in Islamic material culture. This will provide a broad forum to explore the historical context of the Qur’an from various eras, as well as such diverse but related topics as the palaeographic, codicological and art historical study of the Qur’an’s manuscript history, and the various epigraphic media of Islamic material culture.
This unit will consist of two panels. One will use as its focus the study of these issues as they apply to manuscripts. The second will focus on the study of these issues as they apply to epigraphic materials. See the official call for papers here for further details.
Important Notes about Proposing a Paper for IQSA 2014
* IQSA is an independent learned society, although our meeting overlaps with those of SBL and AAR. In order to attend IQSA 2014, membership in IQSA and registration for the SBL/AAR conference will be necessary. (The first day of the IQSA conference, however, will be open to the general public).
* All interested students and scholars may submit a proposal through SBL’s website, here. Scroll down to the “Affiliate” section, then click on the chosen IQSA program unit name. [Look in particular for the “(IQSA)” indication at the end of the unit titles]. Instructions for those with and without SBL membership can be found by clicking through to these individual program unit pages.
* Details on low-cost membership in IQSA will be published on the IQSA blog in Spring 2014. Make sure you are subscribed!
Proposals are invited for the Ninth SOAS Conference on the Qur’an: “The Qur’an: Text, Society And Culture,” to be held on 11-13 February 2016. The conference series, hosted by SOAS, University of London, seeks to address a basic question: How is the Qur’anic text read and interpreted? The goal is to encompass a global vision of current research trends, and to stimulate discussion, debate, and research on all aspects of the Qur’anic text and its interpretation and translation. While the conference will remain committed to the textual study of the Qur’an and the religious, intellectual, and artistic activity that developed around it and drew on it, contributions on all topics relevant to Qur’anic studies are welcomed. Attention will also be given to literary, cultural, politico-sociological, and anthropological studies relating to the Qur’an.
