The Qur’an: Text, Society & Culture 2011

Conveners: Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem & Dr Helen Blatherwick
Date: 10 November 2011Time: 9:00 AM
Finishes: 12 November 2011Time: 5:00 PM
Venue: Brunei GalleryRoom: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
Type of Event: Conference
Series: SOAS, Centre of Islamic Studies Qur’an Conference
Call For Papers

Programme

Thursday 10 November

Time Event
9.00–9.45 Coffee and registration
9.45–10.00 Opening Address: Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem
10.00–11.15

Panel 1: The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an (Chair: Joseph Lowry)

Andrew Rippin (University of Victoria): ‘The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an and Tafsir: An Overview’
Morteza Karimi-nia (Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation): ‘Contemporary Qur’anic Studies in Iran and its Relationship with Qur’anic Studies in the West’
Mehmet Akif Koc (Ankara University): ‘The Reception of Euro-American Scholarship on the Qur’an and Tafsir in Turkey’

11.15–11.35 Break
11.35–1.10
Panel 2: Textual Study of the Qur’an I (Chair: Mustansir Mir)

Mathias Zahniser (Greenville College): ‘The One God and the Final Day in Sura 19: An Exploration into the Method of Semitic Rhetoric’
Todd Lawson (University of Toronto): ‘Frye’s Qur’an’
صلاح الدين زرال، جامعة فرحات عباس سطيف| "الدراسة الدلالية التطبيقية في القرآن مدخلا للتأويل: إيزوتسو نموذجا"
Oliver Leaman (University of Kentucky): ‘The Corpus Coranicum Project: Problems and Possibilities’

1.10–2.15 Lunch
2.15–3.30

Panel 3: Landscapes and Soundscapes of the Qur’an (Chair: Shawkat Toorawa)

Ann Shafer (American University in Cairo): ‘The Qur’an in Space: Text and Experience in the Contemporary Urban Landscape’
Wendy M.K. Shaw (Universität Bern): ‘Islamic Visuality between the Qur’an and Poststructuralism: Reconceptualising the Boundaries from Religious to Cultural Interpretation’
Bruce Lawrence (Duke University): ‘Rhyme’s Reason: Performing and Hearing the Qur’an in English’

3.30–4.00 Break
4.00–5.15
Panel 4: The Qur’an and its Exegesis in Non-Arabic Traditions (Chair: François Déroche)

Nuria Martínez-de-Castilla (Universidad Complutense, Madrid): ‘Qur’anic Manuscripts from Late Muslim Spain (XVIth–XVIIth Centuries)’
Peter Riddell (Melbourne School of Theology): ‘Camb. MS Or. Ii.6.45: The Oldest Surviving Commentary on the Qur’an in Southeast Asia’
Anastasia Grib (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg): ‘The Symbolic Repertoire of the Qur’anic Board in West Africa and the Maghreb’

Friday 11 November

Time Event
9.30–10.45
Panel 1: Exegesis I (Chair: Marianna Klar)

Jamal Elias (University of Pennsylvania): ‘Sufi Tafsir and the Qur’an as a Non-linear Text’
Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies): ‘Women’s Testimony and the Re-interpretability of the Qur’an’
Robert Gleave (University of Exeter): ‘The Expendable Qur’an in Modern Shi’i Messianism’

10.45–11.05 Break
11.05–12.45
Panel 2: Exegesis II (Chair: Josef van Ess - tbc)

Walid Saleh (University of Toronto): ‘Al-Maturidi (d. 333/944) and the History of Early Tafsir’
Martin Nguyen (Fairfield University): ‘The Exegetes of Nishapur: A Preliminary Survey of Previously Unexamined Qur’an Commentaries’
Johanna Pink (Freie Universität Berlin): ‘Qur’an Hermeneutics in the Islamic 19th Century: Reform, Reformation, Modernity’
Suleiman A. Mourad (Smith College): ‘What is Mu‘tazila Tafsir? Toward a Definition of a Sub-genre in Qur’anic Exegesis

