Call for Papers: IQSA Annual Meeting 2020

AM2020_BANNER

The International Qur’anic Studies Association has opened its call for papers for its Annual Meeting to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from November 2023, 2020. Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 11, 2019 (note: IQSA membership is required for proposal submission; see below). Submission links can be found below under the respective program units. If you require further information or experience difficulties with the submission process, please contact the chairs of the program unit to which you would like to apply.

Please note that all proposals must include:

  • Author name and affiliation
  • Paper title
  • 400 word paper abstract (written in English)

Eligibility for proposal submissions is contingent upon the following:

  • Active IQSA membership is required at the time of proposal submission for the IQSA Program, and the membership status of all applicants will be checked prior to acceptance
  • Participants must maintain current IQSA Membership through their participation in the Annual Meeting

Please also note that:

  • To ensure equity and diversity amongst participants, participants should submit only one paper presentation per IQSA Annual Meeting
  • All participants must adhere to IQSA’s Professional Conduct Policy
  • Participants will be required to register for the conference by submitting payment through SBL’s online submission system (users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)

Please email contact@iqsaweb.org with questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you in Boston!


The Annual Meeting includes panels for each of IQSA’s eight program units:

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
The Societal Qur’an

The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism
The Qur’an: Surah Studies
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
Qur’anic Exegesis: Unpublished and Recently Published tafsīr Studies

PROGRAM UNIT 1
Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus

Program Unit Chairs
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau
Mohsen Goudarzi

For the 2020 meeting in Boston, the Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus Unit invites papers to an open session on any topic that engages linguistic, literary, or thematic features of the Qur’an.

PROGRAM UNIT 2
Societal Qur’an

Program Unit Chairs
Johanna Pink
Thomas Hoffmann

The Societal Qur’an unit invites proposals for papers that investigate the Qur’an in its lived and societal contexts throughout history, from Late Antiquity to contemporary Late Modernity. Proposals are encouraged that engage with sociological, anthropological, and political science theories and methods in their pursuit of the societal and lived Qur’an. Papers might, for instance, discuss topics such as ritual and artistic uses of the Qur’an, practices of teaching the Qur’an, talismanic and medical uses of the Qur’an, the production of manuscript, print, and new media versions of the Qur’an, or the deployment of the Qur’an in terms of social identity and political organization.

PROGRAM UNIT 3
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition

Program Unit Chairs
Nora Schmid
Holger Zellentin

The focus of this unit is the Qur’an’s relationship to the Biblical tradition in the broadest sense: the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the various languages of their original composition and later translations (regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups), as well as the exegetical, homiletic, and narrative traditions of the Bible in written or oral form. For the 2020 meeting in Boston, the Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition unit welcomes proposals that engage any aspect of the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an.

PROGRAM UNIT 4
The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism

Program Unit Chairs
Alba Fedeli
Shady Nasser

The aim of the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition.

For the 2022 meeting in Boston, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit.

PROGRAM UNIT 5
The Qur’an: Surah Studies

Program Unit Chairs
Nevin Reda
Shawkat Toorawa

The Surah Studies Unit invites proposals for individual papers on any aspect of Surat al-An‘am (6, ‘Livestock’), which has attracted little attention in Western scholarship.  One of the seven long ones (al-sab‘ al-tiwal), it is a polythematic Meccan surah of 165 verses. Proposals might explore: material relating to Abraham or to Moses; engagement with Biblical laws or the Decalogue; its devotional uses, especially in Shiite liturgy; its important passages on dietary law; its polemic and critique of pagan rituals; its legal minimalism; rhyme and acoustics; depictions of non-human animals; its architecture and traces of compositional procedures; its affinities with Medinan surahs; or much else besides. The Surah Studies Unit encourages and welcomes diverse methods and approaches. The raison d’etre of the Unit is to bring different perspectives on a given sura into dialogue with one another.

