BIBLICAL RECEPTION AND

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Our award-winning Encyclopedia of the and Its Reception is a multi-faceted reference work covering the reception of the Bible in an array of religious and academic disciplines and fields, including Islamic and Qur’anic Studies.

It covers the reception of … ... the Bible in both classical and contemporary Islam … the Bible in the Qur’an and wider Muslim cultures … the Qur’an and Islam in biblical Jewish and Christian tradition … biblical concepts in islamic theology and social concepts.

Our publications in the field of Biblical Reception include a print and an online reference work, a handbook series, a monograph series and a journal.

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2019 Annual Report

San Diego, California c November 22–25, 2019 Acknowledgment Table of Contents The International Qurʾanic Studies Association IQSA Events 2019...... 3 (IQSA) was first formed in 2012 through a generous Abstracts and Biographies...... 7 grant by the Henry Luce Foundation and in consultation with the Society of Biblical Literature. Reports IQSA was incorporated in 2014 and granted Executive Summary 2019...... 43 nonprofit status in 2015. We recognize the Windsor Nomination Committee...... 44 Foundation, DeGruyter Press, IQSA members and Programming Committee...... 45 Publications and Research Committee...... 46 sponsors for their generous support. International Meeting Report 2019...... 47 IQSA members include students and scholars of the Qurʾan and related fields from universities Participation and Membership...... 48 and institutions around the world. IQSA facilitates IQSA Mission and Vision...... 49 communication among its members, organizes Announcing IQSA Boston 2020...... 50 regular world class conferences, sponsors a diverse JIQSA Call for Papers...... 52 range of publications, and advocates for the field of Qurʾanic Studies in higher education and in the Review of Qurʾanic Research...... 53 public sphere. People...... 54

Letter from Executive Director Dear Friend, Welcome to San Diego. The International Qurʾanic Studies Association (IQSA) is dedicated to fostering qurʾanic scholarship. As a learned society, IQSA: ^ assists scholars of the Qurʾan to form contacts and develop fruitful professional and personal relationships; ^ sponsors rigorous academic scholarship on the Qurʾan through its lectures, journal articles, book reviews, monograph series, and online resources; ^ builds bridges between scholars around the world. Conscious of the importance of interdisciplinary conversations, IQSA continues to meet alongside of SBL at its North American annual meetings. After successfully holding its 2019 International Meeting in Tangier, Morocco, IQSA will hold its fourth biennial International Qurʾan Conference in Palermo, Italy in 2021. For more details on all of our programs, publications, and member benefits please visit IQSAweb.org. In this program book you will find a complete listing of IQSA events during the San Diego meeting. You will also find information on our Call for Papers for those who would like to participate in our 2020 Annual Meeting in Boston and announcements about contributing to IQSA’s journal (JIQSA), book series, and online book review service (RQR). As a learned society, IQSA is shaped by the contributions and insights of its members. We are eager to draw together a diverse community of students and scholars of the Qurʾan and look forward to working together to promote the field of qurʾanic studies. Once again, welcome to IQSA 2019 in San Diego! Emran El-Badawi Executive Director, International Qurʾanic Studies Association

2 IQSAweb.org IQSA Events 2019

P22-101a Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Communities of the Qurʾan Book Launch Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus / The Friday, 12:00 PM–1:00 PM Qurʾan: Studies Convention Center - 25B (Upper Level East) Joint Session With: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Paula Sanders, Boniuk Institute, Rice University, Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus (IQSA), The Presiding Qurʾan: Surah Studies (IQSA) Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Presiding Friday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Speakers: Ali Asani, Reza Aslan, Lien Fina, Todd Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Lawson Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qurʾan (I): Light Refreshments Served Insights into the Composition of the Text Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota, P22-204b Presiding Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity Boiling Drink, Denial of Resurrection, Hur in , Friday, 1:00 PM–3:30 PM and a Qurʾan within a Scripture: Intratextuality and the Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Structure of Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) (20 min) Theme: , the Qurʾan, and the Sirah Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Tradition: New Perspectives Discussion (7 min) Johanne Christiansen, University of Copenhagen, Hythem Sidky, University of Chicago Presiding Understanding the Limits of Stylometry in Deducing Juan Cole, University of Michigan Qurʾanic Authorship (20 min) “Apostles to the Gentiles”: Paul and Muhammad Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) (25 min) Discussion (7 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University On Doublets and Redactional Criticism of the Qurʾan Was the Hijrah a Historical Event? A Survey of the (20 min) Evidence (25 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Discussion (7 min) Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge Saqib Hussain, Oxford University The Qurʾanic Community, Their Prophet, and Their Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) as a Group-Closing Surah Personal Encounters with and (25 min) (20 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other), Rabbinic Literature (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Church History and Ecclesiology Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) (Other) Discussion (22 min) Pregill, University of California-Los Angeles Muhammad and the Prophets from Mahdiyyah to Nishapur: Reflexes of Late Antique Supersessionism in Two Sectarian Medieval Islamic Texts (25 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Discussion (50 min)

IQSAweb.org 3 P22-317 P23-147a The European Qurʾan The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition Friday, 4:00 PM–6:00 PM Saturday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Roberto Tottoli, Università di Napoli L’Orientale, Theme: Panel 1: Theology of the Body in the Presiding Biblical Tradition and in the Qurʾan John Tolan, Université de Nantes Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge, EuQu: The European Qurʾan; A New Research Program Presiding Funded by the European Research Council (30 min) Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other), (Philology / Linguistics (incl. The Qurʾan on Divine Embodiment (30 min) Semiotics), Comparative Religion / History of Religion (Comparative Religion / History of Religion) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Clare Wilde, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford The Early Modern Dutch Qurʾan: A Mercantile, The Embodied Appropriation of ’s Word in the Cultural, or Missionary Endeavor? (30 min) Qurʾan and in Ascetic Circles (30 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other), Comparative Religion / History of Religion Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) (Comparative Religion / History of Religion), Religious Traditions Yoseob Song, Lutheran School of Theology at and Scriptures (History of Interpretation / Reception History / Chicago Reception Criticism) Different Ways of Looking at ’s Body (30 min) Federico Stella, Sapienza University of Rome Tag(s): History of Interpretation (Interpretive Approaches) “Il suo nome è il Messia figliuolo di Maria, il qual Andrew O’Connor, St. Norbert College Messia è degno d’esser riverito in questo mondo, e Paraenesis, Recreation, and the Revocation of Bodily nell altro : How Baldassarre Loyola Mandes Translated ’ ” Agency in Surat Ya Sin (Q 36) (30 min) and Commented on Certain Qurʾanic Verses (30 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Johanne Louise Christiansen, University of Katarzyna K. Starczewska CCHS-CSIC , Copenhagen The Qurʾan as an Authority among the Early Modern The (Not So) Monstrous Qurʾan: On Beasts and European Grammar Books of Arabic (30 min) Monsters and Where to Find Them in the Qurʾan and Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Bible (30 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) P22-401 International Qurʾanic Studies Association Friday, 6:00 PM–7:00 PM Graduate Student Luncheon Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Saturday, 11:30 AM–1:00 PM Theme: Presidential Address Offsite Devin J. Stewart, Emory University ’s Boat and Other Missed Opportunities (40 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) P23-226 Todd Lawson, University of Toronto, Respondent Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic (20 min) Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:30 PM M22-502 Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) International Qurʾanic Studies Association Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qurʾan (II): From Text to Concepts Friday, 7:00 PM–9:00 PM Convention Center - 7A (Upper Level West) Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg, Presiding Theme: General Reception RSVP required: members.iqsaweb.org/event-3586805

4 IQSAweb.org Ghazala Anwar, Independent Scholar S. Beena Butool, Florida State University and Jesse Gender Fluidity of Qurʾanic Grammar (20 min) C. Miller, Florida State University Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Inscriptions of an Empire: Qurʾan and the Imperial Discussion (7 min) Visual Landscape (20 min) Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) The Rainwater Metaphor in the Qurʾan’s Ryann Elizabeth Craig, Catholic University of Communitarian Rhetoric: “Do You Not See that America Sends Down One Water from the Sky and Yet Brings The Creed and the Qurʾan: Christological Controversies Forth from It Fruits of Different Colors?”(Q 35:27) and the Qurʾanic Crucifixion (20 min) (20 min) Tag(s): Early Christian Literature (Early Christian Literature - Other), Qurʾan (Other) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Discussion (7 min) Discussion (50 min) Matthew Niemi, Indiana University The Din of Islam: Ambiguity and the Qurʾan’s Religion P24-148a without Religion (20 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) The Societal Qurʾan Discussion (7 min) Sunday, 9:00 AM–11:00 AM Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Flowers, University of Chicago Thomas Hoffmann University of Copenhagen The Qurʾan’s Biblical Vernacular (20 min) , , Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Presiding Discussion (7 min) SherAli Tareen, Franklin & Marshall College Qurʾan Translations and Commentaries in South Asia Leyla Ozgur Alhassen, University of California- (20 min) Berkeley Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Hubris in Qurʾanic Stories: Ethical Formation in the Lien Iffah Naf atu Fina Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Stories of Nuh’s and Adam’s Sons (20 min) ’ , Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) University Yogyakarta Learning From the Qurʾan Not Learning the Qurʾan: Discussion (22 min) , The Practice of Tadabbur in Contemporary Sufi Gatherings in Indonesia (20 min) P23-343 Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity Be a Hero! Qurʾanic Education, Ethics, and Popular Saturday, 4:00 PM–6:30 PM Culture (20 min) Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Michael Pregill, University of California-Los Elliott Bazzano, Le Moyne College Angeles, Presiding The Qurʾan in the Liberal Arts: Reflections on Pedagogy Conor Dube, Harvard University and Purpose (20 min) Eschaton or Eschatons? A New Approach to the Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Qurʾanic Rhetoric of the End (20 min) Discussion (40 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston The Female Vessel of Qurʾanic Revelation (20 min) M24-157 Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) International Qurʾanic Studies Association Thomas Hoffmann, University of Copenhagen Sunday, 11:00 AM–11:45 AM “So Race with One Another to Do Good: You Will All Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Return to God and He Will Make Clear to You the Theme: Business Meeting Matters You Differed About” (Q 5:48): Fashioning a New Ethico-Islamic Agon in the Qurʾan (20 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other)

IQSAweb.org 5 Roy M. McCoy III, University of Oxford P24-243a “Mother” or “Birth” in Surat al-Ma’idah (Q 5:110)? The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition Theological and Linguistic Observations on the of Sunday, 1:00 PM–3:30 PM Early Qurʾan Manuscripts (25 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Marijn van Putten, Leiden University Theme: Panel 2 Before Canonization: Qurʾanic Manuscripts as Evidence Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford, Presiding for Pre-Canonical Reading Traditions (25 min) Daniel Bannoura, Bethlehem Bible College Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) The Qurʾanic Theology of the Land: An Inter-textual Manal Najjar, University of Tabuk Analysis of the Land Verses in the Qurʾan (30 min) The Distinction of the Ottoman Orthography in the Holy Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Qurʾan: A Pragmatic Reading (25 min) Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) If All the Seas Were Ink: Tracking the Evolution of a Motif across Islamic and Rabbinic Literature (30 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) P25-147a Claire Dryden, University of Oxford Qurʾanic Studies: Methodology and , al-Shaytan and Shayatin: Qurʾanic Demonology Hermeneutics and the Reception History of Jewish and Christian Monday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Traditions in Late Antiquity (30 min) Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Theme: Divine Revelation, Scripture, and Speech in Penchansky, University of Saint Thomas Qurʾanic and Islamic Thought (Saint Paul, MN) “By the Lote Tree”: Call Narratives in Surat Al-Najm Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, and Isaiah 6 (30 min) Presiding Tag(s): Latter Prophets - Isaiah (Biblical Literature - / Khalil Andani, Harvard University /Greek OT (Septuagint)) From Transcendent Kitab to Piecemeal Qurʾans: A Sharif Randhawa, CASQI Qurʾanic Model of Revelation (20 min) “Immortality and Kingdom That Never Fades”? Adam, Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) , and the Forbidden Tree in the Qurʾan (30 min) Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) A Common Archetypal Scripture, or Major and Minor Scriptures? Narratives of Scriptural History in P24-346a Academic and Exegetical Writings (20 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) The Qurʾan: Manuscripts and Textual Arezu Riahi, Harvard University Criticism Conceptualizing God’s Speech: The Formulations of Sunday, 4:00 PM–6:30 PM Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (20 min) Convention Center - 23B (Upper Level East) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Shady Hekmat Nasser, Harvard University, Arjun Nair, University of Southern California Presiding Influences from the School of Ibn‘ Arabi upon Post- Classical Shiʿite Conceptualizations of God’s Speech Éléonore Cellard, Collège de France (Kalam Allah) (20 min) Scribal Practices in Early Qurʾanic Manuscripts from Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Fustat: The Role of the Copyist in the Transmission of the Qurʾan (25 min) Nevin Reda, University of Toronto Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) What is the Qurʾan? A Practical, Spiritually Integrative Perspective (20 min) Daniel A. Brubaker Independent , Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other) Partial Correction? A Discussion of One Non- Palimpsest and Variant Qurʾan Fragment, Possibly Seventh Century (25 min) Tag(s): Qurʾan (Other), Text Criticism (Interpretive Approaches), Scribes (Epigraphy & Paleography)

