Category Archives: Review of Qur’anic Research

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 6 (2018)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.6), David S. Powers (Cornell University) reviews The Study Qur’an: A New Translation and Commentary edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner K. Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake, Joseph E. B. Lumbard, and Mohammed Rustom (New York: HarperOne, 2015).

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In his review, Powers writes… “Following in the footsteps of the Harper Collins Study Bible and the Jewish Study Bible, The Study Quran is a welcome addition to the field of qurʾānic studies. In response to a proposal from the publisher, the distinguished Islamicist Seyyed Hossein Nasr agreed to serve as the Editor-in-Chief and general supervisor of the project on the condition that the team of scholars who carried out this monumental task would include only Muslim scholars who accept the Qurʾān “as the word of God and an authentic revelation” (xl)…The three General Editors have produced a new translation of the Qurʾān that seeks to convey what the Arabic text actually says rather than what later commentators and/or translators said that it means (xlii). The stated goal of the commentary is to clarify difficult passages, to explain the inner meaning of the text, “when necessary,” and, generally, to provide a “reasonable account” of what Muslim authorities have said about the text as it relates, inter alia, to ritual, law, theology, ethics, metaphysics, spirituality, and sacred history (xliii)…”

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, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 5 (2018)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.5), Zohar Hadromi-Allouche (University of Aberdeen) reviews Shahab Ahmed’s Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).

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In her review, Hadromi-Allouche writes… “Through discussions of fifty early reports about the satanic verses, the current volume strives to emphasize the broad acceptance in early Islam of this story. It presents the foundational historical data concerning the story and discusses how Muslims treated this story during these first two hundred years of Islam. The later conceptual change towards this story is not discussed, as Ahmed meant to treat it in later volumes. Since this story represents the ways in which the early Muslim community perceived Muḥammad’s prophethood and divine revelation, the author regards it as a good example of how orthodoxy is created and a truth claim becomes exclusive…”

 

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, 2018. All rights reserved.

 

REDUCED Prices – Advertise with IQSA!

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IQSA is the first and only learned society of its kind devoted to the critical investigation of the Qur’an, encompassing a broad community of scholars, students, publishers, and members of the public. In order to foster this mission, IQSA has reduced its advertising prices to broaden the reach of relevant publications and organizations. IQSA encourages advertising partnerships and opportunities in the following capacities:

  1. Advertise in the Annual Meeting Program Book ($400-$600 USD) – Every year the International Qur’anic Studies Association holds an Annual Meeting in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion, attracting a wide audience in the scholarly community from across the nation. The accompanying Program Book published by IQSA is read by hundreds at the Annual Meeting and thousands around the world, providing a critical platform for relevant businesses market their publications and services. Email contact@iqsaweb.org to reserve an advertising space today!
  2. Advertise in Print ($400-$600 USD) – IQSA provides advertising space in three of its flagship publications: the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (JIQSA), the monthly Review of Qur’anic Research, and the forthcoming monograph series IQSA Studies in the Qur’an (ISIQ). Email contact@iqsaweb.org for details.
  3. Advertise Online ($500 USD) – While IQSA does not currently hold a physical headquarters, its website serves as the central meeting point and face of the organization visited by hundreds of members and non-members every day. Email contact@iqsaweb.org to inquire about advertising with us online via www.iqsaweb.org.
  4. Send an Email to IQSA Members ($250 USD) – IQSA will send emails on behalf of publishers and other advertisers of interest to our members. The publisher/advertiser is responsible for composing the email. Please contact the Executive Office at contact@iqsaweb.org for more information.

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 4 (2018)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.4), Marion Holmes Katz (New York University) reviews Hina Azam’s Sexual Violation in Islamic Law: Substance, Evidence, and Procedure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

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In her review, Katz writes… “Hina Azam’s study not only makes an incisive contribution to the literature on Islamic penal law, but engages with a much wider set of issues involving Muslim jurists’ conceptualization of marriage and of moral and legal personhood. While the body of the book meticulously examines fiqh texts dating from the formative period through approximately the twelfth century C.E., the project is framed in the introduction and conclusion as a constructive response to the introduction of formally “sharīʿah-based” penalties for illicit sex in a number of countries since the late twentieth century. In tracing the highly contingent and contested paths through which crimes of sexual violence were defined and re-defined over the centuries—and by drawing a vivid comparison between the fundamentally distinct paths followed by the Maliki and the Hanafi schools—she demonstrates that received understandings of sharīʿah in this area are far from inevitable…”

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, 2018. All rights reserved.

