Call for Papers: IQSA International Meeting 2021

Call for Papers: IQSA International Meeting 2021
“Giorgio La Pira” Library, Palermo, Sicily

The International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA) is happy to announce its fourth biennial conference from July 4-11, 2021, hosted by the “Giorgio La Pira” Library (Palermo, Italy). This International Meeting will welcome papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Qur’anic text encouraging in particular papers that will explore the theme Qur’an in contact: Plurality of views from other traditions, disciplines and peripheries

PalermoThe “Giorgio La Pira” Library and Research Centre in Palermo, Sicily, is a ‘twin’ of the “Giuseppe Dossetti” Library in Bologna, both established by the Foundation for Religious Studies “John XXIII” (FSCIRE).

FSCIRE is a leading research institution in Italy. It coordinates the European starting community ReiReS (Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies) and the European research infrastructure RESILIENCE; it is the founder and promoter of the European Academy of Religion and it hosts the UNESCO Chair on Religious Pluralism and Peace.

In October 2018, the “Giorgio La Pira” Library was established as a research centre specialised in the history and doctrines of Islam, with the aim of representing all its linguistic, doctrinal, and cultural varieties. The library is dedicated to Giorgio La Pira (1904-1977), a Sicilian scholar and political leader who played a key role in the peace movement throughout his life and career.

One of the main goals of the “Giorgio La Pira” Library and Research Centre is to represent all traditions of Islam and to encourage their research cooperation, in an effort to create an area of rights and understanding through scientific progress in the fields of history, theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and philology.

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The organizers encourage submissions of proposals in any topic of Qur’anic scholarship, and in particular:

  1. a) themes related to other traditions within and outside Islam in order to foster plurality of views and a comparative perspective;
  2. b) contributions from scholars in other disciplines who are tangentially connected to the Qur’an and Qur’anic studies literature thus contributing their original voice into the flourishing of the discipline of Qur’anic studies.

If circumstances will allow for traveling and for people gathering in Palermo, the conference will be held in a hybrid format. The meeting will be structured as follows:

  • July 4-7, 2021: this portion of the conference will be entirely virtual.
  • July 8-11, 2021: this portion of the conference will be Hybrid. In-person attendees will be able to present at the La Pira Library. All equipment necessary to facilitate interaction between virtual and in-person attendees will be made available.

During registration you will be asked if you are interested in attending the conference in person. This is not a commitment to attending in person. We know that for many people, travel planning is currently not possible, and we expect the majority of participants to attend virtually. However, if circumstances do allow, and you would be open in coming in-person, please note your interest. We have a limited number of spots for which we can provide full or partial accommodation.

The Palermo IQSA Conference Committee welcomes proposals of single papers as well as panels that gather selected speakers invited by the proponent to present on a specific topic.

Please note that all proposals for single papers must include:

  • Author name and affiliation
  • Paper title
  • 200-word paper abstract (in English)

while proposals for panels must include:

  • Chair name and affiliation
  • Panel title
  • 200-words panel abstract (in English)
  • speakers contacted and selected by the proponent and title of each paper.

Applicants are kindly asked to submit their abstracts to the attention of Dr Alba Fedeli at iqsa2021@fscire.it, by April 23, 2021. The organizing committee will send a notification of acceptance for abstracts on May 16, 2021.

Should you have any questions regarding the submission of proposals, please contact the conference director, Dr Alba Fedeli, at iqsa2021@fscire.it.

Conference registration fees are structured as follows:

  • Students to assistant professors – IQSA members: $50 USD / Non-IQSA members: $100 USD
  • Associate professors and above – IQSA members $75 USD / Non-IQSA members: $150 USD
  • Members of the public – $150 USD
  • Affiliates to the “Giorgio La Pira” Library will receive a special code for registration.

The event registration page is https://members.iqsaweb.org/event-4189882

Individuals in the Global South interested in attending the conference should email contactus@iqsaweb.org for accommodations. Any other questions concerning the registration process should also be addressed to contactus@iqsaweb.org.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.

New Publication: Revelation in the Qur’an (Brill, 2021)

Brill has recently published a new book in its Texts and Studies on the Qur’an series: Revelation in the Qur’an: A Semantic Study of the Roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y by Simon Loynes. 

brillDescription: In Revelation in the Qur’an, Simon P. Loynes presents a semantic study of the Arabic roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y in order to elucidate the modalities of revelation in the Qur’an. Through an exhaustive analysis of their occurrences in the Qur’an, and with reference to pre-Islamic poetry, Loynes argues that the two roots represent distinct occurrences, with the former concerned with spatial events and the latter with communicative. This has significant consequences for understanding the Qur’an’s unique concept of revelation and how this is both in concord and at variance with earlier religious traditions.