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Abstracts and Biographies

The adjective marfu’ is similarly recorded against a P22-101a metaphorical meaning of “exquisite,” in addition to Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic its literal meaning of “raised high,” in the pre-Islamic Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus corpus. Looking at the Qurʾanic vocabulary alone, there would indeed appear to be an argument for proposing Joint Session With: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic that the two Paradise scenes of Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus (IQSA), The 56:15–26 and 28–37) reflect two, distinct heavenly Qurʾan: Surah Studies visions. The absence of the term mutakka’in (“reclining”) Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qurʾan (I): in Q 56:34 places the second of al-Waqi’ah’s depictions Insights into the Composition of the Text of Paradise in some contrast to the descriptions of the Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota, afterlife provided in Q 38:50–52; Q 52:20; Q 55:54, 76; Q Presiding 56:16; and Q 76:13. Q 56:28–37 contains no mention of Mohsen Goudarzi is Assistant Professor at the “goblets” (ka’s; Q 37:45, Q 52:23, Q 56:18, and Q 76:17) or University of Minnesota’s Classical and Near Eastern “cups” (akwab; Q 43:71; Q 56:18; Q 76:15; and Q 88:14). Studies Department. His research focuses on the It is not specified in Q 56:28–37 that the people who intellectual and social aspects of Islam’s emergence, inhabit this particular scene are “facing one another” in particular the Qurʾan’s relationship to late antique (mutaqabilin; see Q 56:16; Q 37:44; and cf. Q 15:47) or literature as well as its textual history. Currently, he being served by “circulating attendants” (be these the is working on his first book project, which proposes of Q 52:24, the wildan of Q 56:17 and Q 76:19, a new reading of major elements of the qurʾanic or the unspecified attendants of Q 37:45). There is in worldview, including the Qurʾan’s conception of Q 56:28–37 no recorded absence of “idle talk” (laghw scriptural and prophetic history. or laghiyah; see Q 52:23; Q 56:25; Q 78:35; and Q 88:11). The automatic conflation of the qurʾanic surur (Q 37:44; “Exalted Companions” or “Couches Raised High”: Q 52:20; Q 56:15; Q 88:13) with the qurʾanic furush (Q The Twin Paradise Scenes of Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) 55:54; Q 56:34; cf. Q 2:22) gives pause for thought, and Where the phrase furush marfu’ah occurs in Q al- the proposed paper will make an attempt to situate Waqi’ah 56:34, the medieval Islamic exegetical tradition the vocabulary of Q 56:15–26 and 28–37 more firmly in records a metaphorical understanding of the Qurʾanic both its qurʾanic context and the cultural mores of Late dis legomenon furush (pl.) to signify not the usual Antiquity, as reflected in the poetry of the Jahiliyyah. “couches” (surur) but “women” (al-nisa’). This opinion is attested in the earlytafsir works of e.g. al-Maturidi (d. Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Strasbourg, France 333/944), al-Tha’labi (d. 427/1035), and al-Mawardi (d. 450/1058), and it is elaborated on in some depth in the Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau (Ph.D.) is Assistant Professor of al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273). Lane’s Arabic-English in History of Medieval Islam at the Faculty of History lexicon provides backing for such a figurative reading of the University of Strasbourg (France). Her first book by defining the termfirash (sg.) as meaning, inter alia, (Le Coran par lui-même. Vocabulaire et argumentation du “a man’s wife,” “a woman’s husband,” or “a female discours coranique autoréférentiel) deals with synchronic slave’s master or owner.” Meanwhile, the concordance self-referential discourse in the Qurʾan, whereas her of Jahili poetry produced by Albert Arazi and Salman second book (forthcoming) addresses the relation Musalihah in 1999 includes four verses which contain between self-referentiality and chronology. the word firash. Of these four, two collocate the term firash with daji’uha (“her bedfellow”), and one has a variant reading of fatah (“girl”) recorded against Arazi and Musalihah’s firash.

8 IQSAweb.org Boiling Drink, Denial of Resurrection, Hur in Understanding the Limits of Stylometry in Deducing Paradise, and a Qurʾan within a Scripture: Qurʾanic Authorship Intratextuality and the Structure of Surat al- Stylometry, which is the statistical analysis of literary Waqi’ah (Q 56) style, has been successfully applied to literary works The study of intratextuality—as multiple relations as a means of determining authorship attribution, between a part of a text and other parts of the same authorship verification, and stylochronometry. Recently, text—can sometimes prove as fruitful as the study Sadeghi has used stylometric analysis to argue for single of intertextuality: the multiple relations of a text authorship of the qurʾanic corpus, along with a new to other preceding texts. Surah al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) chronology. At the heart of his argument is the so-called possesses textual and literary features that can easily criterion of concurrent smoothness. This principle claims be compared to other . More specifically, a group that a concurrent-and-smooth evolution of multiple of surahs—Surat al-Saffat (Q 37), Surat Sad (Q 38), independent style markers in a corpus is best explained Surat al-Zukhruf (Q 43), Surat al-Dukhan (Q 44), and as chronological development by a single author; the surrounding surahs—share themes and vocabulary Qurʾan is demonstrated to be an example of such a with Q 56. A boiling liquid that evildoers are to drink in corpus. Numerous objections have been raised towards Q 56:52–56 is mentioned in Q 37:62–68 and Q 44:45–46; this criterion, some of which are due to a fundamental arguments against the belief in resurrection in Q 56:47– misunderstanding of statistical principles. Others, 48 are close to those in Q 37:16–17; the famous Huris however, are legitimate, and worth pursuing further. in Paradise (Q 56:22–23) are shared with Q 37 and Q In particular, surahs traditionally ascribed to the early 38, etc. Moreover, understanding of the self-referential Meccan phase are seen as stylistically distinct and thus passage in Q 56:77–78 is usually aided by the opening the product of a different author—perhaps the only of Q 43 about umm al-kitab. Based on a close analysis truly Muhammadan material. The role of distinct genres of these intratextuality cases and similar ones, in terms in affecting stylistic markers has also been questioned. of vocabulary, themes, self-references and literary In this contribution, I explore the limits of what devices, this paper intends to provide hypotheses on stylometry, and more broadly statistical analysis, can the structure of Q 56. and cannot tell us about the qurʾanic corpus. I argue Hythem Sidky, University of Chicago that concurrent smoothness cannot preclude redactions Hythem Sidky is a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute but can only limit the degree to which it may have taken for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. place. The insertion of rhythmic prose attributed to He received an M.S. in Applied and Computational figures other than Muhammad is shown to not disrupt concurrent smoothness. I also discuss the influence of Mathematics in 2016, and a Ph.D. in Chemical and genre on stylistic evolution vis-à-vis recent scholarship Biomolecular Engineering in 2018, both from the University of Notre Dame. When he is not busy as a on form criticism. molecular engineer, Hythem is an active researcher While Sadeghi’s investigation into authorship relied on in Qurʾanic Studies, where he works on stylometric purely lexical markers, I introduce semantic, phonemic, analysis of the Qurʾan, phylogenetic analysis of and syntactic features as well. This adds additional qurʾanic manuscripts, and combining philological independent means of verifying smoothness and leads and computational techniques to help shed light on to an improvement in surah-block resolution, enabling the oral and textual transmission of the Qurʾan in the us to quantify the degree of internal dissimilarity in earliest periods. the corpus. It also adds nuance, on stylistic grounds, to the non-qurʾanic status of Q al-Falaq 113 and Q al-Nas 114 attributed to Ibn Mas’ud, who reportedly excluded them from his Mushaf. Finally, I present this semantically aware model as a tool for assisting in the detection of insertions. Despite my more nuanced approach, the criterion of concurrent smoothness cannot wholly be dismissed and must be taken into consideration when proposing multi-authorship hypotheses.

IQSAweb.org 9 Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame I will ask—considering their distribution into “Meccan” Gabriel Said Reynolds did his doctoral work at Yale and “Medinan”—whether they might point to two University in Islamic Studies. Currently he researches separate pre-canonical textual corpora of the Qurʾan. the Qurʾan and Muslim/Christian relations and is I will also be particularly attentive to the rhetorical Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the and logical strategies with which these doublets are Department of Theology at Notre Dame. He is the deployed in the qurʾanic text. author of The Qurʾan and its Biblical Subtext and The Saqib Hussain, University of Oxford Qurʾan and the Bible, among other works. Saqib Hussain is a doctoral student at Oxford On Doublets and Redactional Criticism of the University. His DPhil thesis examines the continuity of Qurʾan the biblical wisdom tradition and late antique notions One feature of the qurʾanic text that has been of natural law in the Qurʾan. Saqib spent several years understudied even by those interested in questions of studying Arabic, Islamic Law, and tafsir in Damascus rhetoric and literary strategies is the presence therein and Cairo, and from 2016–2018 completed an MPhil of repeated phrases. In a paper for the 2019 annual in Islamic Studies and History at Oxford, focusing meeting of IQSA I will study doublets, defined as on Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, and the Qurʾan. He has a phrases of ten lexemes or more repeated at least once forthcoming publication on qurʾanic textual criticism in the Qurʾan. In compiling a list of doublets I have in Nicolai Sinai (ed.), Unlocking the Medinan Qurʾan. excluded strophic phrases (such as those in Q al-Qamar Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) as a Group-Closing Surah 54 and Q al-Rahman 55) which may be considered Since the series of surahs comprising Surat (Q intentional stylistic features. This leaves us with 50)–Surat al-Waqi’ah (Q 56) was proposed as a group twenty-four Qurʾanic doublets (including one triplet). by Hamid al-Din al-Farahi (d. 1930) on the basis of the Ten of these doublets involve verses from “Medinan” thematic unity of its constituent surahs, it has received surahs. Eleven doublets involve “Meccan” surahs. attention from Amin Ahsan Islahi (d. 1997), Neal Only three doublets (Q al-Baqarah 2:35/Q al-A’raf Robinson (2007), and Raymond Farrin (2014). Although 7:19; Q 2:49/Q 7:141; Q 2:173/Q al-Nahl 16:115) involve the existence of various surah groups in the Qurʾan has a verse from one “Meccan” surah and another from a been proposed and investigated by several modern “Medinan” surah (note, however, that the verse of the scholars, including Hussein Abdul-Raof (2005), Islam last “Meccan” surah—Q 16:115—in question is often Dayeh (2010) and Walid (2016) a thorough considered to be a Medinan insertion). This simple , , investigation of the plausibility of the Q 50–56 group observation matches what Andrew Bannister (An remains to be conducted. Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qurʾan) has found through a more thorough statistical analysis, namely the In my presentation I shall show how Q 56 is both distinctive nature of Meccan and Medinan language integrated into the Q 50–56 group, and indeed in the Qurʾanic corpus. Nevertheless, and as I argued provides a conclusion to it. As such, this paper adds at IQSA 2018 (with reference to the work of Lord and a new component to surah-group studies by arguing Parry), long doublets such as those I have identified that not only do the surahs within a group have close argue against Bannister’s contention that the repetitive, linguistic and thematic overlaps, but their group- or formulaic, nature of Qurʾanic speech redounds to internal placement is also significant. For instance, the oral composition (according to oral-formulaic theory, opening oaths insisting on the truth of resurrection in “blocks” of lexemes which form the starting point Q 50, then judgment in Surat al-Dhariyat (Q 51), then of oral works tend to be smaller). For IQSA 2019 I punishment in Surat al-Tur (Q 52), then the Prophet not would like to explore what these doublets, and their being deluded in Surat al-Najm (Q 53), are concluded neat distribution between “Meccan” and “Medinan” in Q 56:1–2, “When the event befalls, none shall deny surahs, suggest of the qurʾanic text’s redaction. its befalling.” This progression of ideas in the surah Drawing on the research of Angelika Neuwirth, Karl- openings is reinforced by linguistic echoes across the Friedrich Pohlmann, Devin Stewart, and Karim Samji, opening sections (e.g., the root k-dh-b in Q 50:5, Q 52:11, I will study these doublets systematically. I will be Q 53:11, Q 56:2; and the root w-q-ʿ in Q 51:6, Q 52:7, Q particularly interested in what they suggest regarding 56:1, 2). As a second example of Q 56 functioning as a the possibility of a process of written redaction. concluding surah, the declaration in Q 50:16, “We did indeed create man, …

