Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 5 (2018)

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 5 (2018)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.5), Zohar Hadromi-Allouche (University of Aberdeen) reviews Shahab Ahmed’s Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).

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In her review, Hadromi-Allouche writes… “Through discussions of fifty early reports about the satanic verses, the current volume strives to emphasize the broad acceptance in early Islam of this story. It presents the foundational historical data concerning the story and discusses how Muslims treated this story during these first two hundred years of Islam. The later conceptual change towards this story is not discussed, as Ahmed meant to treat it in later volumes. Since this story represents the ways in which the early Muslim community perceived Muḥammad’s prophethood and divine revelation, the author regards it as a good example of how orthodoxy is created and a truth claim becomes exclusive…”

 

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

 

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 3 (2018)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.3), John Kaltner (Rhodes College) reviews George Bristow’s Sharing Abraham? Narrative Worldview, Biblical and Qur’anic Interpretation & Comparative Theology in Turkey (Cambridge, MA: Doorlight Academic, 2017).
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In his review, Kaltner writes… “Bristow aims to present an alternative model of how Christian-Muslim dialogue can be undertaken by replacing the common thematic approach with one that has Abraham’s role as a figure who points toward Jesus. He writes, “This wholesale jettisoning of the uniqueness, universality and finality of Jesus as Lord and Messiah is found in many Christian efforts to widen the Abrahamic umbrella” (14). This is one of a number of places in the book where Bristow’s evangelical perspective informs and influences his analysis, resulting in a flattening and reduction of the diverse range of views that exist under the Christian portion of that umbrella…”

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no.2 (2018)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4 no.2), Adis Duderija (Griffith University) reviews Koran erklӓrt edited by Willi Steuhl (Berlin: Suhrkapm Verlag, 2017).

In his review, Duderija writes…”As a scholar from a Muslim background and someone with an activist mindset, I, for better or worse, over the last decade or so, have actively contributed to the dissemination of academic knowledge in non-academic contexts. I am a firm believer that (Western) academics specialising in Islamic Studies, regardless of their backgrounds, are ethically obliged to contribute to the current debates on Islam and Muslims, especially but not only in their native socio-political contexts, so as to help increase the level of informed opinion among the lay audiences. As such, I particularly welcome the timely publication of Koran erklӓrt, edited by Willi Steuhl, which goes some way in achieving this objective, especially in the German speaking world…”

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no.1 (2018)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4 no.1), Yasmin Amin (University of Exeter) reviews Rawand Osman’s Female Personalities in the Qur’an and Sunna: Examining the Major Sources of Imami Shi’i Islam (London & New York: Routledge, 2015). In her review, Amin analyzes this “comprehensive discussion of all the female personalities mentioned in the Qur’ān, as well as three role models from the women of ahl al-bayt (Muhammad’s family), focusing on the theme of jihād al-nafs (struggle of the soul), highlighting the specific features ‘spiritual motherhood’ and earthly/political jihad.“

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

IQSA New Year Reminders & Updates

A belated Happy New Year from the International Qur’anic Studies Association! 2018 ushers in a range of new publications, exciting events, and organizational developments for the IQSA community.

First and foremost, IQSA Membership for 2018 is now open! Membership consists of five levels: Student/International, Mid-range Faculty/General, Full Professor, Lifetime, and Institutional. The Student/International level is $25 (USD) for student and international (Global South) scholars. The Mid-range Faculty/General level is $50 (USD) for all non-student scholars, professionals, and mid-range faculty. The Full Professor level is $75 (USD) for full professors. The Lifetime level is a one time installment of $2,000 (USD) and Institutional membership is $400 (USD) annually.

To become a member, click HERE. To renew or edit your membership, sign in to your member account, click the “Join IQSA” tab, and select “Edit your member profile” at the bottom of the page.

After welcoming IQSA’s first two inaugural Lifetime Members, Professor Jane Dammen McAuliffe and Professor Reza Aslan, in 2017, the Executive Office eagerly anticipates forthcoming Lifetime and Institutional Members in the IQSA community. You can read more about these two new membership tiers on our Membership Page.

One benefit of IQSA Membership is discounted rates for the anticipated Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion in November, 2018. This year we will convene in breathtaking Denver, Colorado, so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for the forthcoming Call for Papers! Catch up on last year’s 2017 Annual Meeting held in Boston, MA in the Program Book and Conference Report.

2018 also brings about Volume 4 of IQSA’s flagship publication, the Review of Qur’anic Research (Ed. Shari Lowin), and Volume 2 of the much anticipated Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (Ed. Vanessa De Gifis). Online access to these resources is FREE to all current IQSA Members!

We look forward to an exciting and productive year ahead as IQSA furthers its mission of building bridges across the globe via collaborative scholarship!

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.9 (2017)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 3 no.9), Peter G. Riddell (Melbourne School of Theology) reviews Eloïse Brac de la Perrière and Monique Buresi’s Le Coran de Gwalior: Polysémie d’un manuscrit à peintures (Paris: Éditions de Boccard, 2016.).