Table of Contents:

Interested readers can find additional information and purchase the book at the Brill website. 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.

Deadline Approaching: IQSA 2021 Annual Meeting Call for Papers

CFP_IQSA21The Call for Papers deadline for the IQSA Annual Meeting to be held in San Antonio, TX from November 18–21, 2021 is quickly approaching! Paper proposals should be submitted through the SBL’s automated online submission system under the corresponding “Affiliates” link by March 23, 2021 though 11:59 PM (23:59) Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) (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 registration system (users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the “Super Saver” rates which end mid-May)

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

Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus
The Qur’an: Surah Studies
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics
The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity
The Societal Qur’an

 

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

Program Unit Chairs
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau
Mohsen Goudarzi

The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the techniques utilized in the Qur’an for crafting imagery, characters, and narratives. Proposals may attend to artistic and literary strategies as well as to the broader social, religious, and political ends towards which these strategies are deployed

PROGRAM UNIT 2
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-Naml (27, “The Ants”). Much of the attention directed at the surah has focused on the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Proposals about any aspect of that narrative are welcome—in particular ones that explore power and gender dynamics—but proposals that can take our thinking about the surah in new directions are especially encouraged. These might broach such topics as: the deployment of animals as characters; the nature of the Arabian prophets’ missions; the role of the surahs’s inaugurators (fawati?), ?a Sin, both in the surah and within the Qur’an as a whole; the rhetorical relationship between the various prophets and prophet-stories; miracles; and much else besides. The Surah Studies Unit welcomes diverse methods and new approaches. The raison d’être of the Unit is to bring different perspectives on a given surah into dialogue with one another.

PROGRAM UNIT 3
Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics

Program Unit Chairs
Khalil Andani
Celene Ibrahim

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 invites submissions for two panels 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 tafsir and ta’wil 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 4
The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism

Program Unit Chairs
Alba Fedeli
Shady Hekmat Nasser

The aim of the 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.

The unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit. In addition, the unit proposes a special thematic session for 2019: “Life of Qur’an manuscripts.” We invite proposals that touch upon issues related to the modification of manuscripts after they have been produced. Papers dealing with all eras and regions of the manuscript tradition are welcome. Submissions might focus on the insertion of marginalia notes, colophons, waqf statements, annotations, additions, amendments, the recycling of writing surfaces, etc., or on references to such practices in the traditional literature.

PROGRAM UNIT 5
The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition

Program Unit Chairs
Nora K. 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 2021 meeting in San Antonio, 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 6
The Qur’an and Late Antiquity

Program Unit Chairs
Johanne Christiansen
Michael Pregill

For the 2021 IQSA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, 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. This year, we are especially interested in papers that present and discuss the historical Muhammad, including new and comparative methodologies to approach this figure, the relationship between Muhammad and the Qur’an, and Muhammad’s role and function in the cultural, political, social, and religious environment of Late Antiquity.

PROGRAM UNIT 7
The Societal Qur’an

Panel Chairs:
Johanna Pink
Lauren Osborne

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.

Questions? Email IQSA at contactus@iqsaweb.org!

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 7 no. 3 (2021)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 7, no.3), Reuven Firestone (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) reviews Michael Pregill’s, The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur’an: Scripture, Polemic, and Exegesis from Late Antiquity to Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

7.3In the review, Firestone writes “Michael Pregill’s The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur’an sets out, via a thick reading of a single pivotal and representative narrative in the story of the Calf (or “Golden Calf” in common Jewish and Christian discourse), to situate the Qur’an within the larger religious and literary context of the Late Antique world. That it takes him nearly 450 pages to present and develop his argument attests to the complexity of the intertextual relationships he examines and the sticky methodological issues that have plagued and continue to beset those trying to make sense of traditions known from the Bible as they occur in the Qurʾān. It also attests to the extent of due diligence he undertook through his exhaustive reference to earlier research on the episode in its many literary settings…” 

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, 2021. All rights reserved. 