 

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 3 (2018)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.3), John Kaltner (Rhodes College) reviews George Bristow’s Sharing Abraham? Narrative Worldview, Biblical and Qur’anic Interpretation & Comparative Theology in Turkey (Cambridge, MA: Doorlight Academic, 2017).
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In his review, Kaltner writes… “Bristow aims to present an alternative model of how Christian-Muslim dialogue can be undertaken by replacing the common thematic approach with one that has Abraham’s role as a figure who points toward Jesus. He writes, “This wholesale jettisoning of the uniqueness, universality and finality of Jesus as Lord and Messiah is found in many Christian efforts to widen the Abrahamic umbrella” (14). This is one of a number of places in the book where Bristow’s evangelical perspective informs and influences his analysis, resulting in a flattening and reduction of the diverse range of views that exist under the Christian portion of that umbrella…”

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, 2018. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no.2 (2018)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4 no.2), Adis Duderija (Griffith University) reviews Koran erklӓrt edited by Willi Steuhl (Berlin: Suhrkapm Verlag, 2017).

In his review, Duderija writes…”As a scholar from a Muslim background and someone with an activist mindset, I, for better or worse, over the last decade or so, have actively contributed to the dissemination of academic knowledge in non-academic contexts. I am a firm believer that (Western) academics specialising in Islamic Studies, regardless of their backgrounds, are ethically obliged to contribute to the current debates on Islam and Muslims, especially but not only in their native socio-political contexts, so as to help increase the level of informed opinion among the lay audiences. As such, I particularly welcome the timely publication of Koran erklӓrt, edited by Willi Steuhl, which goes some way in achieving this objective, especially in the German speaking world…”

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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, 2018. All rights reserved.

IQSA New Year Reminders & Updates

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A belated Happy New Year from the International Qur’anic Studies Association! 2018 ushers in a range of new publications, exciting events, and organizational developments for the IQSA community.

First and foremost, IQSA Membership for 2018 is now open! Membership consists of five levels: Student/International, Mid-range Faculty/General, Full Professor, Lifetime, and Institutional. The Student/International level is $25 (USD) for student and international (Global South) scholars. The Mid-range Faculty/General level is $50 (USD) for all non-student scholars, professionals, and mid-range faculty. The Full Professor level is $75 (USD) for full professors. The Lifetime level is a one time installment of $2,000 (USD) and Institutional membership is $400 (USD) annually.

To become a member, click HERE. To renew or edit your membership, sign in to your member account, click the “Join IQSA” tab, and select “Edit your member profile” at the bottom of the page.

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After welcoming IQSA’s first two inaugural Lifetime Members, Professor Jane Dammen McAuliffe and Professor Reza Aslan, in 2017, the Executive Office eagerly anticipates forthcoming Lifetime and Institutional Members in the IQSA community. You can read more about these two new membership tiers on our Membership Page.

One benefit of IQSA Membership is discounted rates for the anticipated Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion in November, 2018. This year we will convene in breathtaking Denver, Colorado, so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for the forthcoming Call for Papers! Catch up on last year’s 2017 Annual Meeting held in Boston, MA in the Program Book and Conference Report.

2018 also brings about Volume 4 of IQSA’s flagship publication, the Review of Qur’anic Research (Ed. Shari Lowin), and Volume 2 of the much anticipated Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (Ed. Vanessa De Gifis). Online access to these resources is FREE to all current IQSA Members!

We look forward to an exciting and productive year ahead as IQSA furthers its mission of building bridges across the globe via collaborative scholarship!

 

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.

