57. Berlin (19-23 June 2023)
Institution: Georgetown University
Presentation : Building Bridges
56. Paris (15 June 2023)
Institution : Collège de France
Présentation : Tanzîl et Temps. Une reconstruction de la "contre-expérience" Muhammadienne ?
55. Amman/Jerusalem (22-27 May 2023)
Institution: IFPO Jerusalem
Presentation: Une histoire critique de la coranologie
54. Chicago (2-4 November 2022)
Institution : University of Chicago
Presentation : "D’ailleurs, Le Coran..." An islamicist reads Jean-Luc Marion’s approach of “Revelation”.
53. Bruxelles (20 October 2022)
Institution : Conférences de l’Université des Ainés (UDA)
Presentation : Muhammad, le Prophète souffrant
52. Tunis (23 September 2022)
Institution : Forum Insaniyyat Tunis 2022
Presentation : Perspectives de recherche en islamologie
51. Washington (13-17 June 2022)
Institution: Georgetown University
Presentation : Building Bridges
50. Rome (12 May 2022)
Institution: PISAI
Presentation : "Partager les sens du Coran. Pour une herméneutique dialogique".
49. Paris (23 March 2022)
Institution: Ministère de l’Intérieur
Presentation : "Composer, écrire et transmettre le Coran au premier siècle de l’Islam" Retour sur un cycle de conférences.
48. Bruxelles (10 March 2022)
Institution: Académie Royale de Belgique
Presentation: "De l’allocutaire coranique au Muhammad historique"
47. Leuven (22 February 2022)
Institution: LCSICS (KU Leuven)
Presentation: L’islam en Europe (Table ronde)
46. Paris (17 February 2022)
Institution: La chaire d’études sur le fait religieux à Sciences Po Paris
Presentation: "Le Coran au croisement des cultures" (Table ronde)
45. Louvain la Neuve (15 February 2022)
Institution: Association des jeunes étudiants juifs et musulmans de l’UCL
Presentation: "Histoire des relations entre Juifs et Musulmans : une dette mutuelle ignorée"
44. Louvain la Neuve (10 December 2021)
Institution: UCLouvain
Groupe de recherche Écritures et théologie de l’Institut RSCS
Presentation: "L’inspiration dans tous ses états ! Une histoire de l’inspiration de l’Anté-Islam au premier siècle de l’Islam"
43. Louvain la Neuve (2 décembre 2021)
Institution: UCLouvain
Journée d’études internationale "Autour de l’oeuvre de Jacqueline Chabbi"
Presentation: "Contextualiser l’oeuvre de Jacqueline Chabbi"
42. Paris (16-18 september 2021)
Institution: Sorbonne Université – UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée ; Université Lyon 2 - UMR 5648 CIHAM ; UCLouvain
Presentation : Le locuteur divin et l’allocutaire premier : transformations de la figure prophétique au sein de la relation coranique
41. Washington -Online- (7-11 June 2021)
Institution: Georgetown University
Participation to "Building Bridges"
40. Marseille, France (21 may 2021)
Institution: ISTR
Presentation: Introduction au Coran
39. Leuven, Belgium (20 may 2021)
Institution: KU Leuven
Presentation: Muslim responses to Christian refutations in the beginning of the eighteenth/fourteenth centuries: Ibn Taymiyya and the al-Dimashqî letters.
38. Aix-en-Provence, France (24 April 2021)
Institution: Séances médiévales d’Aix-Marseille - Séminaires pluridisciplinaire (IREMAM)
Presentation: La biographie coranique de Muḥammad ?
37. Koweit City, Koweit, Online (24 March 2021)
Institution: Cefrepa Lectures / Ambassade de France Koweit
Presentation: Qur’anic Studies Today: Towards a Hermeneutical Turning-Point?
https://www.umifre.fr/c/97932
36. Paris, France, Online (23 march 2021)
Institution: Séminaire doctoral (Temps de l’Islam, temps de l’histoire : périodisations et temporalités)
Presentation: L’Eschatologie coranique : enjeux, présupposés et limites de méthodes de lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmsJ10Vs5Us
35. Lyon, France (12 March 2020)
Institution: L’œuvre coranique : esthétique, art narratif et histoire littéraire de l’Antiquité tardive (Séminaire Lyon 2/Université de Lorraine).
