2013 Levi Della Vida Award for Excellence in Islamic Studies
"Islam and its Past: Jahiliyya and Late Antiquity in the Qur’an and Tradition" - A one day conference honoring the scholarship of Professor Patricia Crone.
Presentation
The G. E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) at UCLA is pleased to announce that the 2013 Giorgio Levi Della Vida medal for excellence in Islamic studies will be awarded to Patricia Crone, from the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to her many publications, Professor Crone has been a major influence in the field of early Islamic history. Her research on the political, religious, and cultural environment in which Islam began and how it transformed, and was itself transformed by, the regions that the Arabs conquered has been groundbreaking. This includes her foundational work as a political, social, and military historian, and the later foray into the history of ideas, the Qur’an and the cultural and religious traditions of Iraq, Iran, and the formerly Iranian part of Central Asia. In addition, she has innovatively introduced to the field the systematic and rigorous scrutiny of the sources upon which early Islamic historiography was traditionally based, as well as the significance of extrinsic sources.
The Giorgio Levi Della Vida medal will be presented to Professor Crone at a one-day scholarly conference held at the UCLA Faculty Center on Monday, October 28th, 2013. The theme of the conference, which was chosen by Professor Crone, will be "Islam and its Past: Jahiliyya and late antiquity in the Qur’an and Tradition."
Speakers include:
- Michael Cook, Princeton University
- Kirill Dimitriev, University of St Andrews
- Gerald Hawting, SOAS, University of London
- Kevin van Bladel, Ohio State University
- Joseph Witztum, Hebrew University Jerusalem
Program:
9:00 AM
Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15 AM
Keynote Lecture:
Arab Pagans as Godfearers
Patricia Crone
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study
10:30 AM
Break
10:45 AM
Panel I
Chair: Carol Bakhos, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Were there prophets in the Jahiliyya?
Gerald Hawting, Dept. of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
ʿIbād in the Qurʾān and early Arabic Poetry
Kirill Dmitriev, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews
12:30 PM
Lunch Break
1:30 PM
Panel II
Chair: Behnam Sadeghi, Religious Studies Dept., Stanford University
“Thou shalt not see Me”: Moses’ encounters with God in the Quran
Joseph Witztum, Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Title TBD
Kevin van Bladel, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University
Early medieval Muslim and Christian attitudes to pagan law: a comparison
Michael Cook, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
4:15 Break
4:30 PM
Award Presentation
David Schaberg, Asian Languages & Cultures Department and Dean of Humanities, UCLA
5:00 PM
Reception
ABOUT THE AWARD
The Giorgio Levi Della Vida Award is given to outstanding scholars whose work has significantly and lastingly advanced the study of Islamic civilization. The scholar is selected by a committee appointed by the Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, meeting under the chairmanship of the Director of the Gustav E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies.
The award carries with it a bronze medal, together with the obligation to present a formal lecture as part of a conference held at the University. The recipient of the award chooses the theme of the conference and selects the other participants.
(Source IQSA)