12.45–2.15 Lunch
2.15–3.55
Panel 3: Exegesis III (Chair: Gavin Picken)

Ulrika Mårtensson (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology): ‘The Qur’an as Sign-enthymeme: Legal-political Implications’
Marianna Klar (SOAS, University of London): ‘Adam and the Fall between History and Tafsir: An Initial Exploration into al-Tabari’s Methodological Strategies’
Gregor Schwarb (Freie Universität Berlin): ‘Mu‘tazilism in a 20th Century Zaydi Qur’an Commentary: ‘Ali b. Muhammad al-‘Ajri’s Miftah al-sa‘ada’
Robert Morrison (Bowdoin College): ‘Natural Theology and the Qur’an’

3.55–4.20 Break
4.20–6.00
Panel 4: Exegesis IV (Chair: Ayman Shihadeh)

Devin Stewart (Emory University): ‘Forgetting Rhyme: Ibn al-Athir’s Criticism of al-Zamakhshari’
Anthony H. Johns (Australian National University): ‘Unveiling the Qur’an: The Contribution of al-Suyuti to Tafsir al-Jalalayn’
Mustansir Mir (Youngstown State University): ‘The Structure of Surat al-Baqara According to Amin Ahsan Islahi’
وليد بن محنوس الزهراني، جامعة الباحة |

Saturday 12 November

Time Event
9.30–11.10
Panel 1: Textual Study of the Qur’an II (Chair: Christopher Melchert)

Ahmed Ragab (Harvard University): ‘Reiteration and Representation: Asbab al-nuzul and the Discursive Formation of the Qur’anic Narrative’
أحمـد بوعـود، الأكاديمية الجهوية للتربية والتكوين تطوان | "الهيرمنوطيقا وعبور الفجوة التاريخية في فهـم النـص القرآني"
Amidu Sanni (Lagos State University): ‘Accuracy and Correctness in the Consonantal Qur’an: Aspects of Oral and Written Renditions in the Context of lahn in Medieval Discourse’
Orhan Elmaz (University of Vienna): ‘Tempting God with a Hapax’

11.10–11.40 Break
11.40–1.20
Panel 2: Textual Study of the Qur’an III (Chair: Muhammad Abdel Haleem)

Sarah bin Tyeer (SOAS, University of London): ‘Moses and the Sorcerers: the Qur’anic Use of the ‘Point of View’ as a Device of Thematic and Stylistic Unity’
نادية الشرقاوي، الرابطة المحمدية للعلماء | "تفسير "يا أخت هارون" على ضوء الدراسات المقارنة في علم الأديان"
محمد عبدالله علي العبيدي، جامعة قطر | "الاتساق التقابلي في القرآن الكريم سورة محمد أنموذجاً"
حسن الشافعي، جامعة القاهرة | القواعد الاعتقادية في القرآن الكريم: سورة المائدة نموذجا

1.20–2.30 Lunch
2.30–3.45

Panel 3: The Qur’an in Literature (Chair: Helen Blatherwick)

Asad Q. Ahmed (Washington University in St Louis & Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton): ‘The Significance of Qur’anic Quotations in the basmala’
Jeffrey Einboden (Northern Illinois University): ‘Moby-Dick and mushaf: The Qur’an Translating American Classics’
Shawkat M. Toorawa (Cornell University): ‘The Modern Literary (After)lives of al-Khidr’

3.45–4.15 Break
4.15–5.05

Panel 4: Law and Ethics (Chair: Abdul-Hakim al-Matroudi)

Sarra Tlili (University of Florida): ‘All Animals are Equal, or Are They? The Ikhwan al-Safa’s Animal Epistle and its Unhappy End’
Dheen Mohamed (College of Shari‘a and Islamic Studies): ‘The Ethical Foundations of Sufi Interpretation of the Qur’an and its Impact on the Interaction between World Religions Today’

5.05–5.20 Closing Address: Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem

(Source : http://www.soas.ac.uk/islamicstudies/conferences/quran2011/)