10 IQSAweb.org We are nearer to him (aqrabu ilayhi) than his jugular He also recently published “The Qurʾan and the vein,” is paralleled in Q 56:83–85, “… when it (the dying Modern Self: A Heterotopia” (Social Research: An soul) reaches the throat … We are nearer to him (aqrabu International Quarterly 2018). ilayhi) than you ….” The key phrase here, aqrabu ilayhi “Apostles to the Gentiles”: Paul and Muhammad (nearer to him), occurs nowhere else in the Qurʾan. In Unconscious heuristic models often have an enormous Q 50, at the start of the group, the phrase is connected impact on scholarship. As Devin Stewart has shown to God’s creation of man, whereas in Q 56, at the group , the Revisionist moment in the academic study of the end, it is connected to God’s giving him death. Qurʾan since the 1970s was premised on an analogy Using surah mean verse-length to yield an approximate between the and the Qurʾan, and sought surah chronology, it appears that the Q 50–56 group to deploy techniques drawn from the Bultmannian emerged earlier than the various other groups that approach to the New Testament, imagining an evolving have been proposed. Investigating this early group and late Qurʾan. In the light of recent finds of early can also therefore shed light on properties that became Qurʾan manuscripts, however, many scholars have more formalized in the later groups. For instance, the returned to the notion of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (c. alliteration of the letter q across several of the surahs, 570–632) as the vehicle for a single-authored Qurʾan. especially Q 50 (which begins with q as an isolated This paper argues that a fruitful model for letter), Q 54, and Q 56, is transformed in the later understanding Muhammad and the Qur an is the groups—e.g., the so-called hawamim surahs, Surat ʾ (Q 40)–Surat al-Ahqaf (Q 46)—to each surah scholarship on Paul of Tarsus. The works of both are commencing with near-identical isolated letters. the earliest witnesses to a purported new revelation. Both corpora are vague and poetic, posing severe difficulties for historical analysis. Both grew up on P22-204b the fringes of the Roman Empire, in a society with pagans and Jews, and attempted to reach out to the The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity former by universalizing Jewish themes. Paul saw Theme: Muhammad, the Qurʾan, and the Sirah himself as having a special mission to Gentiles who Tradition: New Perspectives had converted to Judaism or closely associated with Johanne Louise Christiansen, Presiding Jews. Muhammad, likewise, is called by the Qurʾan Johanne Louise Christiansen (Ph.D. 2016, Aarhus a nabi ummi, which almost certainly means “Gentile University) is Postdoctoral Fellow at the research prophet” or “prophet to the Gentiles.” In this analogy, project “Ambiguity and Precision in the Qurʾan”, which the Qurʾan is like the acknowledged Pauline epistles, is based at the University of Copenhagen and led by the synoptic Gospels are like the hadith corpus, and Professor Thomas Hoffmann. Her research focuses the book of Luke-Acts resembles the early sirah and on the application of theoretical perspectives from chronicle literature. other research fields, such as the study of religions, Studying the Pauline epistles requires an understanding to the Qurʾan. Among Christiansen’s recent work of their Second Temple Judaic context and of first- are the article “’Stay up during the night, except for a century Greek and Latin language and culture. little’ (Q 73:2): The Qurʾanic Vigils as Ascetic Training Studying the Qurʾan increasingly is seen to require Programs” (Religion 2019) and the forthcoming book, setting it in the late antique and Greek, Aramaic, and The Exceptional Qurʾan: Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric Middle Persian linguistic contexts. Archeology of the in Islam’s Holy Book. cities Paul addressed, such as Corinth and Galatia, has been pressed into service by Laura Nasrallah among Juan Cole, Qatar University others. Glen Bowersock has used archeological findings Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor about the Iranian conquest of in 614 to of History at the University of Michigan and Adjunct contextualize Q al-Isra’ 17:1 (the Night Journey). Professor, Center for Gulf Studies, Qatar University. His Ph.D. was in Islamic Studies at UCLA. He is past president of the Middle East Studies Association and author of Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires, The New , and Engaging the , among other books. IQSAweb.org 11 Academic writers on the historical Paul face the Rana Mikati, College of Charleston challenge of recuperating his central conceptions from Rana Mikati is Assistant Professor at the College of later major sites of Pauline exegesis, such as the imperial Charleston. She received her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Christianity of the 300s and 400s, which depicted him Languages and Civilizations from the University of as anti-Jewish, and the Reformation, which depicted Chicago. Her research interests include the cultural him as anti-Law. Academics approaching the Qurʾan and intellectual history of the eastern Mediterranean have since the 1970s attempted to recuperate it from in the early medieval period, the history of early the late Umayyad and Abbasid imperial traditions. Islamic frontiers, warfare, and Islamic archaeology. The contrasts are also compelling. The later Muslim She has written on women and warfare in the early tradition represents Muhammad as confined to Islamic period, ritual cursing, and Syrian saints. and , whereas the Qurʾan contains She is currently working on a book project on the evidence that Muhammad continued to travel both transformation of Beirut into an early Islamic frontier to Yemen and north to the Levant after his mission town. began in 610. The Qurʾan shows Muhammad favoring Muhammad and the Spoils of War Rome over the Iranian Empire, but the later tradition As the dust settled from the , Muhammad’s attempted anachronistically to set him at odds with army fell upon the booty before receiving any explicit Constantinople. Whereas the later Christian tradition permission from him. The resolution of this challenge displaced Paul from his context in the Hellenistic put to Muhammad and his companions came through Judaism of the Levant the later Muslim tradition , the revelation of Q al-Anfal 8:68. This verse ushered cooped Muhammad up in a pagan Arab . in what is seen in the Muslim tradition as one of the Paul was universalized whereas Muhammad was unique prerogatives granted Muhammad, that of the parochialized. sanctioning of spoils (ihlal al-ghana’im). The hadith, Sean Anthony, Ohio State University sirah, and tafsir address this distinctiveness vis-a-vis a Sean W. Anthony is an associate professor in the presumably biblical precedent. In a hadith, Muhammad Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures said that “until now, booty has not been licit to black- at the Ohio State University and a specialist in Late headed people (sud al-ru’us) like you. Booty used to Antiquity, early Islam, and . be collected and a fire from the sky would consume it.” Similarly, in his Tafsir, Muqatil b. Sulayman (d. Was the Hijrah a Historical Event? A Survey of the 150/767) stated that, before Muhammad, spoils were Evidence licit to neither prophets nor believers. Believers of past The hijrah of Muhammad and his earliest followers nations, Muqatil asserted, were in the habit of collecting from Mecca to Yathrib in 622 CE stands as an epoch- and burning the booty and putting to the sword making event in the historical memory of the early soldiers, captives, and animals. The spoils of war, their preserved in the literary works of the Arabo- procurement, and division were a central aspect of late Islamic tradition. Yet, does there exist any historical antique and medieval warfare. They would have been evidence for this pivotal event beyond the immense especially important in the context of a voluntary non- cache of communal memory preserved in this literary remunerated army as was the case of the Muslim army evidence? This paper argues that there indeed exists before the institution of regular pay. However, their a bevy of evidence for the historicity of the hijrah centrality to the conduct of war and their proclaimed outside the literary source material—even if one limits licitness did not preclude a pietistic anxiety to pervade the survey of the available data to artifacts dating to qurʾanic and exegetical dealings with what could the first century AH / seventh century CE. Moreover, be seen as a venal and vengeful practice. This paper establishing the historicity of this event has potentially examines the mechanics of booty division and its monumental consequences for the current debate over pietistic exegetical interpretations focusing on Q al- the feasibility of applying diachronic approaches to Baqarah 2:161, Q 8:1, 41, 67–68, and Q al-Fath 48:15, reading the Qurʾan and for defending this approach 19–20 in the aftermath of Badr and Khaybar. from its critics, who dismiss it as overly reliant on assumptions internalized from the sirah-maghazi literature of the second–third / eighth–ninth century.

12 IQSAweb.org The spoils, a synonym for victory, belonged to God I will take the many instances in which Muhammad is and its division among the Muslims needed to be approached by his own community (e.g., Q al-Nazi’at sanctioned by Him; hence, any misappropriation of 79:42, Q al-Dhariyat 51:12, Q al-A’raf 7:187, Q al- the spoils (ghulul) consigned its perpetrator to Hellfire. Baqarah 2:215) as a springboard to inquire on further Similarly, the treatment of captives generated a encounters between either the Prophet or members qurʾanic response (Q 8:67) illustrative of these anxieties. of his community with Jews, with Christians, or with their respective teachers. I will consider references Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge to interactions with Jews and Christians (e.g., Q al- Holger Zellentin teaches Classical Rabbinic Judaism Ma’idah 5:82), with their community leaders (e.g., at the University of Cambridge. He holds a Ph.D. Q 5:63) along with instances in which the “Scripture from Princeton University and has previously held , people” approach the Prophet directly (e.g., Q al-Nisa’ faculty appointments at the Graduate Theological 4:153), interactions between the “Scripture people” and Union and the University of California Berkeley , , the believers (e.g., Q 2:109), and their reactions to the and at the University of Nottingham. Zellentin Prophet’s message (e.g., Q Al ‘Imran 3:199). Further works on Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism and on examples will include interactions with the “Sons of the relationship of the Qur an to late antique law ʾ Israel” (e.g. Q al-Naml 27:76) or their “learned ones and narrative. His publications include The Qur an s ʾ ’ (e.g. Q al-Shu’ara 26:197), who not only populate the Reformation of Judaism and Christianity: Return to the Qurʾan’s past, but also the presence of its community. Origins, The Qurʾan’s Legal Culture: The Didascalia The presentation will consider how far such reports Apostolorum as a Point of Departure, and Rabbinic Parodies reflect historical interactions and how far they of Jewish and Christian Literature. follow stylized tropes equally present in late antique The Qurʾanic Community, the Prophet, and Their heresiology and in the Qurʾan’s portrayal of other Personal Encounters with Jews and Christians contemporaries. The topic of Muhammad’s encounter with bearers of Michael Pregill, University of California, Los religious knowledge has always been a contentious one. Angeles After reporting that the Prophet’s opponents claimed Michael E. Pregill is currently Visiting Scholar at that he derives his knowledge from an informer the , the Center for Near Eastern Studies, University of Qur an rectifies them: The language of him to whom ʾ “ California, Los Angeles. His areas of specialization they refer is non-Arabic (a jamiyyun) while this is [in] ’ , are the Qurʾan and its interpretation; Islamic origins; a clear Arabic language (lisanun arabiyyun mubin) ‘ ” Muslim-Jewish relations; and the reception of biblical, (Q al-Nahl 16:103). Similar exchanges have informed Jewish, and Christian traditions in the Qurʾan and Muslim-Jewish and Muslim-Christian relations Islam. He is co-chair of the IQSA Qurʾan and Late henceforth, and continue to shape aspects even of Antiquity program unit. His monograph The Golden contemporary scholarship. Any study of the Prophet s ’ Calf between Bible and Qurʾan: Scripture, Polemic, and encounter with Jews and Christians, therefore, has to Exegesis from Late Antiquity to Islam is forthcoming from attempt to unload the burden of centuries of inter- Oxford University Press. cultural polemics. This study proposes to contribute to a more historical approach to such encounters Muhammad and the Prophets from Mahdiyyah to by focusing on the Qurʾan’s own testimony, by Nishapur: Reflexes of Late Antique Supersessionism broadening the scope of inquiry to include comparable in Two Sectarian Medieval Islamic Texts encounters between the Prophet’s community and Jews As is well known, one of the earliest sources to be and Christians, and by considering late antique and composed on the life and mission of Muhammad, the qurʾanic rhetorical formulas that may have shaped the Sirah of Ibn Ishaq (d. 150/767), originally contained a extant testimonies. lengthy prologue consisting of narratives about the pre- Islamic prophets. As originally conceived, Ibn Ishaq’s text represented an attempt to assert Islamic hegemony over the biblical past, a kind of symbolic colonization of the imaginative territory of ancient Israel and thus of the spiritual forbears of Judaism and Christianity.

IQSAweb.org 13 As numerous scholars have shown, the particular John Tolan, Université de Nantes concern with spiritual pedigree and imagined lineage John Tolan has studied at Yale (B.A. in Classics), (biblical or otherwise), is a characteristic late antique University of Chicago (M.A. & Ph.D in History) and tendency, reflected in Byzantine Christian, Jewish, and the EHESS (HDR); he is Professor of History at the Sasanian precursors. The rapid dissociation of the sirah University of Nantes and Member of the Academia tradition from narrative cycles about Muhammad’s Europaea. He has received numerous prizes and pre-Islamic predecessors is reflected in the extant distinctions, including two major grants from the recensions of Ibn Ishaq’s work, all of which shear off European Research Council and the Prix Diane Potier- the mubtada’ or accounts of biblical/Israelite history; Boès from the Académie Française (2008). He is the Arabized materials on pre-Islamic lore were for the author of numerous articles and books, including most part hived off into other genres, particularly Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers; Saracens: Islam qisas al-anbiya’. However, I will argue in this paper in the Medieval European Imagination; Sons of ; that the impulse to assert religiously or ideologically Saint Francis and the Sultan; and Faces of Muhammad: meaningful symmetries or parallels between the Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle “literary symbology” of the pre-Islamic prophets Ages to Today. He is one of the four coordinators of and Muhammad himself once central to an Islamic , the European Research Council program “EuQu: The supersessionist project (as described by Newby and European Qurʾan” (2019–2025). others), continued to resonate in sectarian approaches to the life of the Last Prophet. The bulk of my paper will EuQu: The European Qurʾan. A New Research discuss two unedited manuscripts that demonstrate Program Funded by the European Research Council that the linkages between pre-Islamic history and the “The European Qurʾan” (EuQu) will study the advent and mission of Muhammad were still of vital important place of the Muslim holy book in European concern to some Muslim readers of the Qurʾan in the cultural and religious history. From the twelfth fourth and fifth / tenth and eleventh centuries: first, century to the nineteenth, European Christians read the anonymous British Library manuscript Or. 8419, the Qurʾan in Arabic, translated into Latin, Greek and which I have previously identified as a pro-Fatimid various vernacular languages, refuted it in polemical propaganda work that represents an early exemplar treatises, and mined it for information about Islam and of Ismaili ta’wil, conjecturally dated to the mid-fourth/ Arab history. The “European Qurʾan,” in its various tenth century; and second, Princeton manuscript manifestations (Arabic editions, Latin and vernacular Garrett 49Y, the Qisas al-Qurʾan al-’Azim or Tales of the translations) should be understood as scholarly Magnificent Qurʾan of the Karrami author Abu ‘l-Hasan efforts to understand Islam; as weapons in polemical al-Haysam b. Muhammad al-Bushanji (d. 468/1075). exchanges between divergent versions of Christianity; as financial ventures on the part of printers and P22-317 publishers; and as tools for the understanding of Semitic languages, Arabic history and culture, and the The European Qurʾan (IQSA) history of . Roberto Tottoli, Università di Napoli L’Orientale, This brief presentation is meant as an introduction to Presiding the program and an open discussion concerning its Roberto Tottoli is Professor of Islamic Studies at the research questions and the possible collaboration with University of Naples L’Orientale. He has published members of IQSA, the SBL and the AAR. studies on the biblical tradition in the Qurʾan and Islam (Biblical Prophets in the Qurʾan and Muslim Literature; The Stories of the Prophets of Ibn Mutarrif al-Tarafi) and in medieval Islamic literature. His most recent publications include Ludovico Marracci at Work: The Evolution of his Latin Translation of the Qurʾan in the Light of his Newly Discovered Manuscripts (co-authored with Reinhold F. Glei); and Books and Written Culture of the Islamic World. Studies Presented to Claude Gilliot on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday (co-edited with Andrew Rippin). 14 IQSAweb.org Clare Wilde, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen But, the Dutch Qurʾan has, arguably, another Clare Wilde (Princeton, PISAI, The Catholic University complicating factor. For the Spanish siege of Leiden of America) is Assistant Professor of Early Islam at (1573–1574) occurred shortly after the Battle of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the Lepanto (1571), a sea battle which gave Europeans University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her hope that the Ottomans could be defeated (an event research interests include early Christian Arabic subsequently commemorated in the Roman Catholic uses of the Qurʾan and the Qurʾan in its late antique liturgical calendar on 7 October—first as the Feast of environment. Recent publications include “Christians Our Lady of Victory, then as the Holy Rosary). The and Christianity in Islamic Exegesis” for Oxford earliest Dutch “nation state” subsequently arose, out Bibliographies Online; “Christian Approaches to the of a confederacy of several states that had seceded Qurʾan in Arabic” in a recent Festschrift for Sidney from Spain. And, within a generation, the Dutch East Griffith (published by Brill); and “Qurʾanic Critiques of Indies Company (VOC) was established “to spread Late Antique Scholasticism” in an edited departmental risk evenly and to regulate trade with Asia.” This trade volume (published by DeGruyter). with Asia would make the Dutch republic the world’s main commercial hub. The Early Modern Dutch Qurʾan: A Mercantile, With this geopolitical background in mind this Cultural, or Missionary Endeavor? , paper will investigate the presence (or absence) of the The Netherlands is no stranger to Muslims, Arabic Qurʾan in the writings of early modern Dutch traders studies or to the European wars of religion. Although and domines. For although an Arabic chair was many Dutch traditions still celebrated today can be “ ” , established in Leiden in the early 1600s the Dutch traced to saints honored in what would become the , translations of the Qurʾan that were printed in much Roman Catholic tradition (e.g. the 11 November festival of the early modern period (long after Erpenius’ death) of Sintmaartensdag, commemorating St. Martin of were translations not from Arabic, but from already- Tours), the Protestant Reformation—especially with existing translations in other European languages. the arrival of Calvinism—has had a lasting effect What was the audience for such Qurʾans? How on Dutch society. And, as was often the case with grounded were they in local Dutch intra-Christian early modern European study of Semitic languages, polemics? Did these Qurʾan translations influence or contemporary European intra-Christian polemics were , reflect the observations of traders and other travelers present in the study of Arabic in the Netherlands. The , about the Qurʾan among the Muslims (“Moors”) they first professor of Arabic at Leiden, Thomas Erpenius, met—in Nusantara/Indonesia or elsewhere? did publish a Latin translation of Surat (Q 12), but did not manage to produce a full translation of Federico Stella, Gregorian University, Rome the Qurʾan from the Arabic original before his death Federico Stella was born in Rome in 1983. After a B.A. (in 1624). He was also involved in intra-Christian in Literature, he was awarded an M.A. in History of disputes, as Leiden housed not only the first Arabic Philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies, all from chair in the Netherlands, but was also at the center of Sapienza University of Rome. Federico has more Reformation politics. recently obtained an M.A. in Interreligious Studies But, Islam as a political and military, as well as from the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome). He a religious force, was also familiar to European has spent research periods in Germany, Switzerland, churchmen, whether or not they were students of and at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In the latter Arabic. Although more scholarly attention has been institution, and in cooperation with the Gregorian paid to Luther’s attitudes towards Islam than to that Centre for Interreligious Studies, he has studied several of Calvin or other Reformed Protestants (the branch of manuscripts written by Baldassarre Loyola Mandes. Protestantism most influential in Dutch history), Calvin and other Reformed theologians, as well as Luther, were well aware of both the contemporary Ottoman threat, as well as the history of Latin Europe’s polemics against Islam.