Presentation : L’allocutaire premier dans les récits coraniques : localisation, typologie et fonctions.
34. Münster/Germany (8-10 November 2019)
Institution : WWU Münster | Center for Islamic Theology (Qur’an understandings – Muslim researchers in dialogue)
Presentation : "New insights about the Quranic First Addressee"
33. Tanger, Morocco (25-26 July 2019)
International Qur’an Conference Tangier Global Forum University of New England Tangier
Title: "Les voix coraniques de la damnation : corpus, sources et théologie."
32. Geneva, Switzerland (11-15 June 2019)
Institution: University of Georgetown
Title: « The 18th Building Bridges Seminar- Freedom: Christian and Muslim Perspectives » (Building Bridges Seminar)
31. Pampelona, Spain (14-15 December 2018)
Institution: University of Navarra
Presentation: The Narrative of Islamic Violence, « Victory follows with deep piety! »
Warfare and Martyrdom rhetoric in the Qurʾān and Eastern Christian culture in Late Antiquity.
30. Münster/Germany (2-4 November 2018)
Institution: WWU Münster | Center for Islamic Theology (Qur’an understandings – Muslim researchers in dialogue)
Presentation: Reading the qurʾān Today: How to consider the Relation between
a Historical Critical Method of Readings and a “Confessional” Readings?
29. Jerusalem/Al Quds (4-8 June 2018)
Institution: Notre Dame Jerusalem Global Gateway at Tantur
Title: « Supplications in Hell in Quran and in Christian Apocryphal Texts »
Presentation: « The present contribution intends to analyse an easily discernible literary form, both limited, repetitive and statistically quantifiable: the future counter-discourse or the reported speeches of the damned and compare their meaning and usage in the Qurʾān and in Jewish and Christian Apocryphal Literature ».
28. Amsterdam, Holland (28 March 2018)
Institution: Porticus
Title: « An (Islamic) riposte to the Muslim fundamentalist ideologies in European Contexts -An example- »
Presentation: « Presentation of the project Jihadanders funded by the Flemish Government».
27. Leuven, Belgium (12 March 2018)
Institution: KUL -Symposium Christianity and Qurʾān. From the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period-
Title: « Supplications in Hell in Quran and in Christian Apocryphal Texts »
Presentation: « The present contribution intends to analyse an easily discernible literary form, both limited, repetitive and statistically quantifiable: the future counter-discourse or the reported speeches of the damned and compare their meaning and usage in the Qurʾān and in Jewish and Christian Apocryphal Literature ».
26. Lille, France (5 February 2018)
Institution: Université Lille III
Title: « Quran and Early Islam : reflection about my internet website»
Presentation: « The Qur’anic text occupies a central place in the Islamic intellectual and faith tradition. Revered by more than one billion people, it is considered by muslims as the unmitigated utterance of God, revealed to the prophet Muhammad. As Scripture, the text and its exegesis have prompted numerous works of theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, linguistics and politics in the Muslim world and beyond, spanning back fourteen centuries.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, instigated in part by the German schools of philology and developments in biblical criticism, the academy has turned its attention to this elusive text, raising new questions about its provenance, its history, its language and its structure. This website offers a panorama of this unfolding and dynamic field of inquiry. It aims to offer an overview of critical methodologies that underpin this intellectual pursuit, to better our understanding of a text, which remains shrouded in mystery. »
25. Tunis, Tunisia (4-6 july 2017)
Institution: Académie Tunisienne des Sciences et des Lettres (Beit al Hikma, Carthage)
Title: « ‘Dieu est pauvre et nous sommes riches !’ » : un contre-discours coranique à la lumière des littératures biblique, talmudique et islamique »
Presentation: « La polémique anti-judaïque constitue une des controverses les plus marquantes du Coran. Une des formes explicites de celle-ci consiste à attribuer aux juifs des discours rapportés hostiles au Prophète et à la révélation coranique. Parmi ces « contre-discours », l’expression « Dieu est pauvre et nous sommes riches » (III, 181) fera l’objet d’une analyse intra et inter-textuelle à la lumière des littératures biblique, talmudique et islamique. On tentera ainsi de démontrer l’arrière-fond talmudique de cette expression et les stratégies de réécriture mobilisées par l’exégèse islamique afin de contextualiser cette expression. »
