Monthly Archives: January 2014

Call for Papers Highlight: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus

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IQSA welcomes proposals for papers at our 2014 conference in San Diego under one of five program units. (See here for a complete listing). This week’s program unit highlight features “Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus.”

This program unit will provide a forum for the study of the Qur’an from a literary standpoint. Its chairs are Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau and Sarra Tlili. They welcome papers for the San Diego meeting that seek to: examine the structure of passages or entire surahs; analyze the plot, characterization, themes, and voice in Qur’anic narrative; investigate the Qur’an’s use of particular literary devices; study the interplay between sound and meaning; explore literary motifs specific to each type of Qur’anic discourse; and so forth.

“Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus” will host two panels at the 2014 IQSA meeting. As the Call for Papers outlines:

  1. “The first panel will be dedicated to the emerging field of Semitic Rhetoric/Ring Composition theory. We invite proposals for papers that study the Qur’an as an oral text, highlight the ring structure of Qur’anic passages or surahs, and consider if/how this structure imparts meaning or creates any type of impact. Proposals that evaluate the usefulness and applicability of this theory to the Qur’an are also welcome.”
  2. “The second panel seeks proposals on all other aspects of the linguistic, literary, argumentative, and thematic approaches of the Qur’an mentioned above.”

Proposals should include a title and an abstract of approximately 400 words. For more information see here.

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!

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.

A Statement from the Directors Regarding IQSA 2013 and IQSA 2014

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We would like to recognize here the questions that have been raised about the presence of a police officer outside IQSA panels at the 2013 conference in Baltimore. We understand the perspective of those who were opposed to our procedures. In our procedures we erred on the side of caution in favor of security, and we regret overlooking other equally or even more valid countervailing concerns and perspectives.  At the heart of IQSA’s mission is to bring together scholars of the Qur’an from all perspectives, and so we regret the division our procedures caused in Baltimore. It is also heartening to know that many individuals care about this important initiative and have brought up helpful concerns for our consideration. We look forward to our 2014 San Diego conference as a time to foster a renewed spirit of collegiality and collaboration.  More details on the Call for Papers for IQSA 2014 will be published in coming blog posts.

Looking forward to seeing you in San Diego,

Emran El-Badawi
Gabriel Said Reynolds

Call for Papers Highlight: Qurʾan Seminar

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IQSA welcomes proposals for papers at our 2014 conference in San Diego under one of five program units. (See here for a complete listing). This week, we highlight the Qurʾan Seminar program unit, which invites interested students and scholars to discuss select passages of the Qurʾan in a round table format.

For this program unit, participants will not present a conference paper but rather join their colleagues in a detailed conversation from the perspective of various disciplines, such as history, grammar, paleography, and rhetorical theory. The goal of these conversations is to encourage a dynamic, multi-voiced, and collaborative study of the text of the Qurʾan.  After participation in Qurʾan Seminar sessions, participants will be invited to add their commentaries to an interactive website, with features including multiple translations, cross references, and hyperlinking. For more information on the Qurʾan Seminar methodology see quranseminar.nd.edu.

In light of the unique nature of the Qurʾan Seminar sessions, in lieu of a traditional title and abstract, interested scholars are invited to submit a paragraph commentary of the passages to which the sessions will be devoted.  For more information see here.

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!

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.

Calls for Papers posted!

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The Calls for Papers for IQSA’s 2014 Annual Meeting have now been posted!

Visit this page for full details correspondent to the five program units accepting proposals: 1) Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus; 2) The Qur’an: Historical Context, Manuscripts, and Material Culture; 3) The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition; 4) Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics; and 5) Qur’an Seminar.

The meeting will be held alongside SBL and AAR in San Diego, CA, this November 22–25.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.

2nd International Symposium on Rethinking the Qur’an

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Last May, Dr. Andrew Rippin wrote up a conference report for IQSA on the 1st International Symposium on Rethinking the Qur’an, which can be read here. This year, the Research Institute for Philosophical Foundations of Disciplines (İlim Dallarının Düşünce Temellerini Araştırma Enstitüsü) will sponsor the 2nd International Symposium on Rethinking the Qur’an on May 10-11 in Ankara, Turkey.

This year’s topic is “Concepts and Terms in the Qur’an.” The meeting thus seeks to be an interdisciplinary conference that gathers scholars from across the globe to present and discuss the most recent developments in the study of Qur’anic concepts and terms.

For more information, see the official website here or contact Dr. Halil Rahman Acar.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.

Workshop report: “New Research on Muhammad and the Qur’an” in Rome

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By Giuliano Lancioni

The workshop “New Research on Muhammad and the Qur’an: Exegetical, historical and linguistic approaches,” (September 20-21, 2013), which was jointly organized by Sapienza University of Rome and Roma Tre University, aimed to address a number of issues in recent research on the Qur’anic text in its relation to the figure of the Prophet Muhammad. The full program can be viewed here.

Discussion on the first day of the workshop revolved around Tommaso Tesei’s PhD thesis, Two Legends on Alexander the Great in the Koran: A Study on the Origins of the Arabic Sacred Text and its Links to Late Antique Christian and Jewish Literatures (Sapienza University of Rome/INALCO), directed by Angelo Arioli and Abu Aboubakr Chraïbi.* Friday’s session concluded with the presentation of projects by PhD students at Sapienza University of Rome (Ilaria Cicola, Layla Mustapha, Leila Benassi, Marta Campanelli, and Simona Olivieri).

September 21st was the main day of the conference, held at Roma Tre University. Giuliano Lancioni (Roma Tre University) began the day’s program with a presentation of the Thesaurus Linguae Arabicae project, an ongoing international research project on Arabic corpus linguistics.

Pierre Lory (EPHE-Paris) gave a talk on animals in the Qur’an and in Tradition, in the framework of monotheistic interpretations of animistic visions.

Guillaume Dye (Université Libre de Bruxelles) presented some reflections on Qur’anic Studies in light of Biblical and New Testament Studies, with a particular reference to the reinterpretation of some unclear Qur’anic passages.

In a talk titled From Medina to Baghdad, Emilio González Ferrín (University of Seville) stimulated the audience with a number of reflections on meta-historical issues about the clash between retrospective narrative and historical causality in Early Islam.

Roberto Tottoli (University of Naples “L’Orientale”) devoted his talk to a presentation of his work on Marracci’s translation of the Qur’an and the translator’s own manuscripts and notes, which Tottoli has been analyzing for some time.

Raoul Villano (Sapienza University of Rome) presented his research on the binary structure of the Qur’an in a synchronic, text-internal approach. Villano’s work includes a large body of literature, drawing significantly from the early commentaries through contemporary exegesis.

Tommaso Tesei (Sapienza University of Rome) presented two examples of a critical reading of the Qur’an drawn from his own PhD thesis.

Marco Boella (Sapienza University of Rome) spoke on various concepts and strategies employed in text mining of the Qur’an.

Presentations were followed by lively dialogue, showing the great interest aroused by recent research on the Qur’an and Muhammad and the importance of discussion forums where diverging hypotheses and theories can encounter one another.

*The PhD committee also included Guillaume Dye, Elisabetta Benigni and Roberto Tottoli. Gabriel Said Reynolds, who was scheduled to be member of the committee, could not attend due to administrative issues and thus was replaced by Pierre Lory, who was already in Rome to attend the workshop.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.