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“Il suo nome è il Messia figliuolo di Maria, il qual Katarzyna Starczewska, CCHS-CSIC, Madrid Messia è degno d’esser riverito in questo mondo, Katarzyna K. Starczewska is a Juan de la Cierva Fellow e nell’altro.” How Baldassarre Loyola Mandes at the CCHS-CSIC in Madrid, Spain. She earned Translated and Commented on Certain Qurʾanic her Ph.D. in 2012 from the Universitat Autònoma Verses from Surat Al ‘Imran (Q 3) and Surat al- de Barcelona and since then has been working on a Ma’idah (Q 5) number of topics which revolve around the theme Baldassarre Loyola Mandes (1631–1667) was a of explaining Muslim culture and Arabic language Moroccan Muslim prince who was taken captive by the in Latin. Her interests include networks of early Knights of Saint John when he was travelling to Mecca modern translators whose target language was Latin, for the pilgrimage. Converting to Christianity in 1656, the reflection of Latin interreligious polemics on early after five years of captivity, he became a well-known modern treatises in national languages, and the earliest preacher in Italian port cities, e.g., Naples and Genoa. grammar books of Arabic language written in Latin. To my knowledge, he was the only Muslim convert to She is the author of the book, Latin Translation of the Christianity ever invited to join the Society of . Qurʾan Commissioned by Egidio da Viterbo. A wide range of manuscripts written by Baldassarre, The Qurʾan as an Authority in the Arabic Grammar as well as documents written by other Jesuits that Books of Early Modern Europe deal with Baldassarre and his work, are retained in In one of the Arabic grammar books composed and the Historical Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian published by Thomas Erpenius (Thomas van Erpe, University (APUG) in the Archivium Romanum , 1584–1624), the Qurʾan is almost described as a Societatis Iesu (ARSI), and in other Italian and stand-alone tool for language learning. Therein we European libraries other such manuscripts might ; read that, “The Arabs define Arabic grammar as a indeed be present outside of Europe. Most of the methodical binding of rules, collected from the word sources are written in Italian but some are in Latin , of God, sufficient for gaining an exact understanding or in Arabic. of the Arabic language. They understand their law, In several of his writings, Baldassarre discusses Islamic which they call Koranus, as the word of God, and doctrines, trying to show how the central themes of they were persuaded by Muhammed that it was sent Christianity can be found in the Islamic scripture. to him from the . It is worthless, silly, filled In two letters dated August 1664, Baldassarre translates with lies, and incapable, by any sharp point of reason into Italian and provides a commentary on some or weight of argument, of moving a Christian even qurʾanic verses taken from Surat Al ‘Imran (Q 3) and slightly. Despite this, however, it is arranged with such Surat al-Ma’idah (Q 5). The first letter forms the third a purity of speech and such a correct analogy, and it part of the booklet APUG 1060 IV (Risposta del Padre is expressed with such a perfection of scripture, that it Baldassare Loyola Mandes alla lettera del Turco fessano). should nonetheless be established, by these merits, as Translated from the Arabic by Baldassarre himself, the source and norm of grammar” (Erpenius, Historia this is directed to a citizen of Fez who was shocked by Iosephi patriarchae, K6). Baldassarre’s conversion. The second letter (APUG This quotation is particularly interesting as it 1060 I 292r–295v) is quite similar to the former, both unequivocally links the study of Arabic grammar with in its structure and in its contents. One might almost the study of the Qurʾan. Erpenius here recognizes and think that they are the same letter translated twice. subscribes to the view the natives of Arabic language The first aim of this paper will be to show how had about the grammar of their mother tongue, and Baldassarre translated the verses, if he used other endeavors to apply it in teaching his own students. Western qurʾanic translations or not, and how he When compared with the praise Erpenius has for commented on them. I will also show how and why qurʾanic Arabic, the disdain he shows for the Qurʾan’s Baldassarre varied his style between a more literal religious dimension seems almost perfunctory. translation, a free translation, and a kind of paraphrase, in order to reach his goal of outlining the presence of Christian doctrines inside the Qurʾan.

IQSAweb.org 17 The aim of this paper is to investigate how European Furthermore, God is credited with aural and visual scholars quoted from the Qurʾan and used it as an perception and with emotional responses like love authority for the acquisition of Arabic. In this study and anger; He is said to have established Himself on I compare various European grammar books written the Throne (e.g., Q al-A’raf 7:54); and various passages in Latin that bear testimony to a shift in perceptions speak of God’s eye(s), hand(s), and countenance (e.g., Q of the Qurʾan in the early modern period: while still 11:37, Q Al ‘Imran 3:37, and Q 2:115). In line with understood as a text loaded with “lies and fables,” it these statements, there are no compelling grounds for was not only seen as a source of excellent training equating the qurʾanic opposition of “the invisible and material for the practice of standard Arabic, but also the visible” (al-ghayb vs al-shahadah) with the Platonic as an authority on the notions of grammar, an idea distinction between immaterial and material domains that the European scholars claimed to have got from of being. Even if the Qurʾan is far less drastic in its the native speakers of Arabic themselves. application of anthropomorphic language to God than some Jewish texts, there is every reason, then, to suppose that the Islamic scripture—like the Bible, P23-147a the late antique rabbinic tradition, and parts of the The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition early Christian tradition—does not consider God to be incorporeal. At the same time, a close reading of Theme: Panel 1: Theology of the Body in the the qurʾanic data shows that statements about God’s Biblical Tradition and in the Qurʾan eye(s), hand(s), and countenance (all three of which Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge, have a significant presence in biblical discourse) appear presiding to have a largely idiomatic purport, meaning that See biography above, page 13. they cannot be pressed to convey precise information about the composition of the divine body. All three Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford aspects of divine embodiedness, moreover, may be Nicolai Sinai is Professor of Islamic Studies at the viewed as constituting core aspects of personhood University of Oxford and a Fellow of Pembroke in general, namely, sensory percipience, unmediated College. His published research deals with the literary physical agency, and the ability to face or be faced by and historical-critical study of the Qurʾan against the other persons. The comparatively restrained use of background of earlier Jewish, Christian, and Arabian anthropomorphic language in the Islamic scripture traditions with pre-modern and modern Islamic ; would accordingly seem to be explicable, first, by scriptural interpretation and with the history of ; the Qurʾan’s lack of commitment to a Platonizing philosophical and theological thought in the Islamic ontology—an ontology that came to hold sway over world. much of medieval Christian, Islamic, and Jewish The Qurʾan on Divine Embodiment theology and exegesis but whose validity and even The Qurʾan famously denies that anything is “like” coherence has now become questionable—and, (ka-mithli) God (Q al-Shura 42:11) and conspicuously secondly, by the Qurʾan’s apparent assumption that fails to state that Adam was created in God’s “image” personhood, whether human or divine, is inevitably (Gen 1:27; cf. Q al-Baqarah 2:30), yet it also characterizes embodied. God in terms that are prima facie anthropomorphic Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford and anthropopathic or imply divine corporeality. Thus, Nora K. Schmid is a postdoctoral researcher in the two early Meccan passages suggest the possibility of project “Qurʾanic Commentary: An Integrative seeing God both in this world (Q al-Najm 53:10ff.) and Paradigm” (QuCIP) at the University of Oxford. the next (Q al-Qiyamah 75:22), despite the fact that She holds a Ph.D. in Arabic Studies from the Free elsewhere the text insists that “eyes do not attain Him” University of Berlin (2018). Her research interests (Q al-An am 6:103). ’ include the Qurʾan as a late antique text, Arabic asceticism, early Islamic poetry, and the intellectual and literary traditions of pre-Islamic Arabia. She is a co- editor of the volume Denkraum Spätantike: Reflexionen von Antiken im Umfeld des Koran.

18 IQSAweb.org The Embodied Appropriation of God’s Word in the All these aspects point to a scriptural hermeneutic that Qurʾan and in Ascetic Circles relies on an existential appropriation of scripture. The This paper focuses on strategies of embodied textual believer, with his mind and body, appropriates God’s appropriation in the Qurʾan, notably in surahs word by “bearing” it — a notion still prevalent in the classified as early and middle Meccan according Medinan period, as Q al-Jumu’ah 62:5 demonstrates, to the relative chronology proposed by Theodor and ultimately constitutive of the concept of haml al- Nöldeke in his Geschichte des Qorans. Strategies for qurʾan. The latter acquired a technical sense, notably in the internalization of scripture through embodied the excellences of the Qurʾan genre (fada’il al-qurʾan). performance will be examined against the background Yoseob Song, Lutheran School of Theology at of what Douglas Burton-Christie in his study The Chicago Word in the Desert has called a late antique ascetic Yoseob Song is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Lutheran “hermeneutic expressed as a whole way of life centered School of Theology at Chicago and an ordained pastor upon a profound appropriation of scripture.” This in the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea. hermeneutic was pervasive in Late Antiquity; it was His research interest is Christian-Muslim relations in absorbed, elaborated, and communicated by a wide the early Islamic empires. He is writing a dissertation range of ascetics, the so-called Desert Fathers and about the ninth century biblical commentaries the theologian-ascetic Evagrius Ponticus figuring written by a Nestorian author in the Islamic milieu. prominently among them. The paper argues that, His research includes the study of Christian Arabic concomitantly with the sundering of prophecy and manuscripts, the history of biblical interpretation, inspired speech in the Qurʾan through the rejection iconography, early Renaissance art and Islam, the of the paradigms of the poet and the seer, an ascetic Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity) in East mode of knowledge formation is configured: it centers Asia, and the interreligious dialogue between East on the appropriation of God’s word, through scriptural Asian Religions—Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, reading/recitation and its bodily performance. God’s and Christianity. word is not to be recited hastily (la tuharrik bihi lisanaka li-ta’jala bihi, Q al-Qiyamah 75:16), but chanted Different Ways of Looking at Joseph’s Body clearly and distinctly (wa-rattili ‘l-qurʾana tartila, Q Islamic miniatures that illustrate the story of Yusuf al-Muzzammil 73:4). Attentiveness and mindfulness u Zulaykha in manuscripts of ’ al-tawarikh (“The of the words of scripture—crucial among Christian Compendium of Chronicles”) depict episodes that ascetics, for whom meditation on scripture created a can seem unfamiliar, especially to Christians. In this veritable reservoir of thoughts—emerges in different paper, I will discuss the similarities and differences surahs from repeated references to the recitation being in the Joseph story across religious traditions, with sent down as “a reminder” (tadhkirah, e.g. Q 73:19). particularly focus on Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Furthermore, the mention of the ideal of “unceasing portrayals of Joseph’s body, in order to seek the prayer” (alladhina hum ‘ala salatihim da’imun, Q al-Ma’arij possibility of a shared understanding. 70:23) in the Qurʾan, anchored in 1 Thessalonians 5,17 The Qurʾan elaborates Joseph’s story in Surat Yusuf (Q and commented on relentlessly in monastic circles, 12) and includes a scene in which a group of women, alongside the interspersed psalmic references in stunned by Joseph’s beauty, cut their hands. Legends the early surahs, resonate with ascetic practices of regarding Joseph and Potiphar’s wife were prevalent continuous prayer and psalmody. Surat al-Muzzammil among Christians and Muslims by the eighth century; (Q 73) and Surat al-Muddaththir (Q 74) which have , a comparatively complete version of this story can be long been understood as alluding to nightly vigils , found in the Midrash Tanhuma . Christians are point to a cultic framework for scriptural recitation, not familiar, however, with the idea that women cut further reinforcing the performative dimension their hands: they would tend to emphasize Joseph’s of this particular form of scriptural hermeneutic. celibacy rather than his heavenly beauty, sharing Finally catalogues of virtues which encapsulate , , with western philosophy an ascetical tendency that cultic behavior but also regulate social conduct (e.g. emphasizes moral value. Accordingly, Joseph’s heroic Q 70:22–35), become focal points for a mimesis of the morality is triumphant in the battle against women’s content of scripture through the appropriation of a seduction and inner lust. behavioral pattern.