24. Washington, USA (6-10 May 2017)
Institution: University of Georgetown
Title: « The 16th Building Bridges Seminar- Power–Divine and Human: Muslim and Christian Perspectives » (Building Bridges Seminar)
Presentation: « In approaching the questions of monotheism in 2016 and power in 2017, we find parallel situations. On both questions the received wisdom is that one tradition has basically resolved the issue and the other has not: “everyone knows” that Christians have difficulty substantiating their claim to be monotheists, just as “everyone knows” that Muslims have difficulty distinguishing between God’s power and their own. In both cases our scriptures and authoritative traditions are called into question. In our study together each demonstrates for the other how we have grappled with and are in fact still grappling with those questions. And in watching each other wrestle with the larger issue from within the particularities of our respective traditions, we get insights into the complexity of what we might have thought were settled questions for our own tradition (Building bridges) »
23. Paris, France (12 May 2017 –A course- )
Institution: Université Catholique de Paris (ICP)
Title: « Introduction à la Littérature arabe (VII-XXème s.)»
Presentation: « Le cours intitulé « Histoire de la langue arabe » proposera un panorama de la littérature arabe classique du VIIème au Xème siècle. On présentera les spécificités de cette littérature en nous intéressant aux grandes étapes de son histoire, les genres littéraires développés et les termes et concepts originaux y afférants (ʾadab, balāġa, dīwān, qasīda…). Appartenant pleinement au patrimoine littéraire mondial, on présentera quelques oeuvres marquantes. Ce cours introductif sera accompagné d’outils pédagogiques avec une chronologie, un lexique, quelques reproductions d’extraits de manuscrits et une bibliographie sélective commentée. »
22. South Bend/Notre Dame (29 March 2017)
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Title: « The Anti-Christian Polemics of the Quran through the Lens of Early Islamic Exegesis »
Presentation: «The present contribution sets forth the following thesis: Anti-Christian Polemics in the first Islamic exegesis have a particular function. They are, in fact, a privileged and strategic "place" where the figure of a new religious community, the Umma, is built. These controversies represent and affirm its identity, its unity at the expense of Christians and Christianity whose origin, its members and the theological divisions associated with it constitute a "counter-model"».
21. Marseille (16-17 March 2017)
Institution: Institut des Sciences et de la Théologie des Religions
Title: « Lectures d’al-fātiḥa : Introduction à la tradition interprétative du Coran »
Presentation: « L’intervention a pour objectif de proposer une introduction critique à la lecture d’al-fātiḥa ».
20. Fribourg (15-17 February 2017)
Institution: Université de Fribourg
Title : « Formes et fonctions de la polémique contre le Christianisme et les Chrétiens dans le Coran et dans les premières exégèses islamiques ».
Presentation: « La présente contribution expose la thèse suivante : les controverses anti-chrétiennes dans les premières exégèses islamiques ont une fonction particulière. Elles sont, en effet, un « lieu » privilégié et stratégique où se construit la figure d’une nouvelle communauté religieuse, la Umma. Ces controverses mettent en scène et affirme son identité, son unité au dépens des chrétiens et du christianisme dont l’origine, les membres et les dissensions théologiques qui lui sont associés constituent un contre-modèle . C’est cette notion de contre-modèle que je tenterai d’expliciter en soulignant comment le Coran et tout particulièrement ses premières exégèses mobilisent et construisent une figure du chrétien et du christianisme comme levier ou miroir en négatif, si j’ose dire, dont la finalité est moins de décrire que de soutenir l’unité d’un nouveau groupe religieux ou la Umma fondée autour d’une figure prophétique, d’un livre divin et d’une espérance eschatologique renouvelée ».