 

Statement regarding allegations of sexual abuse

It has come to our attention that allegations of sexual abuse have been made against one of our members. The International Qurʾanic Studies Association has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of discrimination, harassment, and abuse. We are committed to providing a safe environment for our members and strictly enforce our Professional Conduct Policy. Any reported violation of our Professional Conduct Policy is treated seriously and promptly investigated. The Association reserves the right to suspend or terminate an individual’s membership whose conduct is determined to be unethical or in violation of our policies. This includes the termination of participation in IQSA sponsored platforms and events. We are closely monitoring the situation and are in the process of taking appropriate disciplinary actions.


Any information concerning violations of the IQSA Professional Conduct Policy should promptly be reported to the IQSA Executive Director at execdirector@iqsaweb.org. All reports are strictly confidential and treated with the utmost respect.

Sincerely,

The IQSA Board of Directors

  • Dr. Asma Hilali, President
  • Dr. Mehdi Azaiez
  • Dr. Karen Bauer
  • Dr. Shari Lowin
  • Dr. Johanna Pink
  • Dr. Devin Stewart
  • Dr. Sarra Tlili
  • Dr. Holger Zellentin, Chair
  • Dr. Suleyman Dost, Secretary
  • Dr. Hythem Sidky, Executive Director, Treasurer

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.

CALL FOR PAPERS: “Persia and Arabia in Late Antiquity: Bridging the Ancient and Islamic” November 17-20, 2021

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Event Information: ASOR Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL): “Persia and Arabia in Late Antiquity: Bridging the Ancient and Islamic,” November 17-20, 2021

Session Chairs: Arvin Maghsoudlou (Southern Methodist University), and Kyle Longworth (University of Chicago)

SESSION DESCRIPTION: Scholarship has long recognized late antiquity as a transitional period separating the worlds of antiquity from those of the middle ages. For Persia and Arabia, late antiquity is historiographically divided, if not bookmarked, by the emergence of the Islamic faith and conquest of the Sassanian Empire. On the one hand, this historiographical division gives the impression that Islam as a political and religious phenomenon was a definitive rupture between Sassanian and Islamic Persia. On the other hand, pre-Islamic Arabia has received rather scant scholarly attention in comparison with its Byzantine and Sassanian neighbors. This session aims to bridge the historiographical divide by exploring elements of late antique Arabia and Persia that do not map conveniently onto political and religious history.

The session is open to topics on the history, art history, and archaeology of late antiquity in Arabia and Persia (200-800 C.E.), especially those with a focus on cultural continuities between the pre-Islamic and ‘early’ Islamic period.

General Instructions for Individual Submissions: https://www.asor.org/am/2021/call-for-papers-2021

The deadline to submit abstracts is March 15, 2021. Please note that this session will be held in-person.

Abstracts (max 250 words) must be submitted electronically through ASOR’s Abstracts Online Management System.

For questions, please contact us: Arvin Maghsoudlou (amaghsoudlou@smu.edu); Kyle Longworth (longworth@uchicago.edu).

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.

Call for Papers: Archaeology of Arabia and the Archaeology of Islamic Society

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ASOR is requesting paper proposals for two different conference sessions: the Archaeology of Arabia and the Archaeology of Islamic Societies. 

logo-redesign-J3Conference Description: The ASOR 2021 Call for Papers is open, and this year the Archaeology of Arabia Session is doubling the fun: online (virtual), and in Chicago.

We warmly invite you to present your research with us in the 2021 ASOR Archaeology of Arabia Sessions — one to be held in Chicago, November 17–20, and the other virtual, December 9–12.

That’s right! This year, you may choose to present a paper at the Archaeology of Arabia (1) Chicago session; (2) virtual session; or (3) present the same paper in the Chicago session and in the virtual session.

The pandemic has kept most of us from fieldwork. Fortunately, the Archaeology of Arabia Session welcomes papers that cover all aspects of Arabian archaeology. We encourage you to dust off old projects and data sets, show off some theory or research proposals, review the state of the field or a museum collection, or consider other aspects of your fieldwork or research, such as community outreach, collaborations with local and state government, social media, or new technical or technological trials (and/or tribulations).

The Session promotes scholars in all career stages and encourages collaborations.

Paper abstracts must be submitted by March 15, 2021. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact us (email addresses below) or see the full Archaeology of Arabia CFP online at <bit.ly/ASOR2021>. 

Please see here for more information on how to submit a paper: https://www.asor.org/am/2021/call-for-papers-2021. You can submit an abstract to either session or you can submit the same abstract to both sessions and it will count as a single paper presentation.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2021. All rights reserved.