IQSAweb.org 19 In the Islamic tradition, in contrast, the spotlight is cast Paraenesis, Recreation, and the Revocation of upon the experience of facing mystical beauty. In Sufi Bodily Agency in Surat Ya Sin (Q 36) interpretation, for example, Zulaykha is a symbol for Surat Ya Sin (Q 36) employs a remarkable variety of the fascinating power of love and her lust connotes imagery associated with the body, including both the mystical experience in the contemplation of divine direct statements about parts of the body and evocative beauty revealed in human form. The poem by Nur language appealing to either one’s sense of bodily al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami’ (d. 1492) on which the enjoyment or harm. In most cases this symbolism Yusuf u Zulaykha miniatures are based imbues this serves a paraenetic purpose, fostering a particular scene with a mystical understanding of overwhelming response from its addressees. Thus it urges addressees beauty that is sufficient to cause the women to cut to become inhabitants of paradise through appealing their hands. Thus, from an ascetical perspective, to their sense of bodily enjoyment: they will be merrily Joseph’s heroic morality is triumphant in the battle busy (Q 36:55), reclining on couches in the shade with against women’s seduction and inner lust, while from spouses (Q 36:56), and enjoying fruit and whatsoever an aesthetical or mystical aspect, the focus is brought they desire (Q 36:57). The Qurʾan constructs a mental onto the experience of facing mystical beauty. The picture of leisure and recreation, with complete distance between two dimensions breaks further than freedom to use and enjoy their bodies as they wish. that between stories. To overcome the differences, I However, the second component of this discourse will discuss James L. Kugel’s suggestion about Genesis is intentionally jarring and brings to mind violence 39:6 and 49:22 (Kugel 1994), which can be understood against the body: addressees are warned of their in connection with Joseph’s beauty. extinction by a single shout (Q 36:29), at which they will Finally, this paper seeks to find examples of aesthetic be seized (Q 36:49), amassed for judgment (Q 36:53), perspectives of Joseph’s story in Christian history. In and roasted in (Q 36:64). This surah also establishes the Byzantine tradition, Joseph is called “Joseph the God’s absolute control over the human body, entailing all-comely,” an epithet that has been used since St. both the reversal of old age (Q 36:68) and the re-creation Ephrem’s sermons in the fourth century. In western of the body from bones (Q 36:78–79). Furthermore, Q Christianity, typological interpretations of Joseph’s 36 contains explicit references to parts of the body to story are employed by John Calvin in his interpretation accomplish its purpose of swaying one from unbelief in Genesis 37:7 and 49:24. Interestingly, Calvin to belief. In short, to describe unbelief the surah seems to have known the story of the assembly of employs corporeal imagery that implies the revocation girls in Genesis 49:22 but chose to base his work on of bodily agency. As a result of God’s dominion another translation and interpretation. The mystical over humankind, the damned lose control of their interpretation regarding the story of Joseph and body—their very limbs work against them to ensure Potiphar’s wife is not, therefore, represented in the their perdition (Q 36:8–9, 65–67). With this language traditions of the western and eastern churches. There, in particular we can find echoes and developments of the typological connection with the image of Christ biblical symbolism, such as the biblical (and ancient dictates that Joseph’s beauty would be a divine rather Near Eastern) association between necks and pride, than a physical one. the metaphor of barriers placed between mortals and God, and the hands and feet as instruments of Andrew O’Connor, St. Norbert College sin (e.g., the dismemberment logia of the of Andrew J. O’Connor is Assistant Professor in the Matthew). Accordingly, in this paper I first present the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at St. diverse ways that Surat Ya Sin constructs its arguments Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin (USA). In utilizing symbolism of the body. I then highlight the 2019 he received his Ph.D. from the University of contrast between corporeal agency in paradise and Notre Dame, where he wrote his dissertation on the revocation of agency for unbelievers, along with the Qurʾan’s prophetology. He also holds an M.A. detailing the degree to which this imagery builds upon from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the or subverts biblical conventions. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Andrew was a Fulbright Researcher in Amman, Jordan, for the 2017–18 academic year.

20 IQSAweb.org Johanne Louise Christiansen, University of polemical metaphor used in Q al-Anfal 8:22: “The Copenhagen worst of beasts is in God’s view the deaf and dumb Johanne Louise Christiansen (Ph.D. 2016, Aarhus who do not understand (inna sharra ‘l-dawabbi ‘inda llahi University) is Postdoctoral Fellow at the research ‘l-ṣummu ‘l-bukmu lladhina la ya’qilun).” In this verse, project “Ambiguity and Precision in the Qurʾan”, which the disabled body, deviating from the cultural model is based at the University of Copenhagen and led by of a human body, is used to condemn the unbelievers’ Professor Thomas Hoffmann. Her research focuses lack of understanding. Another example of deviation on the application of theoretical perspectives from from physical integrity and health occurs in qurʾanic other research fields, such as the study of religions, descriptions of the so-called tree of : “It is a tree to the Qurʾan. Among Christiansen’s recent work that comes out of the root of hell / Its spathes are like the are the article “’Stay up during the night, except for a heads of (tal’uha ka-annahu ru’usu ‘l-shayatin)” (Q little’ (Q 73:2): The Qurʾanic Vigils as Ascetic Training 37:64–65). Here, the normal borders between humans, Programs” (Religion 2019) and the forthcoming book, animals, and natural phenomena become blurred. The Exceptional Qurʾan: Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric This paper will dive into the (lack of) monstrosity in in Islam’s Holy Book. the Qurʾan in comparison to the Bible (cf. Brunschvig The (not so) Monstrous Qurʾan: On Beasts and 1953). Leaving most of the details and typical fantastic Monsters and Where to Find Them in the Qurʾan and features of the beasts to later Islamic traditions, the Bible qurʾanic monster is a theoretical one. I will argue that monsters and monstrosity are used in the Qurʾan as What is a beast? And what is a being? These questions a didactic and rhetorical tool to explain destabilizing initiate the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and dangerous bodies and situations where the a Hogwarts text book from the fictitious universe given qurʾanic order is at stake. As is evident in Q created by J.K. Rowling. The book exemplifies that 8:22 and Q 37:64–65 cited above, ignorance of the bestiality, monstrosity, and the fantastic are ongoing, qurʾanic religious message or ending up in hell due significant, and well-attested phenomena, not only in to wrongdoing constitute such situations. It is also contemporary culture but also in the history of religions something that should be feared and avoided by the (cf. e.g. Cohen 1996). In this paper, I will therefore Qurʾan s adherents. pose two additional questions: In what ways and why ’ do holy scriptures such as the Qurʾan and the Bible contain renderings of beasts and monsters? What are P23-226 their function? Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic One example of a biblical monster is Leviathan, the dragon that God defeated at the beginning of time (Ps Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus 74, 12–17, cf. Ps 104, 24–28; Is 27, 1). Leviathan represents Theme: Style and Vocabulary in the Qurʾan (II): life-threatening chaos, the chaos called “without form From Text to Concepts and void,” which God made into order through His Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg, creation. Whereas monsters such as Leviathan have Presiding been studied extensively within Biblical Studies (cf. See biography above, page 8. van Bekkum et al. 2017), the monstrous features of the Qurʾan have never been duly investigated by qurʾanic Ghazala Anwar, Independent Scholar scholars. This may be due to the fact that, compared Ghazala Anwar is an independent scholar of Islamic to the Bible, the Qurʾan contains very few fantastic and Qurʾanic Studies whose research focus in recent beasts (e.g. Q al-Naml 27:39; Q al-Saffat 37:64–68). years has been on the lived practice of Sufism, the Besides the so-called “beast from the earth (dabbah min historical critical study of the Qurʾan, and articulating al-ard)” mentioned in Surat al-Naml (Q 27:82), which is a Muslim theology of animal rights. described in vivid terms in the later Islamic tradition, the qurʾanic application of monstrosity mostly pertains to its constant “othering.” It is the “Other,” embodied by the unbeliever, the “associator,” or the hypocrite, that is the monster of the Qurʾan. For example, in the

IQSAweb.org 21 Gender Fluidity of Qurʾanic Grammar He is currently working on a second monograph Whereas Michael Sells has explored the titled The Matriarchs of Medina: Muhammad’s Wives and multidimensionality of meaning across what he Mothers in the Qurʾan and Early Muslim Historiography. identifies as the semantic, acoustic, emotive, and His research focuses on situating qurʾanic language in gendered modes, and has aptly pointed out the use the social context of seventh-century western Arabian of feminine grammar in creating impressive feminine market cities and the discursive context of Arabic, “sound-scapes” or barely hidden personifications (or Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Ge’ez and Greek writings “sound figures,” as he calls them), in hymnic surahs from the late ancient Near East. of the Qurʾan (e.g. Surat al-Qadr [Q 97] and Surat al- “Do You Not See that God Sends Down One Water Qari ah [Q 101]) I am not aware of any studies of the ’ , from the Sky and [Yet] Brings Forth from it Fruits of alternate use of the feminine and masculine grammar Different Colors?” (Q al- 35:27): The Rainwater in the same verse or couplet and how it may relate to Metaphor for Prophecy and Communal Difference in a deeper gender discourse in the immediate passages the Qurʾan and in the overall literary intent of the relevant surah Metaphors of rainwater, and relatedly of rainclouds (e.g. Q al-Najm 53:38–39, alla taziru waziratun wizra and rainfall, appear prominently in the Qurʾan’s ukhra / wa-an laysa li-’l-insani illa ma sa’a). In this paper I language of community-formation. The rainwater propose to study the two terms—nafs and insan—most metaphor appears in the Qurʾan in conjunction with commonly used in the Qurʾan to refer to the human the notion that prophetic “guidance” (hudan) produces subject. Both terms are semantically gender inclusive, communities (umam). Just as water from the sky causes whereas the former is grammatically feminine and the transformations in the natural world prophecy from latter grammatically masculine. Beginning with some , the sky causes transformations in the social world. general observations on the interchangeable use of In this conceptual scheme, “guidance” appears as a the two terms in the Qurʾan leading to grammatical “provision” (rizq) that is dispensed, unpredictably and gender fluidity, the paper shall proceed to a more unequally, from God’s tremendous and unsurpassable focused study of Surat al-Najm, where there is an surplus (fadl) with some humans receiving a greater explicit and implicit discussion of gender across its “ ” , share than others. The dispensation of community- semantic, acoustic, and emotive modes. The surah’s forming “guidance” is allegorized as “one water from breathtaking rhythm, with its short verses and feminine the sky” (ma’un mina ‘l-sama’) that “descends” (anzala) endings (except for verses 26–32, which seem to be from the sky and causes diverse transformations in a later insertion), its concern with denial of female the world. The rainwater metaphor thus encodes goddesses, its use of feminine and masculine grammar an ecumenical or inclusivist ethos of community- to refer to the human subject, and the primacy of the formation through an allegorical equivalence: God’s ethical across human differences, makes it an excellent guidance to humans is like one water from the sky candidate for such a study. The paper will also “ ” “ ” in that it has a singular origin and a singular quality endeavor to determine the degree to which there might yet produces difference and multiplicity in the world. be a tension or agreement between the various modes Moreover the metaphor allegorizes God s guidance through which the discourse on gender is developed , ’ “ ” as rainwater in that it is an unevenly “provisioned” in this surah. Finally, the paper will reflect on how the resource. Just as communal insiders ought to ethically gender fluidity of qurʾanic grammar might open a way redistribute material provisions such as assets for queer Muslims to transcend hetero-normative and “ ” (amwal) so too are they to equitably share schematic patriarchal readings of the Qurʾan. , resources such as “guidance” among themselves. Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington Lastly, God’s “guidance” is like rainwater in that it Hamza M. Zafer is Assistant Professor of Arabic dramatically transforms the world, inspiring elation and Early Islam in the Department of Near Eastern in some humans and trepidation in others. While Languages and Civilization at the University of communal insiders are relieved and encouraged by Washington in Seattle. He has a forthcoming book the coming of community-forming “guidance”—by the titled: Qurʾanic Communitarianism: The Ummah of the approaching rainclouds—communal outsiders cower Proto-Muslims. in fear, rendered deaf and blind by the thunderclaps and lightning.

22 IQSAweb.org Matthew Niemi, Indiana University Paradoxically however, this surah also has some of the Matthew Niemi is a doctoral candidate in Islamic most positive language about certain pious People of Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. His the Book. In order to make sense of this language, the doctoral research focuses on the social construction of paper proceeds to put terms such as islam and iman the category of religion in Late Antiquity and how it into the context of the Qurʾan’s vision of reality as a was intertwined with politics, law, and peoplehood in cosmic extension of central-Arabian power structures. seventh-century Arabia. While the Qurʾan adopts some aspects of universal imperial religion, its rootedness in Central Arabian The Din of Islam: Ambiguity and the Qurʾan’s tribal politics allowed for a vision of religious hierarchy Religion without Religion rather than totalization. Observing the coexistence and This study describes how the Qurʾan uses the ambiguity tension of universal ideals and social realities allow us of the terms islam, din, and iman for rhetorical effect. The to understand how the early Muslim community saw structure of qurʾanic language about religion itself acts its relationship to other religions and groups. as a metaphor for the nature of the religio-legal system it is constructing. In the earlier surahs, ambiguity is Adam Flowers, University of Chicago exploited to simultaneously evoke both general and Adam Flowers is a Ph.D. candidate at the University specific meanings of islam and to invite the reader to of Chicago. His primary research interests include the experience the cosmic in the mundane and vice versa. genres of qurʾanic discourse and the Qurʾan’s textual Similarly, the ambiguity of din as “legal ruling,” “religio- history. legal system,” or “cosmic sovereignty” is capitalized The Qurʾan’s Biblical Vernacular upon to this effect throughout the Qurʾan. Scholars have long recognized the Qurʾan as a biblical Islam as acceptance of the Qurʾan’s preaching is text; that is, the Qurʾan’s style and content engage with sometimes connected indirectly to din through their the various literary forms and debates present in the mutual involvement in exhortations to exclusive biblical tradition. Most fundamentally, the Qurʾan worship for allah, but the two terms are not directly employs biblical narratives to establish a biblical connected until the Medinan surahs of al-Baqarah (Q history upon which it can expand and comment. 2), Al ‘Imran (Q 3), al-Nisa’ (Q 4), and al-Ma’idah (Q These narratives typically consist of a biblical (or 5). In these surahs, and especially in Surat Al ʻImran, extra-biblical) prophet speaking directly to his two readings are possible in every verse connecting community; as has been consistently highlighted in din and islam, but there is an increasing probability or secondary literature, this setting reflects Muhammad’s preference for interpretations that require the existence own prophetic mission as recounted in the Islamic of a din (religio-legal system) called “al-islam.” This tradition. To what extent does the language of the reading is made completely inescapable only once in Qurʾan’s narrative and non-narrative sections reflect the entire qurʾanic corpus, in the third verse of Surat this observation? al-Ma’idah, when God declares that the Believers’ Through an analysis of specific genre forms, it becomes religion is complete and that He has “approved for clear that there is an extensive overlap in the language [them] al-islam as a religion.” This verse then serves and literary structures employed in the Qurʾan s to highlight the ambiguity of the earlier verses and to ’ narrative and non-narrative sections. In particular, an drive home the point that, while al-islam is indeed a examination of the qurʾanic genre of exhortation is a specific religio-legal system, it is one that crystallizes useful tool with which this similarity can be explored. out of the nature of reality itself, which, like the religion, Narrative and non-narrative exhortations both conform is a product of God’s all-powerful decree. to specific literary conventions including a tri-partite Surat Al ʻImran then, in light of al-Ma’idah, threatens vocative address that establish a power-dynamic to become the most exclusivist in its religious language, between speaker and audience. But, the Qurʾan’s declaring in Q 3:85 that “Whoever seeks a din other than non-narrative exhortations do not only mirror those al-islam, it shall not be accepted from him.” of biblical prophets to their communities; they mirror those of biblical antagonists, including , to their communities.

