Early Bird Registration Ends TODAY!

Posted on May 25, 2023 by iqsaweb

If you’re attending IQSA’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio this fall, remember to register TODAY before rates increase! Early Bird registration saves you over $50 compared to regular rates.

To sign up, Register as a Member of an Affiliate Organization here. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the Affiliate link and choose “International Qur’anic Studies Association” in the drop-down menu. Please note you must be an active IQSA member to attend.

To find more details about the Annual Meeting, visit https://iqsaweb.org/call-for-papers-iqsa-annual-meeting-2023/. We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!

Announcing JIQSA Volume 7 (2022)!

Posted on April 27, 2023 by iqsaweb

IQSA is proud to announce the official release of the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association V.7 2022 (Lockwood Press).

Executive Editor
Sean W. Anthony, The Ohio State University, USA
Associate Editor Saqib Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, USA

Editorial Board
Ahmad Al-Jallad, The Ohio State University, USA
Carol Bakhos, University of California, Los Angeles
USA Majid Daneshgar, University of Otago, New Zealand Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University, USA
Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College, USA
Feras Hamza, University of Wollongong, Dubai, UAE
Marianna Klar, University of Oxford, UK Shady Hekmat Nasser, Harvard University
USA Michael E. Pregill, University of California, Los Angeles USA
Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford, UK

Volume 7 is available to IQSA members for FREE online via the member login on members.iqsaweb.org. Non-members can receive access by signing up for membership HERE.

Institutions wishing to subscribe for print and/or online access should fill out the form HERE. Print subscriptions are also available for individual subscribers via THIS FORM.

ISSN 2474-8390 (Print)
2474-8420 (Online)

Subscription Rates:
Print and Online: US$70
Print only: US$40
Online only: US$40

Member Access

Full online access to the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association is available by signing in to the member portal at iqsaweb.org HERE. Use the top menu to navigate to “JIQSA” and select the desired volume via the drop-down menu. Online access to JIQSA is NOT available via Lockwood Press’ website.

If you experience trouble logging in, please email contactus@iqsaweb.org to reset your password or confirm your membership.

Renew or sign up for IQSA membership HERE for full access to JIQSA, RQR, and more!

Table of Contents (Vol. 7, 2022)

Roggema, Barbara. Obituary: Fred Leemhuis (1942–2021). JIQSA 7 (2022): 3-6
Melchert, Christopher. The Variant Readings in Islamic Law. JIQSA 7 (2022): 7-26.
Davitashvili, Ana. The Inner-Qurʾānic Development of the Images of Women in Paradise: From the Ḥūr ʿĪn to Believing Women. JIQSA 7 (2022): 27-64.
Shiran, Adi. Bloody Wrath and Healing Touches: Joseph and His Brothers in Early Imāmī Shīʿī Tafsīr. JIQSA 7 (2022): 65-92.
Mutter, Jessica. Iltifāt and Narrative Voice in the Qurʾān: Grammatical Shifts and Nested Dialogue in Sūrahs 19, 20, and 18. JIQSA 7 (2022): 93-121.

The journal’s website, including additional information and contact details, can be found at http://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa. For more information on the International Qur’anic Studies Association, please visit www.iqsaweb.org.

Andrew Rippin Best Paper Prize Winner 2023

Posted on March 2, 2023 by iqsaweb

The International Qurʾanic Studies Association is delighted to announce that the sixth annual Andrew Rippin Best Paper Prize (open to papers delivered by early career scholars at the 2022 Annual Meeting) has been awarded to Eric Devilliers for his paper: ““Seconding Sinai?: The Re-presentation of Mosaic Theophany in the Qur’an.” The winner of the Andrew Rippin Best Paper Prize receives a cash award. In addition, an expanded and edited version of the winning paper qualifies for publication in the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association.

This award is given in honor of Professor Andrew Rippin (1950–2016), a leading scholar of the Qurʾān and inaugural president of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (2014). Prof. Rippin is remembered as “an esteemed colleague, revered mentor, and scholarly inspiration to many members of the IQSA community.” An announcement regarding submissions for the seventh annual Andrew Rippin Best Paper Prize will follow the 2023 IQSA Annual Meeting.

An abstract of the award-winning paper follows:

“Seconding Sinai?: The Re-presentation of Mosaic Theophany in the Qur’an”
Mosaic theophany constituted an axis of exegetical controversy in Late Antiquity. Jews and Christians offered contrasting accounts of what Moses saw at the Burning Bush and at Mount Sinai and therefore assigned different significance to these visual dispensations. In particular, Christian theologians interpreted Mosaic theophanies in a way that emphasized Jesus Christ’s prophetic and ontological superiority. Jesus Christ, they argued, alone truly saw God; Moses did not see God atop Mt. Sinai, and insofar as he saw God, he saw the coming of Christ.