PROGRAM UNIT 6
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity

Program Unit Chairs
Michael Pregill
Johanne Christiansen

The Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals that utilize various types of material or evidence—be that literary, documentary, or epigraphic—to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. We are especially interested in papers that present and discuss comparative methodologies to contribute to a better understanding of the Qur’an’s place in the cultural, political, social, and religious environment of Late Antiquity.

Additionally, for the 2020 Annual Meeting in Boston, we seek proposals for a themed session considering the state of the field on the Jews in the prophetic milieu and early Islam.

PROGRAM UNIT 7
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics

Program Unit Chairs
Khalil Andani
Karen Bauer

This unit aims to understand and contextualize the methods and hermeneutics applied to the Qur’anic text, both historical and contemporary. The Methodology and Hermeneutics unit addresses questions that might implicitly govern other units, such as: What is Qur’anic Studies, and how does the study of the Qur’an differ from the study of its interpretation? What are the methodological differences between descriptive and normative approaches to the text? How does context (intellectual, social, ethical, historical) affect hermeneutical approaches to the text? The unit welcomes papers addressed to the hermeneutics and methods of particular schools of interpretation or thought, and also on hermeneutics as applied to specific subjects or concepts such as social justice and gender.

This year the Methodology and Hermeneutics unit will feature a pre-arranged panel that surveys Muslim engagements with the Qur’an from the classical and post-classical periods that focus on different visions of the Qur’an as a revelatory discourse and its major themes.

The Unit also invites submissions for a second panel on any aspect of Qur’anic interpretation, hermeneutics, and methodology. Proposals can focus on, among other topics, the following areas:

  • The overlaps and distinctions between tafsīr and ta’wīl in exoteric and esoteric Qur’an commentary literature as they have evolved historically;
  • The distinctive hermeneutical features of Qur’anic exegesis performed by minority Muslim communities including Sufi and Shi‘i (Twelver, Ismaili, Nusayri) commentators;
  • How the Muslim Peripatetics (falasifa), such as Avicenna, have engaged with the Qur’an through Aristotelian and Neoplatonic lenses;
  • The unique hermeneutical approaches of Muslim modernist thinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries;
  • Interpretative engagements with the Qur’an from thinkers in South Asia and Southeastern Asia.

Any other topic that deals with Qur’anic hermeneutics is welcome.

PROGRAM UNIT 8
Qur’anic Exegesis: Unpublished and Recently Published tafsīr Studies

Program Unit Chair
Shady Nasser

This exploratory panel is dedicated to exploring Qurʾānic exegetical works (tafsīr proper or otherwise) that were recently published or still in manuscript form. The goal of the panel is to shed light on these works of tafsīr that have not got enough scholarly attention, and which fall outside the “familiar” canon of Muslim exegetical works often used in modern scholarship. This panel encourages scholars to consult and study these recent publications in order to enrich our understanding of Qurʾānic exegesis and widen our perspectives with a more holistic and comprehensive view of tafsīr studies that fall outside the traditional sources often used.

For the 2020 annual meeting, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of unpublished and recently published tafsīr works.


 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2020. All rights reserved

Call for Papers: Archaeology of Islamic Society [ASOR]

American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) will hold its annual meeting on November 18-21, 2020, in Boston, Massachusetts. This meeting will feature a session entitled “Archaeology of Islamic Society” and will be chaired by Beatrice St. Laurent (Bridgewater State University). The session is open to any research from any period relating to the Archaeology of Islamic Society. The session is open to papers on any period in recent fieldwork, synthetic analyses of multiple field seasons, as well as any area of current archaeological research focused on Islamic Society.

asorThe deadline for the submission of abstracts is February 15, 2020.

Abstracts (max 250 words) must be submitted electronically through ASOR’s Abstracts Online Management System, selecting “Archaeology of Islamic Society” in the session field.

Please find general instructions on individual abstract submission and guidelines on the content and format of abstracts here.

Please note that ASOR Membership is a prerequisite for participation in the ASOR Meeting, as well as registration to the 2020 ASOR Annual Meeting is required for submitting your abstracts. For further information about the conference and registration, please visit the conference website. For any questions, email the session chair, Beatrice St. Laurent (bstlaurent@bridgew.edu).