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“One of the most significant military success of Tamerlane occurred on 17 December 1398, when he sacked and plundered Delhi, the heart of the Sultanate of Delhi under the Tughluq dynasty. It was in such turbulent times that the Gwalior Qurʾān was produced at the fortress of Gwalior on 11 July 1399, according to its colophon. It is written in Bihari script, a variant of naskh that was prevalent in northern India between the period of Tamerlane and the establishment of the Mughal Dynasty. The MS colophon makes mention of a certain Muḥammad Shaʿbān, who probably supervised production of the manuscript…”

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.8 (2017)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 3 no.8), Cecilia Palombo (Princeton University) reviews Andrew G. Bannister’s An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’ān (Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2014).  

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The relationship between “the oral” and “the written” is one of the most fertile and unresolved questions in the study of early Islam, and one that often remains latent even in different sets of research questions and debates—from the reliability of early historical accounts to the development of Islamic legal practices, to the study of “semi-literary” papyri, and others. Andrew Bannister’s An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’ān has the merit of bringing that complex relationship into the focus of Qur’ānic studies by searching the Qur’ānic text itself for signs of oral diction. This fascinating book has the potential of reviving the debate regarding orality and literacy in the late antique Near East…”

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.5 (2017)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.5), Vanessa De Gifis (Wayne State University) reviews Tafsīr and Islamic Intellectual History (London: Oxford University Press/Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2014), a collection of studies edited by Andreas Görke and Johanna Pink. In this volume, Görke and Pink pose an essential inquiry about tafsīr: “What kind of disciplinary, dogmatic, sectarian, chronological or regional boundaries are there, how are they affirmed and how are they permeated, transgressed, or shifted?” (11). The overall claim of TIIH is that a variety of criteria may be useful to make sense of the external (definitional) and internal (taxonomical) boundaries of tafsīr, contingent upon the particular aspects of qurʾānic interpretation with which researchers are concerned.

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Advertising with IQSA

The International Qur’anic Studies Association is now extending advertising opportunities for interested publishers! See below for new print and online advertising offerings.

  1. Advertise in the Annual Meeting Program Book – Every year the International Qur’anic Studies Association holds an Annual Meeting in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion, attracting a wide audience in the scholarly community from across the nation. The accompanying Program Book published by IQSA is read by hundreds at the Annual Meeting and thousands around the world, providing a critical platform for relevant businesses market their publications and services. Email contact@iqsaweb.org to reserve an advertising space today!
  2. Advertise in Print – IQSA provides advertising space in three of its flagship publications: the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (JIQSA), the monthly Review of Qur’anic Research, and the forthcoming monograph series IQSA Studies in the Qur’an (ISIQ). Email contact@iqsaweb.org for details.
  3. Advertise Online – While IQSA does not currently hold a a physical headquarters, its website serves as the central meeting point and face of the organization visited by hundreds of members and non-members every day. Email contact@iqsaweb.org to inquire about advertising with us online via www.iqsaweb.org.
  4. Send an Email to IQSA Members – IQSA will send emails on behalf of publishers and other advertisers of interest to our members. The publisher/advertiser is responsible for composing the email. Please contact the Executive Office at contact@iqsaweb.org for more information.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.4 (2017)

In the latest installment of IQSA’s Review of Qur’anic Research, Devin Stewart (Emory University) reviews David Hollenberg’s Beyond the Qurʾān: Early Ismāʿīlī taʾwīl and the Secrets of the Prophets (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016). The book is a discussion of taʾwīl, allegorical or symbolic interpretation of the Qurʾān, based mainly on Ismāʿīlī works from the tenth and eleventh centuries. It presents three main arguments: an overarching historical argument about the Ismāʿīlī daʿwah and other similar movements, and two more focused arguments on the nature of Ismāʿīlī taʾwīl and its use of biblical material.

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.3 (2017)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research, Johanna Pink (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg) reviews The Qur’an and Its Readers Worldwide edited by Suha Taji-Farouki (Oxford University Press, 2015). This volume presents readers with an unprecedented broad perspective on the global field of Muslim qurʾānic exegesis. It brings together ten chapters that bear witness to exegetical approaches from all over the world: Bosnia, Turkey, South Asia, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, the U.S., East Africa, Germany, and China. Consequently, it contains examples from Muslim majority societies as well as diasporic communities from the early twentieth century to the present.

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no. 1 (2017)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research, Fred M. Donner reviews Michael Penn’s When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015). Since the publication of Patricia Crone and Michael Cook’s Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (1980), several collections of non-Muslim sources used to reconstruct the history of Early Islam have appeared in conversation, bringing together languished manuscripts that were previously unpublished and often untranslated into one place. A major milestone was the appearance of Robert Hoyland’s Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam (1997), a collection whose value has hardly diminished in the two decades since its publication. Also critical in this regard is Andrew Palmer’s The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles (1993). Michael Penn’s When Christians First Met Muslims is a welcome addition to this list of useful compendium of non-Muslim sources that describe the origins of Islam.

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© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.