An investigation of how the Qur’an receives the Mosaic theophanic accounts and the logic behind its reformulations remains a scholarly desideratum. This paper, then, outlines how the Qur’an systematically re-presents these two biblical episodes (e.g., in Q 7:142-172, 20:9-36, 27:6-12, and 28:29-35) to respond to Christian and Jewish presentations of theophany and visual dispensation. I argue that, in these passages, the Qur’an takes up Christian exegetical narratives and their paradigm of vision in order to inventively incorporate many late antique traditions into its own prophetology. In these Qur’anic accounts, vision delineates a boundary between God and man. However, prophetic authority is based upon the prophet’s ability to see – either God, or facets of the Unseen. Thus, the Qur’an presents a creative tension: Muhammad’s humanity seems to preclude vision of God; yet, his prophetic superiority seems to affirm a more authentic vision of God than those of other prophets (e.g., Q 53, 81).

Eric DeVilliers hails from Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in Qur’anic studies and Islamic theology. His dissertation investigates the roots and significance of the controversy surrounding the vision of God (ru’yat Allah) from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic period. He is currently performing research in Cairo on a Fulbright student research grant that explores the topic of the vision of God in the Kalām tradition.

Want to try your hand at next year’s Andrew Rippin Best Paper Prize? Submit your proposals for the Call for Papers: IQSA Annual Meeting 2023 to be held in San Antonio, Texas this November!

Giving Tuesday 2022: Support IQSA’s Global Scholarship

Posted on November 29, 2022 by iqsaweb

Dear Friends of IQSA,

For over nine 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. IQSA is mindful of its members, partners, and friends during this difficult time, and we want to reach out to those among you who can afford to support IQSA when the organization needs it most at a time when our operational costs remain high despite cutting back on operations themselves. By giving to IQSA as you are able, 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.

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 seven short years IQSA has convened eleven major conferences. These have included large scale conferences throughout major US cities, Carthage, Palermo, 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 sixth issue of the bilingual Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (JIQSA) was released this year, and IQSA’s publications in the Studies in the Qur’ān series are available from ISD. For your convenience we have included a TOC for the latest issue of JIQSA along with direct links to access the publications!

JIQSA Volume 6 (2021)

Cover, Copyright, Table of Contents

Sinai, Nicolai. Obituary: Alan Jones (1933–2021). JIQSA 6 (2021): 5-7.

Shnizer, Aliza. O bituary: Uri Rubin (1944–2021). JIQSA 6 (2021): 8-11.

Lange, Christian. Obituary: Josef van Ess (1934–2021). JIQSA 6 (2021): 12-15.

Stewart, Devin. Noah’s Boat and Other Missed Opportunities. JIQSA 6 (2021): 17-67.

Lawson, Todd. Response to Devin Stewart’s 2019 IQSA Presidential Address. JIQSA 6 (2021): 69-85.

van Putten, Marijn. Dissimilation of ē to ā in the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text . JIQSA 6 (2021): 87-105.

Al-Jallad, Ahmad and Ali Al-Manaser. The Pre-Islamic Divine Name ʿsy and the Background of the Qurʾānic Jesus. JIQSA 6 (2021): 107-136.

Griffith, Sidney. The Narratives of “the Companions of the Cave,” Moses and His Servant, and Dhū ’l-Qarnayn in Sūrat al-Kahf. JIQSA 6 (2021): 137-166.

Pregill, Michael. The Two Sons of Adam. JIQSA 6 (2021): 167-224.

Raziq, Iqbal Adbel. Ismāʿīl, Dhū ’l-Kifl, and Idrīs. JIQSA 6 (2021): 225-253.

In addition to receiving free access to JIQSA, IQSA members can also access 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 and Institutional members 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.

It goes without saying that the current restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic 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 across the globe. 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. Please take time this #GivingTuesday to DONATE NOW to further IQSA’s mission across the globe.

Most gratefully,

Hythem Sidky, Executive Director
International Qur’anic Studies Association
https://www.iqsaweb.org | contactus@iqsaweb.org

International Conference: Epigraphy, the Qur’an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia

Posted on July 5, 2022 by iqsaweb

Conference

The University of Tübingen Qur’an as a Source for Late Antiquity Research Project team announces “Epigraphy, the Qur’an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia” to be held September 8–10, 2022. This three-day international conference will bring together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān with the aim of exploring how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape.

A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qur’ān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside Arabia, or long after the late antique period. Accordingly, the conference seeks to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qur’ān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on “late” Late Antiquity at the dawn of Islam. Themes to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

Religious Identities and Religious Landscape
Naming God in pre-Islamic Arabia
Ethnicity and literacy
Cultic continuity

Bearing in mind the fluidity of identities and traditions during Late Antiquity, we also accommodate papers that do not fall into these exact categories. We believe there is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qur’ān and Arabia more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel will be paired with a specialist on the Qur’ān or on the wider history of Arabia.

The research presentations will be open to the public upon timely pre-registration and streamed online.

For registration, please contact Dr. Bilal Badat: bilal.badat@zith.uni-tuebingen.de.

See the Conference Poster and Online Program here.