IQSAweb.org 23 This lack of distinction evinces a self-conception of Rather than making claims about the Qurʾan’s qurʾanic language as of a biblical time and place, intentions, I identify and analyze narrative choices that where protagonists and antagonists alike speak in a have a logic of their own and have found resonance certain form and fashion, in a “biblical vernacular.” among interpreters over the centuries. While Muhammad is carrying on a tradition of biblical We can start by looking at Toshihiko Izutsu’s prophethood through the revelation of the Qurʾan, the scholarship, where we can examine the qurʾanic language and form in which he is speaking is that of connections between hubris and arrogance (istikbar, “biblical speech,” not specifically“ prophetic speech.” ‘uluww), a rejection of belief (kufr), and associating Leyla Ozgur Alhassen, University of California- others with God (). Izutsu writes that istikbar is Berkeley equivalent to kufr (Izutsu 2000). For Izutsu, a believer Leyla Ozgur Alhassen is a visiting scholar at the is one who submits with humility, an ‘abd. He writes: since God is … the Absolute Sovereign the only University of California, Berkeley, in the Department “ , of Near Eastern Studies. Her scholarship revolves possible attitude for man to take towards Him is that around qurʾanic stories and interpretation in of complete submission, humbleness and humility without reserve. In short a servant ( abd) should act literature, performance, and art, across historical , ‘ ’ ‘ and behave as a servant … (Izutsu 2000). There is periods, languages, and disciplinary boundaries. ‘ ’ ” a link between being prideful and not having faith Her publications include: “A Semantic and Thematic (Izutsu 2000). If someone is arrogant s/he is not Analysis of the Story of in the Qurʾan,” in , receptive to revelation and to knowledge coming from Religion and Literature (2019); “Islam and Iconoclasm: someone else. Humility and acceptance of a message Ibrahim and the Destruction of Idols in the Qurʾan,” are connected: without humility one is closed to in Religion and the Arts (2019); “’You Were Not There,’ , of Humility and Knowledge in Qurʾanic knowledge and unable to learn. Stories,” in Comparative Islamic Studies (2015); “Behcet If we turn to the story of Nuh’s son in Q Hud 11:25–49, Kemal Caglar’s Kurʾan-i Kerim ‘den Ilhamlar (Inspirations we see him giving value where it is not deserved. After from the Holy Qurʾan),” in The Muslim World (2017); and the flood begins, Nuh calls to his son to join him, and “A Structural Analysis of Surat Q. 19:1–58,” in his son says he will find refuge on a mountain (Q 11:43). the Journal of Qurʾanic Studies (2016). What we see here is that Nuh’s son is closed to his father’s message, and he thinks a mountain can save Hubris in Qur anic Stories: Ethical Formation in the ʾ him from God’s punishment. He is, in a way, mistaking Stories of Nuh s and Adam s Sons ’ ’ God’s creation (the mountain) for God. Thus, we see This paper analyzes two qurʾanic stories to look at the Nuh’s son giving value where it is not deserved: to the development of an ethics of hubris and humility. First, mountain, and not giving it where it is deserved: to I focus on the qurʾanic story of Nuh, particularly his Nuh, God, and God’s message. I will explore whether son’s rejection of faith and how this can be seen as his and how this misjudgment is a form of hubris in the not knowing his, his father’s, or creation’s proper place. Qurʾan and will pair this with the story of Adam’s son I pair this with the story of Adam’s son, who—after learning from a crow. killing his brother and not knowing what to do with the body—learns to bury the dead from a crow. He is thus humbled by an animal. P23-343 In this paper, I develop a methodology to analyze The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity qurʾanic stories, given their dual nature as narrative and sacred text. I use a narratological and rhetorical Michael Pregill, University of California, Los Angeles Presiding approach, interested in how the text aims for a , response from its audience (Zebiri 2003). Such an See biography above, page 13. approach resembles that of Abdel Haleem’s focus on the qurʾanic usage and employment of specific words and phrases within the canonical text (Abdel Haleem 1999), although my analysis has a stronger literary and narratological bent.

24 IQSAweb.org Conor Dube, Harvard University This distinction is echoed in a number of places in the Conor Dube is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Qurʾan, most directly in Q al-An’am 6:40, Q al- Department of Near Eastern Languages and 22:55, and Q al-Sajdah 32:21. Finally, having developed Civilizations at Harvard University. He holds an M.A. the notion of “loose ,” I contend that we may in Religious Studies from University and a have some support for this theory in early sources. B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. In particular, it seems that the Battle of Badr was His research focuses on tafsir’s role in the mediation of remembered by Islamic tradition as an eschatological the Qurʾan in early Muslim communities and on the event in this loose sense. Examining the traces of this intersection of literature and qurʾanic interpretation. memory in the exegetical literature shows that the Qurʾan combined two eschatological timeframes—one, Eschaton or Eschatons? A New Approach to the an immediate, communal punishment, and the other, Qurʾanic Rhetoric of the End an end to history and occasioning of final judgment—in The debate over the eschatological nature of Muhammad a flexible way that was able to shift with changes in the and his movement has a long history. Most recently, fortunes of the early community. Stephen Shoemaker has argued forcefully that he was a fully eschatological preacher, one who envisioned Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston the world coming to an end in his own lifetime. This Emran El-Badawi is Associate Professor and Program paper draws on late antique studies of eschatology to Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the Department argue that the Qurʾan’s eschatological discourse must of Modern and Classical Languages at the University be seen in a more multifaceted and contingent way. of Houston. He is author of The Qurʾan and the Aramaic Specifically, it is necessary to distinguish between Gospel Traditions, co-editor of Communities of the Qurʾan: a strict and a loose sense of eschatology. Following Dialogue, Debate and Diversity in the 21st Century, and Gustav Hölscher, the former entails “that grand co-author of A History of the Classical Middle East, drama of the end times in which worldly time comes 500–1500 (forthcoming). He teaches courses on Islamic to an end and a new eternal time of salvation dawns.” civilization as well as the modern Middle East. He is Contrastingly, a loose eschatology is an end that a contributor to Forbes, The Houston Chronicle, and The does not involve the destruction of the cosmos or the Christian Science Monitor. ultimate cessation of history but rather inaugurates The Female Vessel of Qurʾanic Revelation a new era of fundamental difference that remains The Qurʾan makes ample reference to God s many acts within the existing temporal framework. The most ’ of revelation. We may regard as revelation to a obvious parallel to “loose eschatology” in the Qurʾan prophet, while is a broader category of revelation is the punishment narratives, which can be understood to humankind. Revelation to mankind includes various as God intervening in history to punish those who objects (scripture, water from the heavens; wages; etc.) disobey Him, inaugurating a time of righteousness. There is ample modern literature on the biblical and This theorization allows us to better understand the Judeo-Christian echoes of these qurʾanic passages, early Islamic movement’s eschatological mode. Instead but little to nothing about its more ancient female of Muhammad preaching that the end of the world , pagan structure and imagery. The male or female was coming in his lifetime, we should understand characteristic of these objects often gleaned from their his eschatological traditions as referencing a coming , very names are too rich in meaning to ignore. This upheaval that will essentially change the existing , presentation examines three cases where revelation order. Thus, in Q Maryam 19:75, a distinction is made takes place through a female vessel, and where the between “the Punishment” and “the Hour”: “when vessel is accompanied by two female helpers. they are confronted with what they have been warned about—either the Punishment or the Hour (imma The first case is that of God’s “tranquility” or (female) ‘l-’adhaba wa-imma ‘l-sa’ata)—they will realize who is “dwelling” (Arab. sakinah; Q al-Tawbah 9:26; Q al-Fath worse situated and who has the weakest forces.” These 48:4–26; cf. Q Al ‘Imran 3:154). Finding His believers events should be held distinct: the “Punishment” is a in duress and homeless, God sends down His sakinah this-worldly eschaton that anticipates but does not within which they find tranquility after battle. coincide with “the Hour,” the ultimate end of history.

IQSAweb.org 25 This is the same tranquility found in a man’s “dwelling” “So Race with One Another to Do Good: You Will within his wife (Q al-Rum 30:21), the dwelling of birds All Return to God and He Will Make Clear to You in a tree, and the dwelling of divinity among its people the Matters You Differed About” (Q al-Ma’idah in rabbinic literature (Heb. shekinah) and echoed in 5:48): Fashioning a New Ethico-Islamic Agon in the Matthew 18:20. The second case is the parallel story Qurʾan of the Qurʾan’s revelation and the birth of Christ (Q In this paper, I will focus on Q al-Ma’idah 5:48 and al-Qadr 97). God’s revelation is planted deep in Mary’s its surrounding verses and argue that the qurʾanic womb, as it is planted deep in the “night of darkness” concept of an ethical contest of good works (al-khayrat), (laylati’ l-qadri; cf. Aram. qdr). Out of this darkness to be performed by members of the monotheist emerges a constellation “brighter than a thousand communities, functioned as an adaptation of the Greco- moons” (khayrun min alfi shahrin; cf. Aram. h-y-r; sh-h-r). Roman tradition of the agon, i.e., the ritual-festive This discussion leads to the third case, the revelation of competitive games that attracted contestants from the Qurʾan in the “month of ” (shahr ramadan), the different city-states (e.g., the famous pan-Hellenic the ninth month of the Arabian calendar. That is to say periodos, the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean the Qurʾan is formed over a nine month period, as Jesus games). Further, I will discuss how the notion and did in Mary’s womb and coinciding with the harvest phenomenon of the agon could resonate well with pre- season or rebirth of the earth. Islamic Arabia’s egalitarian and competitive ethos with Through this presentation, I argue that the Qurʾan’s its fairs and poetic competitions (e.g., the famous fair story of its own creation is composite, reflecting of Ukaz), as well as its assertive and polemical poetic more “recent” Judeo-Christian counterparts, but also genres (e.g., fakhr and hija’). However, in the qurʾanic ancient pagan imagery hard-coded into its Arabic preaching the pagan agon was re-imagined and re- language. The most ancient layer in this story, I argue, written as a monotheist ethical contest or race between is the imagery of the goddess Allat/Ishtar: the winged the Muslim Believers, Jews, and Christians (and goddess (crane) of the heavens, the morning and possibly also the Zoroastrians), especially signaled by evening star, and the resurrector of the earth (Tammuz). means of the root s-b-q and its lexemic manifestations as sabaqa and istabaqa. The outcome of this ethical Thomas Hoffman, University of Copenhagen race is deferred until after death, until the advent of Thomas Hoffmann is Professor (with special resurrection and judgment brought about by the one responsibilities) in Qurʾanic Studies, the Faculty of who “knows best” (cf. allahu a’lam). In the meantime, Theology, University of Copenhagen. He holds an the respective monotheist communities are urged to M.A. in Comparative Religion and received his Ph.D. regulate day-to-day issues according to their respective for the dissertation The Poetic Qurʾan: Studies on Qurʾanic scriptures and their legal modi vivendi (i.e., shir’ah Poeticity (published by Harrassowitz Verlag in 2007). wa-minhaj). In doing so, the verse Q 5:48 negotiates He is interested in the historical genesis, composition, and proposes an equilibrium between the pagan rhetorical, and intertextual features of the Qurʾan. His agonistic ideals and practices of the Greco-Roman/pre- preferred approach is experimental, interdisciplinary, Islamic world and Late Antiquity’s promulgation of and comparative, yet greatly indebted to standard monotheist truth commitments. In doing this, the verse qurʾanic scholarship. Among his latest works are “Taste evokes a new ethico-Islamic agon to be internalized by My Punishment and My Warnings (Q. 54:39): On the the Muslim Believers. Torments of Tantalus and Other Painful Metaphors of Taste in the Qurʾan” (Journal of Qurʾanic Studies 2019). Syeda Beena Butool, Florida State University, and Currently, he is Principal Investigator for the research Jesse Miller, Florida State University project “Ambiguity and Precision in the Qurʾan.” Beena Butool is a Ph.D. candidate in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy at Florida State University. Her research interests include Islamic ethics, early Islamic history, Christian ethics, and science and religion. Her research uncovers the link between ethics of and the project of Islamic empire.

