Azaiez (Mehdi) & Arfa Mensia (Mokdad) -eds.-, Qurʾānic Studies: Between History, Theology and Exegesis, Berlin, De Gruyter, ("IQSA Studies in the Qur’an ; 4"), 2023, 270 p. ISBN 9783111047904

Presentation

Over the last twenty years, the rise of Qur’anic studies has been one of the most remarkable developments in Islamic Studies. Three major facts support this evolution: renewal sources available to researchers, use of new methodologies and, a renewed reflection on hermeneutical orientations. These developments are illustrated by a significant increase in the number of publications, theses, colloquia and study projects about the Qur’an. This development is taking place mainly in European countries and the United States. However, its repercussions and effects are not limited to these geographical areas. The reception and dissemination of this work in Muslim-majority countries is constant and constitutes an opportunity to establish a real dialogue between scholars. The present book reflects the meeting of experts from north african, middle east and western backgrounds who share a common ambition: advancing academic study of the Qurʾan by promoting cooperations across global boundaries.

During a meeting with Abdelmajid Charfi, Mokdad Arfa and Mehdi Azaiez at the magnificent Beit al Hikma Palace in Carthage, the idea emerged of organizing an international conference that would bring together qurʾānic studies experts from across the globe. A willingness to collaborate and build global bridges is now shared by many scholars, organizations, and academic institutions. For this reason, Beit al Hikma, the International Quranic Studies Association and KU Leuven became partners in the planning and implementation of an international conference held in Carthage between 4 and 7 July 2017. The present volume, Qurʾānic Studies: Between History, Theology and Exegesis, brings together fifteen contributions in English (7), French (5) and Arabic (4), twelve based on papers delivered at the conference. The volume is divided into three parts: (1) Context, (2) Forms and Structures and (3) Interpretations.

Editors

Mehdi Azaiez is Professor of Islamic Studies at the UCLouvain in Belgium. His main fields of research are Qurʾanic Studies and early Islam. He published Le Contre-discours coranique (Berlin: Gruyter, 2015) and co-edited The Qurʾān Seminar (Berlin: Gruyter, 2016). He is one of the contributors to Le Coran des Historiens (Paris: Le Cerf, 2019).

Mokdad Arfa Mensia is Professor of Islamic Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tunis. He is a Member of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts and Head of its Department of Islamic Sciences. His publications include: “Dogmatics, Theology, and Philosophy in Averroes,” in Interpreting Averroes (Leuven: Peters, 2019), and he edited Fī al-falsafah al-ʿArabīyah: al-falsafah al-siyāsīyah wa-falsafat al-tārīkh: aʿmāl nadwah muhdāh ilā rūḥ al-faylasūf al-ʿArabī Muḥsin Mahdī (Tūnis: Dār al-Tanwīr li-l-Ṭibāʿah wa-l-Nashr, 2000).

Contents

Acknowledgements
Contributors
Foreword by Abdelmajid Charfi
Foreword by Gerald Hawting

Introduction
Mehdi Azaiez

1. Sharing Qurʾānic Meanings: Outlines for a Dialogical Hermeneutic
Mehdi Azaiez

PART I – CONTEXT

2. “Warn Them of the Day of the Impending”: Imminent Eschatology and Rhetoric in the Qurʾān
Andrew J. O’Connor

3. “Al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among God’s Signs”: Qurʾān al-Baqarah 2:158 and its Problems
Gerald Hawting

4. Récits Bibliques vus du Coran, le cas d’Élie
Jacqueline Chabbi

السياق والرهانات “المصحف وقراءاته” 5.
نادر الحمّامي

PART II – FORMS AND STRUCTURES

6. Paradoxes, Loopholes, and Invitations in Qurʾānic Polemic
Thomas Hoffmann and Johanne Louise Christiansen

7. La composition rhétorique de Q al-Tawbah 9
Michel Cuypers and Sami Larbès

PART III - INTERPRETATIONS

8. Ibn Taymiyyah, the Bible and the Qurʾān: From Polemics to Scriptural Hermeneutics
Johanna Pink

9. Beauty and the Qurʾān: A Philosophical Approach
Massimo Campanini

10. Renouveau de l’exégèse. Lectures endogènes
Ḥmīda Ennaifer

11. Consigner le Coran au premier siècle de l’Islam selon l’exégete Ibn ʿĀshūr (1879–1973)
Nejmeddine Khalfallah

12. Deux grandes théories sur Mutashābih al-Qurʾān dans l’islam classique: Ibn Taymiyyah et Ibn Khaldūn
Mokdad Arfa Mensia

المنظور الأخلاقي في الدّراسات القرآنيّة: قراءة في فكر طه عبد الرّحمان 13.
إيمان المخينيني

.14 تيبولوجيا القرآن في جواهر القرآن للغزالي (ت 505/1111) سؤال القرآن ماضيا وحاضرا
محمد بوهلال

.15 الإمام الشافعي وتقعيد قراءة النصوص: دراسة في نشأة مصطلح "السياق" في مدونة الشافعي
عبد الرحمن حللي

Bibliography
Index: Qurʾānic References
Index