19. Paris (2 February 2017)
Institution: Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA)
Title : « Lire le Coran avec Mohammed Arkoun »
Presentation: « Selon Mohammed Arkoun (1928-2010), le Coran devait être lu « comme n’importe quel texte ». A l’occasion de la parution de la version définitive de ses Lectures du Coran, amis et disciples du philosophe se penchent sur son approche singulière et résolument moderne de la lecture et de l’interprétation du texte sacré (…) ».
18. San Antonio (29 october 2016)
Institution: International Quranic Studies Association (IQSA)
Title: « Qurʾān Seminar »
Presentation: « The Qur’ān Seminar is a collaborative research project that brings together scholars from around the world to discuss and comment on selected key qur’ānic passages. This research emerges from current trends in Qur’ānic Studies that seek to deepen our understanding of the religio-cultural ties between the qur’ānic text and the intellectual history of the Late Antique Near East. Accordingly, scholars will be asked to produce innovative commentaries on selected qur’ānic passages. These commentaries should incorporate at least one of three central topics inherent to an understanding of the Qur’ān: 1. its textual structure (i.e., logical, rhetorical, and literary qualities, or naẓm); 2. its intertextual relationships with both biblical and extra-biblical traditions; 3. the historical context from which the qur’ānic text and the Islamic movement emerged.
Panel 1/ Passage 1: II, 1-29 (Polemics); Passage 2: VII, 1-58 (Narratives)
Panel 2/ Passage 3: LIV, 1-55 (Eschatology); Passage 4: LXIII, 1-11 (Contemporary Events)
17. Nottingham (17-18 september 2016)
Institution: University of Nottingham
Title: « How to Study the Qurʾān – ‘Traditional’ and ‘Academic’ Approaches »
Presentation: « What can the Qurʾān, the Holy Scripture of Islam, teach us about Judaism and Christianity? How does knowledge about Judaism and Christianity help us to understand the Qurʾān better? This lecture series seeks to make academic research in Islamic Studies accessible to the broader public. The speakers integrate literary and historical approaches in order to illustrate the intricate relationship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. A better understanding of the past may in turn help us to reconsider the present in a more nuanced way, and to formulate answers to the challenges faced by the Muslim communities in the Western World and beyond. The talks will be followed by a response and a discussion. Attendance is free and open to the public, but registration is required. »
16. Leuven (24 august 2016)
Institution: Vlaamse Bijbelstichting (VBS)
Title: « De aartsvaders in de Koran » (Trans. Paul Kevers)
Presentation: Geen enkel bijbelboek is zo bekend als het boek Genesis. Wie heeft nog nooit gehoord van de verhalen over de schepping en de vloed, Abraham, Jakob of Jozef? Tegelijk is geen enkel bijbelboek in historisch opzicht zo problematisch als Genesis. Een letterlijke lezing van de tekst botst met hedendaagse wetenschappelijke inzichten. Gelezen vanuit een literair en theologisch perspectief bevat Genesis echter enkele prachtige verhaalcycli die ook hedendaagse, kritische bijbellezers nog steeds te denken geven over God, mens en wereld
15. Paris (12 july 2016)
Institution: LabexResmed
Title : « Quels présupposés pour l’étude du Coran ? »
Presentation : « Comment étudier et enseigner le Coran ? Les différences constatées entre les approches du monde universitaire et celles du monde religieux islamique ne proviennent-elles pas des présupposés qui les sous-tendent ? La recherche sur le Coran et l’enseignement qui est dispensé actuellement en France à son propos ne gagneraient-ils pas à intégrer une réflexion sur la présence, les origines et les implications de ces différents présupposés ? Cette journée d’étude, où participeront universitaires, chercheurs et enseignants d’instituts islamiques, entend contribuer au renouveau des études coraniques de haut niveau, en stimulant les coopérations, échanges et débats. » (Text from Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau)