IQSA – Promoting Scholarship & Building Bridges #GivingTuesday

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Dear Friends,

For over five years the International Qur’anic Studies Association has made fostering Qur’anic scholarship its mission. The Qur’an is an integral part of world literature, and it has shaped and continues to shape the world in which we live. By giving to IQSA you are promoting high quality scholarship and building bridges across the globe, which in turn has positive ripple effects on high quality education, journalism, publishing and public engagement.

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IQSA is the only non-profit learned society exclusively dedicated to convening regular Qur’an conferences in North America and in Muslim majority countries around the world, as well as to publishing rigorous cutting edge scholarship on the Qur’an. Within five short years IQSA has convened seven major conferences. These have included large scale conferences in throughout major US cities, Carthage, Tunisia and Jogjakarta, Indonesia, as well as co-sponsored panels in Berlin, Germany and St Andrews, Scotland. IQSA conferences showcase cutting edge research on manuscripts, historical documents, and high tech digital resources, as well as debate critical issues including methodology, hermeneutics and gender. This is possible because IQSA members include the very best scholars in the field.

The first issue of the bilingual Journal of the International Qur’an Studies Association (JIQSA) is now in print and online; and IQSA’s first book is in production for 2018. IQSA members receive free access to JIQSA, the Review of Qur’an Research (RQR), the exclusive member directory (including world renowned Qur’an specialists) and PhD students and recent graduates gain valuable professional development experience. Lifetime Membership and Institutional Membership will be available in early 2018, and carry additional member benefits. IQSA also rewards junior scholars and international academics with the opportunity to learn from colleagues around the world and publish their research. By giving, you help IQSA keep membership dues low and you reward those members of our community who need it most.

Donate NOW

It goes without saying that the current political climate has made our task — especially critical scholarship and building bridges — more important than ever. As academics, professionals and philanthropists we have a duty to support the Humanities and Social Sciences at a time when they are under threat. This also means we have the opportunity to bring about a much more intellectual discussion of the Qur’an when the public needs it most.

IQSA was founded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, and is now funded through the generous support of its members, partners and friends.

Donate NOW

Most gratefully,

Emran El-Badawi, Executive Director

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.10 (2017)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 3 no.10), Feras Hamza (University of Wollongong in Dubai) reviews Christian Lange’s Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).  

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“There was a time not long ago in Islamic Studies when one was hard pressed to find much about the Islamic afterlife, Paradise and Hell, or eschatology in general…A watershed in the field was the 2009 symposium held in Göttingen, entitled Roads to Paradise, which despite its title, included papers on several different aspects of the afterlife, including eschatology in general and Hell in particular. However, the voluminous proceedings of the symposium were not published until this year. During the eight-year period between the Göttingen symposium and the publications of its proceedings, Christian Lange’s research has constituted a mainstay in this subfield of Islamic Studies with his Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination(2008), a major European Research Council-funded project from 2011–2015 that resulted in his Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions(2015), as well as several smaller publications on key related topics. In short, Lange’s work over the last decade has become a major reference for scholars interested in Muslim ideas about the afterlife and the understanding of eschatology within Muslim piety, practice and tradition. His latest work, under review here, is a consummation of several years of Lange’s immersion in and thinking about the question of the afterlife in Islam…” 

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, 2017. All rights reserved.

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 3 no.9 (2017)

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In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 3 no.9), Peter G. Riddell (Melbourne School of Theology) reviews Eloïse Brac de la Perrière and Monique Buresi’s Le Coran de Gwalior: Polysémie d’un manuscrit à peintures (Paris: Éditions de Boccard, 2016.).

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“One of the most significant military success of Tamerlane occurred on 17 December 1398, when he sacked and plundered Delhi, the heart of the Sultanate of Delhi under the Tughluq dynasty. It was in such turbulent times that the Gwalior Qurʾān was produced at the fortress of Gwalior on 11 July 1399, according to its colophon. It is written in Bihari script, a variant of naskh that was prevalent in northern India between the period of Tamerlane and the establishment of the Mughal Dynasty. The MS colophon makes mention of a certain Muḥammad Shaʿbān, who probably supervised production of the manuscript…”

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, 2017. All rights reserved.