26 IQSAweb.org Jesse C. Miller is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Ryann Craig, Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Ethnography of Religions at Florida State University. Jerusalem A researcher on “indigenous” traditions in Africa, Ryann Elizabeth Craig received her Ph.D. in Semitics his research on contemporary funerals in Burkina at The Catholic University of America (CUA) while in Faso prods the relationship between economics and residence as a doctoral fellow at the Tantur Ecumenical “religion.” His secondary research interests include Institute in Jerusalem (2017–2019). Her research focuses Islam in West Africa, Shi’ism, and Sufism. on the use of qurʾanic prooftexts in Christian Arabic and Syriac sources. She recently served as copyeditor Inscriptions of an Empire: Qurʾan and the Imperial for IQSA s journal and monograph series and as project Visual Landscape ’ manager for the Christian Communities of the Middle Do inscriptions channel power? In the Islamic world, East Project, a cultural heritage preservation initiative the written word of the Qurʾan induces awe in its at CUA. Her co-edited volume, A Contested Coexistence: beholders. But can qurʾanic imagery tell us about the Insights in Arabic Christianity from Theology to Migration, ethical arguments for authority and command? As with Vasile-Octavian Mihoc, is forthcoming in 2019. authors of this study, we argue that qurʾanic verses, when inscribed on monuments, act as signposts for The Creed and the Qurʾan: Christological power. Our main inquiry in this study was to find out Controversies and the Qurʾanic Crucifixion whether our initial assumptions about our argument Examining the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed raises were valid theoretically. Also, were these assumptions some interesting questions regarding what elements of backed by any evidence from actual monumental their sources Syriac- and Arabic-speaking Christians inscriptions? In light of the immense work on Islamic heard in the Qurʾan. In particular, the passage on architecture, we found a chasm in the study of Islamic Jesus’ crucifixion (Q al-Nisa’ 4:157–158) reverberated art. Scholars did not perform a hermeneutical scrutiny with Christian articulations of his crucifixion, death, of monumental qurʾanic inscriptions. Although burial, raising, and appearing, though the particular qurʾanic inscriptions have been studied both in their terms employed are unique to Christians and Muslims. formal and functional aspects, apart from a few Divisions between miaphysites, dyophysites, and exceptions, their hermeneutical aspects have largely Chalcedonian Melkites meant each community been ignored. Therefore, there is a huge scope for worked out their statements of faith to reflect their studying the content and the interpretation of qurʾanic particular christology, beginning in Greek and Syriac inscriptions, making our study both methodologically and moving later into Arabic. As these communities and theoretically valuable. The purpose of this paper were continuing to dispute confessional differences, is to explore the deployment of qurʾanic verses within the circulation of the Qurʾan provided not only various types of Islamic monuments, primarily from a new religious framework but a new religious the Umayyad and early Abbasid eras. language. The Creed became a topic of discussion in We study two monuments: the Nilometer and the and of itself in polemical engagements, as Muslims ibn Tulun in . We chose these critiqued disagreement about the Creed as evidence two sites because they were both embellished between of Christianity’s defectiveness. Moreover, the Eastern the seventh and ninth centuries CE, making them Christian traditions frequently defended their positions some of the first Muslim structures to feature qurʾanic through appeals to creedal phrases, yet the particular inscriptions. We raise two questions: Is the content terms and word order they employed often differed (or meaning) of the inscriptions relevant? And, are when they wrote against one another in comparison qurʾanic inscriptions a symbol of power? We argue with their writings against Muslims. that qurʾanic monumental inscriptions can be mined This study is a preliminary examination of biblical for justifications of Islamic conquests, and for the and conciliar creedal formulations of Jesus’ Passion in transformation of dar al-kufr (sphere of unbelief) into Syriac and Arabic before and after the dissemination dar al-islam (sphere of Islam). of the Qurʾan, in order to better understand how Christians heard the qurʾanic crucifixion account in light of their internal disputes over how to express the person of Christ.

IQSAweb.org 27 Before Islam, Christians debated how to phrase who He is currently planning a long-term book project or what nature died on the cross, boiling down to the on the intellectual history of South Asian Qurʾan question of whether or not one could say “God died.” commentaries and translations in Arabic, Persian, Muslims home in on this intra-Christian controversy and Urdu. as it related to the crucifixion: divine beings do not Qurʾan Translations and Commentaries in South Asia die; therefore Jesus cannot be divine. However, some Eastern Christians had already come to speak of Jesus Once, while commenting on the importance of South Asia to scholarship on the Qur an the formidable dying in his humanity and not dying in his divinity, ʾ , or dying in his body but not his spirit. Some began to twentieth century Indian Muslim scholar Abu ‘l Hasan Ali Nadvi (d. 1999) boastfully declared: The Qur an include “he died” in their articulation of the Creed. ‘ “ ʾ was revealed to the Arabs, recited in Egypt, and In this paper I first outline the terms and formulaic , comprehended in India” (nuzila al-qurʾan fi ‘l-’arab wa- expressions of Jesus death crucifixion and resurrection ’ , , quri’a fi misr wa-fuhima fi ‘l-hind). Nadvi’s triumphalist in biblical statements (i.e., not narratives) found in the pronouncement invites a healthy dose of skepticism. earliest extant Arabic witnesses of 1 Corinthians 15 Yet, it is indeed difficult to ignore or deny the and the Acts of the Apostles. Next, I examine how remarkably robust and long running tradition of works Christians formulated the Creed in Syriac and Arabic on the Qurʾan in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu (and indeed before the enculturation of the Qurʾan in Narsai, in regional vernaculars) that populate the terrain of Isho yahb III and a contemporary anonymous Syriac ’ , South Asian Muslim intellectual thought. However, text. The remainder of the study focuses on how three much of this intellectual legacy remains banished from Christian authors—Theodore Abu Qurrah, Severus the interpretive radar of Western scholarship on South Ibn Muqaffa and Yahya ibn Adi—presented creedal ’, ‘ Asian Islam or on the Qurʾan. In this presentation, as a formulae comparing and contrasting their expressions , way to address this lacuna, I will present a brief survey when speaking with Christians and Muslims. My of certain key works and intellectual trends that mark initial results indicate shifts in terminology and traditional scholarship on the Qurʾan in South Asia, word order reflecting the clear influence of qurʾanic from the medieval to the modern periods. Far from an Arabic as well as the reformulation of intra-Christian , exhaustive survey of any sort, what I have attempted christological controversies in light of the Qurʾan’s instead is a preliminary and necessarily partial outline account of Jesus’ crucifixion. That some Christians saw of the intellectual trajectory of Qurʾan commentaries it possible to make these changes and arguments calls and translations in the South Asian context, with a for a reconsideration of the divide over the crucifixion view to exploring how shifting historical and political itself, as Theodore Abu Qurrah exclaimed about the conditions informed new ways of engaging the Qurʾan. Muslim and Christian position: “We are right both My central argument is this: In South Asia the late early ways!” , modern and modern periods saw an important shift from largely élite scholarship on the Qurʾan, invariably P24-148a conducted by scholars intimately bound to the imperial order of their time, to more self-consciously popular The Societal Qurʾan works of translation and exegesis designed to access Thomas Hoffmann, University of Copenhagen, and attract a wider non-élite public. In this shift, I Presiding argue, translation itself emerged as an important and See biography above, page 26. powerful medium of hermeneutical populism pregnant with the promise of broadening the boundaries of the SherAli Tareen, Franklin and Marshall College, Qurʾan’s readership and understanding. In other Lancaster PA words, as the pendulum of political sovereignty SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious gradually shifted from pre-colonial Islamicate imperial Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His work orders to British colonialism, new ways of imagining centers on Muslim intellectual thought and traditions the role, function, and accessibility of the Qurʾan also in early modern and modern South Asia. His first came into central view. It is this relationship between monograph Defending Muhammad in Modernity is political sovereignty and different modes of qurʾanic forthcoming in November 2019. hermeneutics that this paper tries to capture and examine, through a focus on the South Asian context. 28 IQSAweb.org Publications of the International Qurʾ’anic Studies Association

Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association

The Journal of the International Qurʾānic Studies Association (JIQSA) is a peer reviewed annual journal published by Lockwood Press on behalf of the International Qurʾānic Studies Association. JIQSA welcomes article submissions that explore the Qurʾān’s origins in the religious, cultural, social, and political contexts of Late Antiquity; its connections to various literary precursors, especially the scriptural and parascriptural traditions of older religious communities; the historical reception of the Qurʾān in the West; the hermeneutics and methodology of qurʾānic exegesis and translation (both traditional and modern); the transmission and evolution of the textus receptus; Qurʾān manuscripts and material culture; and the application of various literary and philological modes of investigation into qur'anic style, compositional structure, and rhetoric. 160 pages • 6 x 9 inches • October 2019 • $40.00

Contents for Volume 3

The House and the Book: Sanctuary and Scripture in Islam (2017 IQSA Presidential Address) Gerald R. Hawting Why Does the Qurʾān Need the Meccan Sanctuary? Response to Professor Gerald Hawting’s 2017 Presidential Address Sean W. Anthony Bodily Resurrection in the Qurʾān and Syriac Anti-Tritheist Debate David Bertaina “My God? Your Lord!” A Qurʾānic Response to a Biblical Question Zohar Hadromi-Allouche Connecting the Dots: Diacritics, Scribal Culture, and the Qurʾān in the First/Seventh Century Adam Bursi

Available through ISD, 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2 • Bristol, CT 06010 USA Tel. (+1) 860 584 6546 • www.isdistribution.com • [email protected] LOCKWOOD PRESS lockwoodpress.com lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa Lien Iffah Naf’atu Fina, Sunan Kalijaga State As long as the end result of tadabbur is the latter, one’s Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia tadabbur is valid. With such a concept, tadabbur is a Lien Iffah Naf’atu Fina is a lecturer at the Department platform for democratization of tafsir. of Qurʾanic Studies, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Second, never citing earlier authorities, Nadjib regards University Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She obtained a the Qurʾan as the ultimate source of his teaching and Master’s degree from the Hartford Seminary, where she the solution for what he deems as the current crisis of wrote a thesis on al-Baqillani’s manuscript on miracles humanity. This paper will address his tafsir or rather and magic. Her research interests include modern- tadabbur of verses dealing with God and humanity (Q contemporary qurʾanic hermeneutics, receptions of the al-Nur 24:35; Q al-Baqarah 2:156; Q al-Qasas 28:77; Q Qurʾan in every day Muslim life, the Qurʾan and magic, al-Dhariyat 51:56), and life management (Q al-Nas 114; and intertextual study among scriptures. This year she Q al-Inshirah 94; Q al-Isra’ 17:1; Q al-Hashr 59:22–23), commences Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago and how he appropriates the text to the current socio- Divinity School, where she aims to work on the place political situation in Indonesia. of the Qurʾan in contemporary Sufi communities in Indonesia. Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany) Learning From the Qurʾan, Not Learning the Qurʾan: Johanna Pink is Professor of Islamic Studies at the The Practice of Tadabbur in Contemporary Sufi Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, Germany. She Gatherings in Indonesia taught at Freie Universitat Berlin and the University Scholars have argued that there is a shift in the ways of Tübingen. Her main fields of interest are the Muslims interact with the Qurʾan, in that the Qurʾan transregional history of tafsir in the modern period becomes central in defining the meaning of Islam to and Qurʾan translations with a particular focus on an extent unimaginable prior to the late nineteenth Indonesia. Her publications include a monograph on century (Ahmed 2015; Pink 2019). I argue that the shift Sunni tafsir in the modern Islamic world and a guest- also occurs in the context of Sufi communities, in which edited volume of the Journal of Qurʾanic Studies on the Qurʾan has been mainly used performatively, translations of the Qurʾan in Muslim majority contexts. instead of informatively, in rituals. Her most recent monograph is entitled Muslim Qurʾanic This paper examines Emha Ainun Nadjib’s oral Interpretation Today. preaching in Maiyah gatherings from 2017–2018, Be a Hero! Qurʾanic Education, Ethics, and Popular focusing on how he conceptualizes the position of Culture the Qurʾan, the nature of Muslims’ relationship with The Qurʾan has long been central to Muslim religious the Qurʾan, and how he reads the Qurʾan in order to education and continues to be so in many regions respond and make sense of the modern time. Maiyah across the world. Entire systems of learning have is a popular and very well attended Sufi gathering been based on the Qurʾan for centuries in which the in Indonesia. During his oral preaching, Nadjib, the Qurʾan is not only used as a religious text but also as main teacher in Maiyah, delivers his interpretation a basic tool to learn writing, Arabic, and memorization or reflection of the Qurʾan, which actively addresses techniques. Since the nineteenth century new forms of contemporary issues. , schooling and script reforms have curtailed that role of In Maiyah, the centrality of the Qurʾan is found in the Qurʾan but never completely erased it. Moreover, at least two aspects. First, Nadjib asserts that every it would be too simplistic to assume that a complete Muslim has the right to approach the Qurʾan directly, secularization of education systems in the Islamicate without any intermediary. He is highly critical of tafsir world has taken place. Rather, many of the new types becoming an enterprise of the élite, and popularizes of schooling that have been promoted by governments tadabbur as an accessible approach to the Qurʾan. or private actors have aimed at combining secular Tadabbur is best summarized as learning from the knowledge with an Islamic education, or at least Qurʾan, not learning the Qurʾan (tafsir). Here following Islamic values. Thus, promoting the ethical message of a strict rule of qurʾanic exegesis is less important than the Qurʾan has become an important concern. achieving the ultimate goal, namely to be closer to God and to be a good human being.

30 IQSAweb.org In South-East Asia, where the demands of a growing The Qurʾan in the Liberal Arts: Reflections on religious middle and upper class have resulted in the Pedagogy and Purpose commodification of Islam, there is a large market for Why teach courses on the Qurʾan in colleges and Islamic children’s literature as well as apps and films. universities? An obvious answer to this question is “to Some of those are geared towards the study of qurʾanic learn more about the Qurʾan.” But a more complex and recitation. Another, growing segment of this type of specific answer must consider details. To what extent media is more concerned with ethics and values. Books does institutional context matter, or even personal on the Qurʾan which are designed for use at home or in taste? What does it mean to learn about the Qurʾan as private schools and kindergartens are often illustrated an undergraduate student? In my experience teaching or take the form of comic strips, making use of motifs courses on the Qurʾan over the past several years, and genres of popular culture such as manga; the same I continually negotiate how much emphasis to put is true for their digital equivalents. on the text versus the context: institutional context, This paper situates this new genre of Islamic current events, cultural baggage that each student (and educational literature and media in the history and instructor) brings to the course, and how the study of present-day state of qurʾanic education in Indonesia. the Qurʾan fits within the study of Islam, religion, or It traces the interplay between the Qurʾan, the lifestyle even the humanities more broadly. This presentation of well-to-do Indonesian Muslims, and global trends will focus on a particular liberal arts context at a Jesuit in popular culture, based on the examination of Catholic college and consider challenges and questions contemporary educational books and comic strips that that arise as a result of my own learning and teaching aim to translate the qurʾanic message into pictures and goals, which include equipping students with skills and stories appealing to their young readers. awareness to build compassion and work toward social justice.Through sharing a number of assignments and The paper will conclude with reflections on the role learning activities, in conversation with scholarship of pedagogy in qurʾanic exegesis, which is rarely on teaching and learning this presentation argues recognized and hardly ever systematically explored. , that courses on the Qurʾan can offer students both a Many pre-modern works of exegesis were deeply deep engagement with the text itself—with attention embedded in the pedagogical systems of their time to language and hermeneutics—as well as an inroad and geared towards the demands of those systems. to any number of disciplinary vantage points such as Thus, the aims of their authors might have been quite literature history theology and art. different from the expectations of modern readers. , , , Studying contemporary pedagogical material might help us to contextualize and better understand the P24-243a specific pedagogical impetus of qurʾanic exegesis in a broader sense. The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition Theme: Panel 2 Elliott Bazzano, Le Moyne College Elliott Bazzano is Associate Professor of Religious Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford, presiding Studies at Le Moyne College, and also serves as co-chair See biography above, page 18. for the Study of Islam unit with the American Academy of Religion. He has published peer-reviewed articles in Religion Compass and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. His co-edited volume (with Marcia Hermansen), Varieties of American Sufism (SUNY Press), is forthcoming in 2020. He is currently working on a monograph that explores the qurʾanic hermeneutics of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328).