14. Washington (6-10 May 2016)
Institution: University of Georgetown (Building Bridges Seminar)
Title: « Monotheism and its Complexities: Christian and Muslim Perspectives »
Presentation: « The topic for the 2016 Building Bridges seminar was perhaps the most central and challenging theological theme which Christian-Muslim dialogue has to address. In previous years, Building Bridges considered subjects such as prayer, justice and rights, religion and science, death and the afterlife, which can be addressed by each tradition almost in isolation from the other. However, on the question of monotheism, Muslims and Christians have been directly and forcefully engaged with one another from the beginning of the Islamic tradition in the Qurʾān. »
13. Rome (15 March 2016)
Institution: Gregorian University/University of Notre Dame
Title: « Mercy: An Interreligious Panel for the Jubilee Year »
Presentation: « Mercy is a disposition to exercise compassion or forgiveness. My presentation will intend to illustrate why it is a fundamental quranic and islamic value and to reply briefly to two main questions: what are the quranic roots of this notion, and what are the interpretations of quranic mercy by few medieval and modern commentators of the Qur’ān. I will conclude very briefly by commenting Pope Francis’s declaration of this year as a ‘year of mercy.’ »
12. Leuven (21 february 2016)
Institution: KU Leuven
Title: « For Heaven’s SakeMartyrdom : Saintly or Blasphemous ? Martyrdom and Jihad in the Qurʾān and Early Islam »
Presentation : « This paper intend to contextualise the Qurʾān’s Jihad and Martyrdoom within the religious culture of its time, the early seventh century. I hold that the main aspects of quranic warfare have strong affinities with Late Antique religious Texts and especially with Eastern Christian culture (Byzantine culture) : usage of common vocabularies, Eschatological expectations and Biblical subtexts. »
11. Carthage (8 January 2016)
Institution: Académie Tunisienne des Sciences et des Lettres (Bayt al Hikma, Carthage)
Title: « Les études contemporaines sur le Coran »
Presentation: « For two decades, under the leadership of pioneering studies, research on the Quran undergoing a profound upheaval. Significant expansion of written, epigraphic and archaeological sources, the contribution of renewed analysis methods and their particular impact on the hermeneutical reflections have resulted fruitful and original perspectives. These new developments renew our knowledge about the history of the text, its forms, its language and its sources. This conference will present an overview of Quranic studies today, in focusing particularly on literary analysis and the nature of the polemical genre in the Quran. »
10. Salon de Provence/ Sufferchoix (9 december 2015)
Institution: I.S.T.R (Institut des Sciences et Théologie des Religions)
Title : « Initiation à l’Islam »
Presentation: « L’intervention a pour objectif 1. de proposer une introduction critique à l’Islam 2. de lire le texte coranique à l’aune des plus récentes approches historico-critiques. Le passage considéré est le chapitre 19 intitulé ‘Marie’ ».
9. Atlanta (19-23 november 2015)
Institution: IQSA
Title: « Qur’ân Seminar »
Presentation: « The Qur’ān Seminar is a collaborative research project that brings together scholars from around the world to discuss and comment on selected key qur’ānic passages. This research emerges from current trends in Qur’ānic Studies that seek to deepen our understanding of the religio-cultural ties between the qur’ānic text and the intellectual history of the Late Antique Near East. Accordingly, scholars will be asked to produce innovative commentaries on selected qur’ānic passages. These commentaries should incorporate at least one of three central topics inherent to an understanding of the Qur’ān: 1. its textual structure (i.e., logical, rhetorical, and literary qualities, or naẓm); 2. its intertextual relationships with both biblical and extra-biblical traditions; 3. the historical context from which the qur’ānic text and the Islamic movement emerged.
