SBL 2019 International Meeting

The Society of Biblical Literature’s 2019 International Meeting will take place from July 1- 5, 2019 in Rome, Italy at The Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Gregorian University.

SBLIM

The SBL International Meeting is held annually outside North America. It provides a unique forum for international scholars who are unable to attend the North American meeting and for all who wish to engage more directly SBL’s growing international membership and scholarship.

Readers of this blog may want to give special attention to the following presentations:

Session 3-30, “Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective.”

July 3, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM.

Saqib Hussain, Oxford University
Q 38 as Re-written Bible

Abbas Ashrafi, Allameh Tabatabai University
The Semantics of the Term “Logos” in the Qur’an and the New Testament

 

Session 4-23: “Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective”

July 4, 11 AM – 12:30 PM

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, Trinity College, Dublin
Q 93 and Psalm 22: A Quranic Response to a Psalmic Question

Georgina L. Jardim, University of Gloucestershire
Psalm 31: Giving Voice to the Qur’an’s Mary and the Bible’s Hagar

Jusuf Salih, University of Dayton
Mary: The Bridge between Muslims and Christians

 

Session 5-5: “Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective / Biblical Characters in Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)”

July 5, 9:00 – 10:30 AM

Abdulla Galadari, Khalifa University of Science & Technology
Abraham and the Birds: Comparing Qur’an 2:260, Genesis 15, and Romans 4

Kate Tinson, Cardiff University
Sura al Baqara: The Three Cow Narratives of Verses 51–95 and Their Relationship to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish Exegesis

Ali Aghaei, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Quranic Intertextuality with Jewish-Rabbinic Tradition: The Case of ‘the Cow’ in Q 2:67-74  

 

Session 5-16: “Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective”

July 5, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Daniel Bannoura, Bethlehem Bible College
The Promised Land: A Trans-textual Reading of the Qur’an and Hebrew Bible

David Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)
By the Lote Tree

Almond Ka Kwan Sin, Vanderbilt University
From Pious to Profane: Changing Interpretations of The Wife of Noah from Early Judeo-Christian to Islamic Literature

 

For a complete program of presentations, including times and locations, see here. To register, visit the SBL website.

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2019. All rights reserved.

 

 

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 5 no. 6 (2019)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 5, no.6), Stephen R. Burge (Institute of Ismaili Studies) reviews Harald Motzki’s Reconstruction of a Source of Ibn Isḥāq’s Life of the Prophet and Early Qurʾān Exegesis: A Study of Early Ibn ʿAbbās Traditions (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2017).

Motzaki

In his review, Burge writes “Harald Motzki, famous for his isnād-cum-matn method of analysing ḥadīth, provides a thorough examination of the way in which Ibn Isḥāq, the author of one of the more famous of the sīrahs (biographies) of Muḥammad, gathered his sources, particularly his use of one source named Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad, about whom little is known. In so doing, Motzki’s Reconstruction of a Source of Ibn Isḥāq’s Life of the Prophet and Early Qurʾān Exegesis takes the reader on a journey through a number of sources, along which the reader can learn much about how Ibn Isḥāq used his sources, about the final product subsequently produced by his student Ibn Hishām, and about this little-known transmitter Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad…”

Want to read more? For full access to the Review of Qur’anic Research (RQR), members can log in HERE. Not an IQSA member? Join today to enjoy RQR and additional member benefits!

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2019. All rights reserved.

 

New Publication: Communities of the Qur’an (Oneworld, 2019)

Oneworld Publications has just released a new book, Communities of the Qur’an: Dialogue, Debate and Diversity in the 21st Century, edited by IQSA’s own Executive Director, Emran al-Badawi (Associate Professor and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at the University of Houston), and Paula Sanders (Professor of History and Director of the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice University).

On numerous occasions throughout history, believers from different schools and denominations, and at different times and places, have agreed to disagree. The Qur’anic interpreters, jurists and theologians of medieval Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba coexisted peacefully in spite of their diverging beliefs. Seeking to revive this ‘ethics of disagreement’ of Classical Islam, this volume explores the different relationships societies around the world have with the Qur’an and how our understanding of the text can be shaped by studying the interpretations of others. From LGBT groups to urban African American communities, this book aims to represent the true diversity of communities of the Qur’an in the twenty-first century, and the dialogue and debate that can flow among them.

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From the Foreword by Reza Aslan:

“From the very beginning there were deep disagreements among Muslims over how to read and interpret the sacred text, to what degree it has been affected by the cultural norms of the society in which it was revealed, and whether historical context and independent reasoning should have a role in its interpretation. It’s just that the unique properties of the Qur’an, and the unique role it has had in the Muslim community, has, for the most part, excluded a large swath of Muslim voices from this fifteen-century debate.

This collection aims to remedy that situation by bringing together a diverse array of textual scholars who are engaging the Qur’an from perspectives that have been sorely lacking in Islamic scholarship for far too long. The inclusion of, for example, African-American, female, LGBTQ, Ahmadi, and even Baha’i voices to the centuries-long conversation about the meaning of the Qur’an is vital to ensuring the viability of this extraordinary text in the twenty-first century. Most importantly, by prioritizing engagement and disagreement, rather than the pretense of forced unity, this book is symbolic of the increasingly diverse Muslim community itself.”

Want to read more? Purchase this book online or find it in your local library!

Emran El-Badawi is Associate Professor and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at the University of Houston.

Paula Sanders is Professor of History and Director of the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Text and image accessed and reproduced with kind permission of Emran El-Badawi.

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2019. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

HBK Symposium on Islamic Art

The 8th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art will take place on November 10-11 at VCUarts in Doha, Qatar.

HBKThe theme of the 2019 conference is The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. The symposium will explore the relationship between Islamic art and trade routes, migration, and travel. Among other topics, the speakers will discuss the following:

How did exposure to imported materials and ideas transform formerly local artistic traditions? What role did travel, diplomacy, and gift-giving play in crafting seemingly discrete forms and practices? How are the movements of people, shifting markets for labor, and the uneven distribution skills and techniques, bound up with the formation and metamorphosis of styles? How did the shipment of commodities and curiosities from distant places shape and change social, cultural, and religious institutions? What role do the objects created from such interactions have in enhancing cultural understanding or generating enmity and mistrust? And how has the ever-increasing pace of globalization affected such developments?

The program also includes discussions on the Qur’an and Islamic artwork. A complete program can be found here.

 

Conference Co-chairs

Radha Dalal, Assistant Director of Art History and Assistant Professor of Islamic Art, VCUarts Qatar

Sean Roberts, Interim Director of Art History and Associate Professor of Pre-Modern Mediterranean Art, VCUarts Qatar

Jochen Sokoly, Associate Professor of Islamic Art, VCUarts Qatar

 

Registration is now open.

For more information, write to Marisa Brown at mabrown@vcu.edu.

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2019. All rights reserved.