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2020. All rights reserved.

 

Qur’an Gateway: New Tool for the Critical Study of Qurʾanic Texts

gateway

IQSA is extremely excited to promote Quran Gateway, the world’s first digital critical edition of the Qur’an. This software contains, among other things, advanced search functions, translations, and a database of historical Qur’anic materials. It is an indispensable tool for researchers and students in the field of Qur’anic Studies. 

For more information, please watch the following video, featuring IQSA’s own Dr. Emran al-Badawi, Dr. Nicholai Sinai, and Rachel Dryden:

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2020. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 6 no. 1 (2020)

pageHeaderLogoImage_en_US

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (vol. 6, no.1), Naomi Koltun-Fromm (Haverford College) reviews Robert C. Gregg’s Shared Stories, Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015). 

GreggIn her review, Koltun-Fromm writes “In this rather hefty tome, Robert Gregg sets out to share with us the myriad ways the Bible and biblical lore has been read over the centuries across multiple cultural, linguistic, and religious contexts. This book’s comparative yet innovative nature opens up new avenues for looking at this vast interpretive corpus. In particular, Gregg engages equally, openly, and with the same level of academic curiosity with all the material he presents here, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. Despite its heft, this is more a “popular” book than monograph, but that does not make it any less of a good read (it is very readable) or academically useful. While aimed at the educated generalist audience, this volume proves indispensable to anyone interested in comparative biblical exegesis and wants to familiarize oneself with trends in corpora outside of one’s normal fields. Even for those of us who were Gregg’s students, and familiar with this material, but especially for those of us who were inspired by Gregg and have made careers writing about this same material, this book still has much to teach us…

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, 2020. All rights reserved.

Conference Report: Approaching Gog and Magog from Different Perspectives: A Conference on Functional, Inter(con)textual, Structural and Comparative Approaches to Gog and Magog

The second Conference on the apocalyptic figures, Gog and Magog, was held, from September 23 to 25, at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. Preceded by a successful academic event about the eschatological idea on February 2018, the even larger conference, organized by Prof. Georges Tamer (Chair of Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), Dr. Julia Eva Wannenmacher (University Bern) and Dr. Lutz Greisiger (ZfL, Berlin), examined this subject in much more detail, as many participants from various academic disciplines contributed to the success of the conference with their presentations and papers.

1

Gog and Magog consuming humans. Thomas de Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie, Paris manuscript, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons

The Conference, entitled “POLITICS · HISTORY · ESCHATOLOGY. Functional, Inter(con)textual, Structural and Comparative Approaches to Gog and Magog”, aimed to analyze the possible interpretations, ambiguousness and historical dynamics of this eschatological motive, especially in order to observe the potential creation of enemy stereotypes in most cases associated with the concept of “Othering”. The conference necessitated a historical reconstruction of the figures of Gog and Magog, by analytically studying numerous historical sources, as ancient and mediaeval texts and even illustrations, together with philological examinations, including philosophical and theological insights to this subject, which all together was diligently presented and discussed by the participants. Hence, the conference provided a platform of sharing ideas and perceptions with the result that there is still more to be discovered about this eschatological figures.

Also, the artistic presentation by the artist group “Internil” was a special highlight of the conference. Marina Miller Dessau and Arne Vogelgesang played: The Theatrical Production “Gog/Magog–An Apocalyptic Disinformation Campaign.” This representation, which included excerpts of theatrical performances, music and biographical narrations, clearly emphasized the valuable interaction between scholarship and art.

end2.png

The concluding session at the end of the conference remarked the importance of further researches in the field of Eschatology, particularly in relation to Gog and Magog, since there are many traditional Islamic sources regarding Gog and Magog, who still have to be examined. Thus, many participants therefore called for a third conference. However, before a further conference can be organized, the academic achievement of both conferences has to be published in a collected volume, who will include all contributions of the participants. The editing-process of the volume is currently ongoing.

end1

The conferences and as well as the publication about the eschatological motive of Gog and Magog intend to encourage other scholars and academics to approach the subject of Eschatology, as the concept of End of the World is constantly recurring in the historical narrative of mankind.

