The Qur’an And Adab Traditions The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London 24 – 26 April 2012

Presentation

Adab between Belles-lettres and the Qur’an: Redefining and Expanding the Boundaries
Nuha al-Sha‘ar, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

The term adab has been a subject for debate and discussion in modern scholarship. This paper aims to visit and reflect on this concept by rethinking the definition of adab through its relationship with the Qur’an. The paper also explores the etymological origin and the lexical understanding of the term as it occurs in medieval Arabic lexicological dictionaries and classical sources. This is in order to be able to determine a notion of the formation and evolution of the term. In doing so, the paper will show that the Qur’an was an integral element in this formation.

The paper further highlights the history of the various uses of the term adab, particularly the application of adab as essential for character formation and the cultivation of virtues, and as such, as a moral code for observing ‘rules of behaviour’ that would lead to happiness in this life and the hereafter. The paper will show how the process of the creation of meanings and themes of adab works seems to have been shaped by the ethical world of the Qur’an.

Many scholars have studied the Qur’an’s importance in religious literature, however less attention has been paid to the influence of the Qur’an and its exegesis upon the kind of activity that was later to be known as adab (classical Arabic literature), and how in turn the udaba’ contributed to the reception history of the Qur’an.

This colloquium aims to examine the use of and different responses to the Qur’an and its narratives in the works of the udaba’ of the 9th - 15th centuries. It will explore the diverse ways in which udaba’ in the classical period employed the concepts, stories, images, and language of the Qur’an. A larger aim of the colloquium is to investigate how the Qur’an shaped the concept of adab itself, and the ways of thinking or ethical values which adab works attempted to construct, and which were appropriated to a wider framework. It will also demonstrate that experiences with the Qur’an are not limited to formal exegesis, but that udaba’ often employ the Qur’anic text in a variety of contexts in different ways. This will enable scholars to better situate the reading and interpretation of the Qur’an in a larger social and cultural context, and to understand how the Qur’an was interpreted and received outside the professional scholastic circles of tafsir works.

Programme

24 April 2012

8:45

Welcome

9:00 – 10:40

Panel One: The Qur’an and the Concept of Adab

Chair: Stefan Sperl, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Adab Between Belles-lettres and the Qur’an: Redefining and Expanding the Boundaries
Nuha al-Sha‘ar, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

The Qur’an and the Pre-modern Arabic System of Adab
Sarah Bin Tyeer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

11:00 – 12:40

Panel Two: Quoting the Qur’an: Theory and Techniques (al-Tha‘alibi, d. 429/1039)

Chair: Wen-Chin Ouyang, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Between the Qur’an, Prose and Poetry: al-Tha‘alibi on the Registers of Speech
Bilal Orfali, American University of Beirut

Major Techniques of Quoting the Qur’an: al-Tha‘alibi’s al-Iqtibas min al-Qur’an
Maurice Pomerantz, New York University

13:40 - 15:20

Panel Three: The Qur’an in Poetry

Chair: James Montgomery, University of Cambridge

The Qur’an and the Character of Classical Arabic Poetry
Ghassan El Masri, Dahlem Humanities Centre, Berlin

Abbasid Poets and the Qur’an
Beatrice Gruendler, Yale University

15:40 - 17:20

Panel Four: The Reception of the Qur’an in Qisas al-Anbiya’ and Folk Literature (the Arabian Nights)
Chair: Beatrice Gruendler, Yale University

The Place of the Qur’an in ‘The Sermons and Exhortations’ of Abu ‘Ubayd (d. 224/838)
Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria, British Columbia

The Reception of the Qur’an in Folk Literature: al-Sira al-sha‘biyya and the Arabian Nights
Abdullah Al-Abdulkareem, King Saud University, Riyadh

17:30 - 18:30

Keynote Lecture

The Discovery of Writing: Tracing the Literary Revolution of the Qur’an
Angelika Neuwirth, Freie Universität, Berlin

25 April 2012

9:00 – 10:40

Panel Five: The Qur’an, History and Rhetoric

Chair: Hugh Kennedy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Futuh Historiography as Adab Literature? The Use of Qur’anic material in the Futuh al-Sham of al-Azdi (d. 175/791)
Jens Scheiner, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen

Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (khutba): Mnemonic, Liturgical, and Evidentiary Functions
Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

11:00-12:40

Panel Six: The Qur’an and the Art of Quoting

Chair: Gerard Van Gelder, the University of Oxford

Al-Ma‘arri’s al-Fusul wa’l-ghayat and the Qur’an: Issues of Prosody and the use of the Qur’an
Devin J. Stewart, Emory University, Georgia

Qur’anic Exegesis as Belles-Lettres: The Case of the Epistles of the Pure Brethren (Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa‘)
Omar Ali-de-Unzaga, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

13.40-16.00

Panel Seven: The Reception of the Qur’an in Mirrors for Princes

Chair: Eric Ormsby, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

The Qur’an and Mirrors for Princes: Reading the Work of Tahir b. al-Husayn
Eisa Ali Alakoub, University of Aleppo

‘He who has been given wisdom has received abundant good’: The Reception of the Qur’an in Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes
Louise Marlow, Wellesley College, Massachusetts

Speaking through the Qur’an: The hermeneutical interpretations of ‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani (d. 525/1099)
Daryoush Mohammad Poor, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

26 April 2012

9:00-10.40

Panel Eight: The Reception of the Qur’an in Devotional Literature and Islamic Mysticism

Chair: Ayman El-Desouky, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

‘Serving from Afar’ - the Adab of Interpreting the Qur’an in Islamic Mysticism
Steffen Stelzer, American University of Cairo

al-Kharraz’s Mystical Reading of Prophetic Stories in the Qur’an
Nada Saab, Lebanese American University, Beirut

11:00-12:30

General discussion

Chair: Nuha al-Sha‘ar