IQSA Executive Office Winter Break

Posted on December 23, 2021 by iqsaweb

Please be advised that the IQSA Executive Office will be closed in observance of the winter holidays from Thursday, December 23rd to Sunday, January 2nd. Email correspondence at contactus@iqsaweb.org and other services will resume Monday, January 3rd.

On behalf of the IQSA staff, we hope all our members and friends have a safe and pleasant holiday break!

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | James A. Bellamy Professorship in Early Arabic Language or Literature, Textual Traditions, and Islamic Culture

Posted on September 27, 2021 by iqsaweb

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | James A. Bellamy Professorship in Early Arabic Language or Literature, Textual Traditions, and Islamic Culture

Deadline
Nov 1, 2021 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Description

The Department of Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan invites applications for the James A. Bellamy Professorship, with an anticipated start date of Fall 2023. We seek a professor or advanced associate professor with a substantial publication record in the fields of early Arabic language or literature, textual traditions and Islamic culture to fill the James A. Bellamy Professorship at the University of Michigan. The successful candidate is expected to teach a range of courses in Arabic and Islamic studies, from introductory undergraduate lecture courses through graduate seminars; to supervise doctoral dissertations; and to participate actively in the programs of the department as well as in area studies initiatives within a larger university community that encourages interdisciplinary efforts.

Application Instructions

Candidates must upload a letter of application, CV, statement of current and future research plans, statement of teaching philosophy and experience, diversity statement, evidence of teaching excellence, and names and email addresses of potential reviewers. Questions about the application or materials may be directed to Patrice Whitney (mes-admin@umich.edu). Applications must be received by November 1, 2021 to be assured of consideration.

The University of Michigan is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Women and members of minority groups are especially encouraged to apply. The University is supportive of the needs of dual career couples. All applications will be acknowledged.

New Publication–The Quran: Keyword Collocations (Gorgias Press, 2021)

Posted on August 23, 2021 by iqsaweb

Gorgias Press recently published The Quran: Keyword Collocations by Elie Wardini. IQSA readers can find more information and purchase the book here.

Publisher’s Description: This bundle brings together the 16 volumes of Elie Wardini’s The Quran: Key Word Collocations. The aim of these volumes is to present the Quran as raw data with as little interpretation as possible. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. In the present series, Collocation is defined as a Key Word, here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs, forming the center of a cluster with four co-occurring Key Words (1° and 2° of proximity), the first two to the left and to the right, where available. Every Collocation of each Key Word in the Quran is presented in context, as a rule with six words to the right and six to the left of it, where available or where the formatting permits. The central Key Words have been grouped by root > lemma. Classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted.

Elie Wardini is professor of Arabic at Stockholm University, Sweden. His research has focused on Semitic languages, especially Aramaic-Arabic contact from a diachronic and sociolinguistic perspective.

New Online Resource: The Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East

Posted on July 12, 2021 by iqsaweb

The Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East (HIMME) is a new research tool for exploring the people, places, and practices of the most diverse part of the premodern world, through primary sources chosen from a wide range of literary languages and cultures. A series of webinars will introduce HIMME to scholars by exploring some of the resources now available to scholars through this tool.

Project Description: The Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East will provide a synthetic reference work identifying sources referring to particular people, places, and practices (such as jizya, the poll-tax paid by non-Muslims under Islamic rule). Its temporal scope is from 600 to 1550, and its geographical scope from al-Andalus in the west to Samarqand in the east, from Yemen in the south to the Caucasus in the north. Each entry will correspond to an individual person, place, or social practice, and will list the references to that entity which have been gathered so far. Rather than restricting its attention to sources in Arabic or any other single language, it will deliberately incorporate sources from as many languages as possible. This will help the scholarly community quickly locate primary sources relevant for medieval Middle Eastern topics, and scholars may consider HIMME’s citations when deciding which languages to learn. The broader public will find brief identifications of the people, places, and practices, and references to translations of primary sources where available. The digital humanities community will find the canonical data records encoded in TEI, published on GitHub as they become available. The project is a work in progress, publishing its citations as they are collected, rather than waiting to publish an authoritative “final” reference work. Instead, HIMME will grow over time, becoming steadily more useful as it incorporates the references from additional sources.

For more information on this project, visit the website here. Interested readers can also find information on Zoom webinars here.

IQSA International Meeting: Format Updates & Reminders

Posted on May 7, 2021 by iqsaweb

Due to circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, the International Qur’anic Studies Association’s fourth international conference from July 4-11, 2021 hosted by the “Giorgio La Pira” Library will be fully virtual for IQSA members. The Programming Committee extends a thanks to all participants for their understanding and flexibility during these uncertain times.

The deadline for submitting abstracts and panel proposals is today, May 7, 2021! 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 May 7, 2021. The organizing committee will send a notification of acceptance for abstracts on May 23, 2021.

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

Find more information about registration and the conference theme at this link.

International Qur'anic Studies Association

الجمعية الدولية للدراسات القرآنية

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