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The Qur'an: Text, Society & Culture, 2016

Key information

Date
to
Time
9:00 AM to 3:30 PM
Venue
Russell Square: College Buildings
Room
Khalili Lecture Theatre & Brunei Gallery

About this event

Conveners: Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem & Dr Helen Blatherwick

The conference series seeks to provide a forum for investigating the basic question: how is the Qur’anic text read and interpreted? Our objective 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, attention will also be given to literary, cultural, politico-sociological, and anthropological studies relating to the Qur’an.

Selected papers will be published as articles in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies , subject to standard outside refereeing.

The primary conference language is English, but papers may be presented in English or Arabic.

Recording

Programme:

Thursday 10 November (Khalili Lecture Theatre, main building)
Time Event
9.00–9.45 Coffee and Registration
9.45–10.00 Opening Address (Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)
10.00–11.30

Panel 1: Rhyme, Style, and Structure (chair: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

Devin J. Stewart (Emory University), ‘Rhyme and Rhythm as Criteria for Determining Qur’anic Verse Endings in the Work of Ibn Sa‘id al-Dani and the “Counters”’

Marianna Klar (SOAS, University of London), ‘The Structuring Force of Rhyme in The Long Qur’anic Suras’

فايز حسان سليمان أبو عمرة (جامعة الأقصى)، السياق القرآني ودوره في فهم النصوص القرآنية

11.30–12.00 Coffee Break
12.00–1.00

Panel 2: Textual History and Chronology (chair: Bruce Fudge)

Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau (University of Strasbourg), ‘Diachronic Composition of the Qur’anic Text: When Argumentative Analysis Helps Chronology’

Adam Flowers (University of Chicago), ‘Reconsidering Genre in Qur’anic Studies’

1.00–2.30 Lunch
2.30–4.30

Panel 3: Language, Ideas, and Discourse (chair: Dheen Mohamed)

Nathaniel A. Miller (University of Cambridge), ‘Quranic Isra’ and Pre-Islamic Hijazi Imagery of Rule’

عبد الرحيم بن أحمد شنين (جامعة قاصدي مرباح ورقلة)، درء شبهة تغليب المذكّر على المؤنث عند العرب من خلال القرآن الكريم

Thomas Hoffmann (University of Copenhagen), ‘Taste My Punishment and My Warnings (Q. 54:39): On the Torments of Tantalus and Other Painful Metaphors of Taste in the Qur’an’

حسن بشير (مجمع اللّغة العربيّة بالخرطوم) قضيّة الشّعر في منهج التّأصيل القرءانيّ

Friday 11 November (Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre)
Time Event
9.30–11.00

Panel 4: Narration and Narrative (chair: Marianna Klar)

Jessica Mutter (University of Chicago), ‘Dramatic Form and Nested Dialogue: The Use of iltifat in the Qur’an’

Hamza M. Zafer (University of Washington), ‘The Patriarchs in the Qur’an’

Shawkat M. Toorawa (Yale University), ‘Daughters in the Qur’an’

11.00–11.30 Coffee Break
11.30–1.00

Panel 5: Law (chair: Abdul Hakim al-Matroudi)

Joseph Lowry (University of Pennsylvania), ‘Legal Language and Theology in the Qur’an: Excuse, Repentance, Forgiveness, and Fulfillment’

A. David K. Owen (Harvard University), ‘Certainty in Interpretation: Causal Knowledge in Ibn Hazm’s Account of Zahiri Qur’anic Exegesis in al-Ihkam fi usul al-ahkam’

Ramon Harvey (Ebrahim College), ‘Interpreting Indenture (mukataba) in the Qur’an: Q. 24:33 Revisited’

1.00–2.45 Lunch
2.45–4.45

Panel 6: Contemporary Approaches (chair: Devin Stewart)

Ulrika Mårtensson (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), ‘‘Disciplining’ ‘Abd al-Aziz Duri’s Hijazi-Iraqi Historiographical Model: Implications for Current Qur’an Research’

عبد القادر بوشيبة (جامعة تلمسان)، لسانيات النص وآفاق قراءة النص القرآني

مشرف بن أحمد الزهراني (جامعة الأمير سطام بن عبد العزيز)، القيم المعنوية والجمالية في استطرادات القاسمي التفسيرية

Joseph Lumbard (American University in Sharjah), ‘Decolonialising Qur’anic Studies’

Saturday 12 November (Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre)
Time Event
9.30–10.30

Panel 7: Theology and Tafsir (chair: Johanna Pink)

Hannah Erlwein (SOAS, University of London), ‘A Reappraisal of Classical Islamic Arguments for God’s Existence: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Tafsir as a Case in Point’

Aisha Geissinger (Carleton University), ‘al-Maturidi’s Exegetical Use of Variant Readings: The Strange Case of “harf Hafsa”’

10.30–11.00 Coffee Break
11.00–1.00

Panel 8: Political Dimensions of Interpretation and Translation (chair: Helen Blatherwick)

Walid Saleh (University of Toronto), ‘The Political in tafsir: Q. 43:44 as an Example’

Noureddine Miladi (Qatar University), ‘The Representation of the Qur’an in the British Media’

Burçin K. Mustafa (SOAS, University of London), ‘The Translation of Ambiguous Qur’anic Terms in the Realm of Doctrine Propagation’

Johanna Pink (University of Freiburg), ‘Contested Form, Contested Meaning: Literal, Literary and Exegetical Translations of the Qur’an in Contemporary Indonesia’

1.00–1.15 Closing Remarks (Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

Further Information:

For general enquiries, please contact the conference administrator at quran.conference@soas.ac.uk

For academic enquiries, please contact Dr Helen Blatherwick at hb20@soas.ac.uk

No registration is required for this conference and all are welcome to attend.

Images from the Conference