Panel 1/ Passage 1: II, 1-29 (Polemics) ; Passage 2: VII, 1-58 (Narratives)
Panel 2/ Passage 3: LIV, 1-55 (Eschatology) ; Passage 4: LXIII, 1-11 (Contemporary Events)
8. Leuven (29 october 2015)
Institution: Hollands College
Title: « The religious prohibition of images in islam »
Presentation: « During this lunch conversation prof. Mehdi Azaiez will give a brief introduction on the Islamic perspective and history of the prohibition of images of the Prophet Mohammed (which could be extended to the prohibition of religious images a such in Islam). »
7. Strasbourg (17 october 2015)
Institution: Université de Strasbourg
Title: « La théologie musulmane au risque de l’exégèse critique du Coran : méthodes et enjeux »
Presentation: « En quoi les développements remarquables de l’islamologie contemporaine sur une histoire des débuts de l’Islam et en particulier autour du Coran ont–ils un intérêt dans le cadre d’une réflexion théologique en Islam ? Une question subsidiaire et somme toute impliquée dans la précédente : peut-on tenter une conciliation entre une lecture critique du Coran et l’histoire des débuts de l’islam avec une lecture confessante ? Peut-on passer d’une relation antithétique à une relation de confrontation fructueuse ? Et au delà, cette confrontation peut-elle aussi concerner plus globalement un enseignement de la théologie musulmane ? »
6. Gent (11 september)
Institution: Babel religions colloquium
Title: « Les origines du Coran et les débuts de l’Islam »
Presentation: la présentation soulignera d’une part les difficultés inhérentes à l’historien qui se consacre aux origines du Coran et de l’Islam puis, dans un second temps je définirai les contours des nouveaux développements de la recherche coranologique et islamologique des débuts de l’Islam et enfin, dans un troisième temps, je souhaite revenir sur certains thèmes très récents qui ont focalisé l’attention des chercheurs sur l’origine de l’Islam (je le ferai autour de 3 mots clés). Mon objectif est de proposer un panorama générale d’une multitude d’études qui comme le soulignait récemment Francoise Micheau reste passionnantes mais parcellaires et qui non fait l’objet d’aucune tentative de recoupement et de synthèse, si tant est que cela soit possible ou souhaitable en l’état actuelle de la recherche.
5. Paris (9 july)
Institution: Premier Congrès du GIS Moyen-Orient et Mondes Musulmans (6-9 juillet 2015)
Title: « Coran 3, 7 au regard des commentaires du Qur’ân Seminar ».
Présentation: « Lors de l’année académique 2012-2013 s’est tenue à l’Université américaine de Notre Dame, une succession de séminaires ayant pour but de proposer un nouveau commentaire du Coran à l’appui des derniers développements des études coraniques. Parmi les cinquante passages sélectionnés et analysés par plus d’une vingtaine de spécialistes, les versets 1 à 7 du chapitre 3 ont fait l’objet d’une attention particulière. Notre présentation proposera une synthèse des différents commentaires réalisés par ces experts, en soulignant les difficultés rencontrées, les méthodologies d’analyse employées et certaines hypothèses proposées quant à l’interprétation de ces versets. »
4. London (25 june)
Institution: Institute Ismaili Studies (IIS)
Title: « Counter-Discourse in the Qurʾān »
Presentation: This lecture will introduce the audience to a singular literary form found in the Qurʾān: the Qurʾānic ‘counter-discourse’, i.e. the discourse by the Qurʾān’s opponents as conveyed by the Qurʾān itself. The counter-discourse of the opponents appears in the form of direct and reported speech and is easily identifiable by the formula ‘they say’. I propose to examine methodically this opposing ‘voice’ in the whole text. My presentation will be divided into three parts in this lecture. Firstly, I will identify and define the subject of my research. Secondly, I will identify and quantify the corpus. Thirdly, I will analyse this corpus, querying its themes, forms and evolution. Throughout my presentation, I will propose a formal typology of the counter-discourse, make assessments of the importance and distribution of the counter-discourse and outline the formal distinctions and types of discursive strategies of counter-discourse in the Qurʾān (refutation forms, strategies and discursive effects, types of opponents, internal evolution). This lecture will be accompanied by diagrams, graphs and tables in order to give a useful analysis of this discursive corpus.
3. Milan (15 june)
Institution: Early Islamic Studies Seminar (EISS)
Title (Reading Session): “Eschatological Counter-Discourse in the Qurʾān and the Sanhedrin tractatus” (Texts and Translations)
Presentation: This document introduces a prominent literary feature in the Qur’ân and in the Talmud, the counter-discourse or the citations of opposing voices. This feature has been neglected in earlier scholarship, although it is connected to the larger question of the religious milieu in which the Qurʾān emerged. Accordingly, the topic is of considerable importance to our understanding of Islamic origins.