The following presentations comprehensively touch upon various religious, historical, social and linguistic issues revolving around “Gog and Magog” in different languages.

 

Presentation List

Agustí Alemany Vilamajó (UAB Barcelona)
The Gog and Magog Motif as a Source for the History of Eurasian Steppe Nomads 

Christian Zolles (Universität Wien)
The Devil Within. Gog and Magog in Modern Mass Discourse

Mark Dickens (University of Alberta)
Gog & Magog in Syriac Literature

Sasson Chahanovich (Harvard University)
Gog and Magog in the Early Modern Ottoman World 

Anna Ayşe Akasoy (CUNY)
Gog and Magog in Islamic and Graeco-Roman Geography and Eschatology

Ian Richard Netton (University of Exeter)
Towards a Comparative and Literary Anthropology of Force and Chaos: Gog and Magog with Particular Reference to Kitab al-Fitan by Nuʿaym b. Hammad al-Marwazi (d.229/844) and The Tower of London by William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882)

Felicitas Schmieder (Fernuni Hagen)
Gog and Magog as Geographical Realities

Majid Daneshgar (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)
Gog and Magog in the Malay-Indonesian Quranic Commentaries

Ramy Abdin (FAU)
The Correlation Between Gog and Magog and the Antichrist in Imran Hosein’s Concept of Islamic Eschatology

Helen Spurling (University of Southampton)
The Reception of Gog and Magog in Jewish Apocalyptic Traditions at the Emergence of Islam

Grit Schorch (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
Edom, Gog and Magog, Leviathan and Behemoth: Apocalyptic and Other Enemy Myths as Evocations of War

James T. Palmer (University of St. Andrews)
An Undefined Evil: Gog and Magog Between Exegesis and Prophecy in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries CE 

Zeinab Mirza, Nader el-Bizri (American University of Beirut)
Mobilizing the Devotional Ritual Against Tyranny: Nabatieh’s ʿĀshūrāʾ in South Lebanon During the Israeli Occupation

Wolfram Brandes (Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte)
Gog & Magog in Photios (820–891) and Other Byzantine Authors

Kristin Skottki (Universität Bayreuth)
No Saracen Gog/Magog? Reviewing the Evidence of Latin Crusade Chronicles 

Todd Lawson (University of Toronto)
Evil in Shaykhi, Babi & Bahai Texts: Gog, Magog and the Perfection of Humanity

Dustin N. Atlas (University of Dayton, Ohio)
Twins Through Sleep: Gog and Magog, Zoroastrian Liturgy, and the Need for Myth in Martin Buber’s Understanding of Evil

Charles Häberl (AMESALL – Rutgers University)
The Enclosed Peoples of Mandaean Lore

Gadi Sagiv (The Open University of Israel)
Gog and Magog in Hasidism: Spiritualizing and Re-Mythologizing the Evil that Precedes Redemption

Pavlína Cermanová (CMS, Centre for Medieval Studies)
The Figure of Gog and Magog in Medieval Heretical Discourse

Yaakov Ariel (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Coming Together and Staying Apart: Gog and Magog in Contemporary Christian and Jewish Messianic Scenarios and their Cultural and Political Roles 

Matthias Riedl (Central European University, Budapest)
Gog and Magog – Corpus Antichristi – Synagogue of Satan: Symbolizations of Collective Evil in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modernity

Tiborc Fazekas (Universität Hamburg)
“I Am the Son of Gog and Magog” – Assuming the Role of Destroyer and Renovator in a Programmatic Poem by Endre Ady (1906)

Jörn Happel (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel)
Asian Horsemen, Bolshevik Monsters: Europe’s Primal Fear of the East

 

Many thanks to Ramy Abdin of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg for the following conference report.

 

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2020. All rights reserved.