This document deals only with the eschatological counter-discourse, i.e citations of opposing voices refuting eschatology (the Hour, the Resurrection of Bodies, The Reward).
This document is divided in 2 parts:
A. List of Quranic Eschatological Counter-Discourses (QECD): systematic presentation of 5 Quranic Eschatological Counter Discourses (Arabic Texts, Transliterations, Translations, Concordance) 1-4
B. Old Testament Counter-Discourse (Text, Transliteration, Translation) 5
C. New Testament Counter-Discourse (NTCD) (Text, Transliteration, Translation) 5
D. List of Talmudic Eschatological Counter-Discourses (TECD): presentation of 7
Talmudic Eschatological Counter-Discourses (Talmudic Texts, Transliterations, Translations) 5-8
How to read the counter-discourses in the Qurʾān in relation with Talmudic counter-discourses?: Who are the (implicit) protagonists?; How to understand the similarities and differences between the Qur’ânic and Talmudic eschatological counter-discourses?; How to proceed to an intertextual reading?; What are the context and the milieu of these polemics?
2. Leuven (21 April 2015)
Institution: KU Leuven (Inaugural Lecture)
Title: “Reading the Qurʾān Today”
Presentation: The Qurʾān occupies a central place in the Islamic intellectual and faith tradition. Revered by more than one billion people, it is considered by muslims as the unmitigated utterance of God, revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Since the mid-nineteenth century, instigated in part by the German schools of philology and developments in biblical criticism, the academy has turned its attention to this elusive text, raising new questions about its provenance, its history, its language and its structure.
The present century has seen a resurgence of interest in the Qurʾān and its context of emergence. This movement towards tradition-critical study can be illustrated by a significant increase in the number of publications, dissertations, international seminars, and interdisciplinary working groups dedicated to the Qurʾān. While diverse in their interests, sources, and methods, they share a common debate over Qurʾānic hermeneutics, which has become poignant in light of the application of comparative and tradition-critical methodologies to the text.
This inaugural lesson will outline the state of this wide range of contemporary Qurʾānic studies. I shall highlight how these developments have renewed our way of reading the Qurʾān. As mentioned, new readings have produced a fresh debate about how to read, namely the question of hermeneutic theory. After locating my previous and future research within this milieu, I will explain the underlying philosophy behind my contribution to the critical study of the Qurʾān.
1. San Diego (21-25 November 2014)
Institution: SBL/AAR
Title: “Quran Seminar” (Co-organisation; contributor)
Presentation:
Mehdi Azaiez and Tommaso Tesei (Chairs)
Description: The Qurʾān Seminar is a collaborative research project that brings together scholars from all around the world to discuss and comment on selected key Qurʾānic passages. This research emerges from current trends in Qurʾānic Studies that seek to excavate and explore the religio-cultural ties between the Qurʾānic text and the intellectual history of the Late Antique Near East. Scholars will be asked to produce commentaries that bring innovating views concerning three central topics inherent to an understanding of the Qurʾān:
1. its textual structure (i.e., logical, rhetorical, and literary qualities, or naẓm); 2. its intertextual relationships with both Biblical and extra-Biblical traditions; 3. the historical context from which the Qurʾānic text and the Islamic movement emerged.
Call for papers: For the 2014 meeting in San Diego, we have selected four passages to be discussed in two different panels. Each panel will include two passages, which will be organized as follows:
Panel n. 1: surah 74 and Q 18:60–102. Panel n. 2: surahs 19 and 88.
Scholars are invited to submit an abstract for one of the two panels or for both of them, including a commentary of 400 words maximum for each selected passage. We especially welcome innovative commentaries that address the Qurʾān directly and do not rely on the categories of medieval exegesis. Proposals can be submitted here from late January onwards. Informal queries in advance of submission can be addressed to the unit chairs.