IQSAweb.org 31 Daniel Bannoura, Bethlehem Bible College The paper concludes by attempting to relate this Daniel Bannoura is an instructor in Islamic Studies and qurʾanic “Theology of the Land” to the biblical theology Comparative Religion at Bethlehem Bible College in of the land, especially in consideration of current Bethlehem, . He has a B.S. degree in Physics political definitions and applications that are found in from the University of Florida, an M.A. degree in Zionism and Palestinian Christian theology. Theology from London School of Theology, and a Shari Lowin, Stonehill College second M.A. in Islamic Studies from the University of Shari L. Lowin is Professor of Islamic and Jewish Chicago. His academic interests and publications focus Studies in the Religious Studies Department of mainly on Qurʾanic Studies, medieval Arabic Christian Stonehill College. Her research centers on the interplay philosophy, and Muslim-Christian relations. Currently, between Islamic and Jewish texts in the early and he is writing an introductory book on the Qurʾan, the early medieval Islamic periods focusing mainly on first of its kind for an Arabic audience. , exegetical narratives. She is the author of The Making The Qurʾanic Theology of the Land: An Inter-textual of a Forefather: in Islamic and Jewish Exegetical Analysis of the Land Verses in the Qurʾan Narratives as well as Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems of This paper examines the qurʾanic land verses and al-Andalus, a study of these exegetical narratives in the the passages that deal with the narratives and motifs desire poetry of Spain. Her current project reexamines surrounding the Israelite entry into the Promised Land. the qurʾanic verses attributed to the Jews in light of the Special attention is given to certain recurring phrases midrash and piyyut. She is the editor of the Review of that are connected to the land such as “inheriting the Qurʾanic Research. land (wirathatu l-ard) the oppressed in the land ” ‘ , “ ” If All the Seas Were Ink: Tracking the Evolution of a (al-mustad afuna fi l-ard) and the corrupt in the land ’ ‘ , “ ” Motif across Islamic and Rabbinic Literature (al-mufsiduna fi ‘l-ard). The qurʾanic topos of the land At two points in discussions of those who deny God is directly connected to biblical themes and narratives , the Qurʾan suddenly invokes a particularly poetic pertaining to the oppression the faced in image, one that rings somewhat strangely for a Egypt, their entry into the land, and the ethical codes revelation said to have been delivered to an illiterate and conditions prescribed during their presence in prophet. In Q al-Kahf 18:109 and Q 31:27 the the land. The paper further analyzes the qurʾanic Qurʾan exclaims that that even if all the seas were ink dependency on biblical literature for its formulation , one would be unable to record all the words of God and understanding of the land, particularly from before one’s supplies ran out. Although the Qurʾan the and Mishnah. More significantly, how it does not involve the Jews in this metaphor Islamic further develops and appropriates biblical themes of , exegesis relates that the sentence was revealed—in possessing, inheriting, and ruling the land within a Mecca—after Muhammad s enemies consulted with now islamicized context of a community of believers ’ Medina s Jews regarding how to tell if Muhammad that are the new vanguards of the land. The analysis ’ was a true prophet or not. of the paper leads to a formulation of a qurʾanic “Theology of the Land” based on the topos of the land At first glance, such an association between Medina’s and its function for the early Muslim community of Jews—or any Jews, really—and the qurʾanic seas-as- the Qurʾan—namely by addressing how the Meccan ink imagery seems rather random. After all, the Jews and Medinan surahs of the Qurʾan delineated the do not appear in either of the larger qurʾanic contexts function of the land in relation to the traditional in which the phrase appears. Moreover, neither the Islamic understanding of the life and ministry of phrase itself nor any metaphor referring to God’s the Prophet Muhammad. This is done by answering words as more vast than the seas appears in the questions pertaining to the qurʾanic understanding of Hebrew Bible. the significance of the land, its geographical location, However, further investigation reveals the image and its theological role within the framework of Islamic to appear quite frequently in the rabbinic literature, rule over the land and the implementation of God’s though with varying endings. The earliest iteration, Shari’ah therein. though not the most famous, appears in the first century CE Megillat Ta’anit.

32 IQSAweb.org There the teach that even if all the seas were ink, 2:36; Q al-A’raf 7:20, 22, 27; Q Ta Ha 20:120), and who all the reeds styluses, and all the people scribes, this represents evil personified (Q 2:186, 208, 268, 275; Q would not suffice to record all of Israel’s suffering and Al ‘Imran 3:36, 155, 175; Q al-Nisa’ 4:38; Q al-Ma’idah subsequent divine salvation. Later Talmudic texts use 5:90; Q al-Anfal 8:11; Q Yusuf 12:5; Q al-Nahl 16:98; Q the image to insist that such copious writing materials al-Isra’ 17:53; Q Maryam 19:44; Q al-Fatir 35:6; Q Ya would still not enable one to record the vast reaches of Sin 36:60; Q 41:36; Q al-Zukhruf 43:62; Q al- secular governmental control, or the expanse of Torah Mujadalah 58:10, 19). After his expulsion from that a particular learned from his teachers, or the (where he is known as Iblis), for refusing to bow before available sea of Torah knowledge writ large. Adam (Q 2:34; 7:11; 15:31–32; 17:61; Q al-Kahf 18:50; Q This paper will address the complicated development 20:116; Q Sad 38:74–75), he attempts to lead believers of this motif as it travelled from the rabbinic through astray (Q 4:60, 83, 120; Q 5:91; Q al-An’am 6:43, 68, 142; the Islamic milieus. Among the questions I will Q 7:175; Q 8:48; Q Ibrahim 14:22; Q al-Nur 24:21; Q al- address: Where does this image come from? Is there Furqan 25:29; Q al-’Ankabut 29:38; Q Luqman 31:21; possibly a Persian or Greek precursor? Why does the Q Muhammad 47:25; Q al-Hashr 59:16). image undergo so many permutations within the Besides the story of Adam and his wife in the Garden rabbinic tradition? And, most crucially, why/how did (Q 2:35–37; Q 7:19–35; Q 20:117–121), there are a a rabbinic metaphor describing Israel’s suffering and number of other biblical characters who appear in salvation morph into a qurʾanic declaration of God’s the Qurʾan in connection with al-Shaytan/shayatin— verboseness? Did the Qurʾan know of the traditions and Bilqis (Q 2:102; Q al-Anbiya’ 21:82; Q of Megillat Ta’anit? Ultimately, can we see the qurʾanic al-Naml 27:24; Q ’ 34:12–13, Q 38:37; Q 27:24); reframing of the metaphor as a polemic against Joseph (Q 12:42, 100); (Q al-Qasas 28:15), and rabbinic teachings regarding God’s special relationship (Q 38:41)—which reflect, or even mirror, specific with the post-70 CE Jews—in line with other qurʾanic (extra-)biblical texts and traditions and thus constitute verses of direct speech attributed to Muhammad’s key evidence for the reception history of Jewish and Jewish contemporaries? Christian traditions about . Rachel Dryden, University of Cambridge With this in mind, this paper will outline the following Rachel Claire Dryden is a second-year Ph.D. student at details about qurʾanic demons: the terminology used to refer to them their nature(s) characteristics and the University of Cambridge, where she is examining ; , , the figures and roles of in the Qurʾan under the activities; their appearance in narratives that reflect guidance of Holger Zellentin. Rachel is particularly specific Jewish/Christian texts. It will do this from the interested in how qurʾanic concepts and narratives point of view of the Qurʾan as a repository of Jewish relate to extra-biblical material in languages and and Christian lore, ask what this tells us about the reception history of such texts and analyze the value of traditions such as Syriac and Ge’ez. Rachel holds , the Qur an as a reflection of (extra-)biblical traditions. two M.A. degrees, from SOAS (2009) and Heidelberg ʾ (2011), and an M.Phil. in Islamic Studies and History David Penchansky, University of St. Thomas from the University of Oxford (2016), where she first David Penchansky, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew Bible, began investigating angels under the supervision of taught 29 years at the University of St. Thomas. He has Nicolai Sinai. published several books and articles, most recently Iblis, al-Shaytan, and Shayatin: Qurʾanic Understanding Wisdom Literature: Conflict and Dissonance Demonology and the Reception History of Jewish in the Hebrew Text (Eerdmans, 2012). He has recently and Christian Traditions in Late Antiquity completed “Hosea,” a chapter in the forthcoming revision of the New Jerome Biblical Commentary and Demons or devils feature extensively in the Qurʾan, , he has written several articles where he uses literary with the noun shaytan, from the same root as the methodology to interpret qur anic narratives. He Hebrew sh-th-n, occurring 88 times in 36 surahs. In ʾ explores relationships between the Bible and the addition to references to generic demons or devils, the Qurʾan also shows clear affinity with Jewish and Qurʾan, juxtaposing texts that, though dissimilar, use comparable literary tropes metaphors and images. Christian traditions in its association of a singular, , , definite figure, al-Shaytan, with the same figure who led Adam and astray in the Garden (Q al-Baqarah

IQSAweb.org 33 “By the Lote Tree”: Call Narratives in Surat Al- “Immortality and Kingdom That Never Fades”? Najm and Isaiah 6 Adam, Satan, and the Forbidden Tree in the Qurʾan Isaiah 6 and Q al-Najm 53:1–18 each describe an event Recent scholarship has challenged the tendency of in the prophets’ lives that initiated their prophetic earlier orientalist scholarship to reduce the Qurʾan’s vocation. In biblical scholarship these are called stories to confused versions of their biblical (and “call narratives.” These events are supernatural and parabiblical) counterparts, instead taking a more dramatic. They constitute a breach in the division careful look at the literary, didactic, and theological between the natural and spiritual worlds. Each passage reasons the Qurʾan departs from elements of these involves the appearance to the prophet’s physical stories as they were told by Jews and Christians. senses of beings from the divine realm. Aside from the In this paper, I discuss Abraham Geiger’s assertion similarities and significant differences between these that the qurʾanic creation story confuses the tree of two texts, both passages function to give authority in knowledge of good and evil with the . This two distinct ways. First, they ratify the reliability of claim is based on the fact that, while in the Bible the tree the messenger who has seen the revelation. Second, that eat from is the tree of knowledge there exists the larger message in which this narrative of good and evil, the Qurʾan does not associate the is contained. These are subsequent messages brought tree with this knowledge, but instead quotes Satan as together in the sacred collection, the Book of Isaiah claiming that the tree has the power to make Adam and in the case of Isaiah, and the Qurʾan in the case of Eve “immortal” and “like angels” (Q al-A’raf 7:20) and Surat al-Najm. However, there is a counter-theme of to grant them “immortality and kingdom that never concealment that runs counter to the suggestion that fades” (Q Taha 20:120)—much like the tree of life in heaven reveals itself to humans. In the Qurʾan, the the biblical account. Lote Tree, the locus of the revelation to the Prophet However, a contextual reading of the creation narratives Muhammad, is covered. In Isaiah, the Seraphs use in Q 7 and Q 20 shows that Geiger s assertion overlooks four of their six wings in covering their person. This ’ the fact that the Qurʾan presents Satan s claim about the refusal to reveal is key to understanding these call ’ tree as a false and deceptive one cautioning that lasting narratives. After a careful examination of each text , success can only be achieved by patient obedience to employing a comparative lens, I shall attempt some God. The Qurʾan does not identify the forbidden tree global comments on the phenomena of prophecy that with moral knowledge eternal life or divine status these passages represent. , , , as with the trees in Genesis, but merely as a test of the Sharif Randhawa, University of Chicago obedience of Adam and Eve. Moreover, the Qurʾan’s Sharif Randhawa completed his B.A. in Near Eastern redefinition of the forbidden tree’s function is part Languages and Civilizations from the University of of its advancement of a view of man’s creation that Washington in 2018 and is pursuing graduate studies purposively differs from that of the Genesis story. in the same field at the University of Chicago. His Moral knowledge and eternal life are not privileges interests include the composition of the Qurʾan as well that are forbidden to human beings and reserved only as its relationship with late antique biblical tradition. for heavenly ones. Instead, moral knowledge is an He has served as a researcher on these aspects of original part of man’s design, and eternal life is a divine the Qurʾan for Bayyinah Institute, and is the author, reward that lies in store for whoever conforms to that with Nouman Ali Khan, of Divine Speech: Exploring divinely gifted moral knowledge. Nor in the Qurʾan the Qurʾan as Literature. He is also affiliated with the does God fear the prospect of humans becoming Centre for the Advanced Study of the Qurʾan and its heavenly beings, as implied in the biblical account, for Interpretation (CASQI). He had already honored man from the beginning with a status higher than that of the angels in commanding their prostration to him (Q 7:11; Q 20:116). Therefore, Satan’s claim is an ironic ruse, and the Qurʾan, in these two surahs, reshapes the biblical story to deliberately contrast its own view of human purpose with that of the Genesis account.

34 IQSAweb.org In the manuscripts collection originally stored in the P24-346a ‘Amr mosque in Fustat, we recently identified two The Qurʾan: Manuscripts and Textual distinct early qurʾanic fragments—now kept in Paris Criticism (BnF Arabe 330g) and St Petersburg (BnR Marcel 16 and Marcel 21/b)—showing very similar physical features, Shady H. Nasser, Harvard University, Presiding except in the size and orientation (vertical/oblong). Shady Nasser is Assistant Professor of Classical The examination of both reveals that they have been Arabic and Qurʾanic Studies at the Department of written by the same copyist. This data represents thus Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard a major breakthrough for our knowledge about early University. He works on the reception history of the qurʾanic manuscripts. It opens new perspectives in the Qurʾan, its transmission amongst the early Muslim reconstruction of the scribal habits. What is the exact communities, early Arabic poetry, and grammar. He relationship between these two manuscripts? Does this is author of The Transmission of the Variant Readings of new identification help us to locate scribal activity in the Qurʾan. The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence the vicinity of Fustat? What could we learn about the of Shawādhdh. way of writing the Qurʾan in early Islam? Eléonore Cellard, Collège de France By comparing their physical features (paleography, Eléonore Cellard is a specialist in qurʾanic manuscripts. codicology) and their textual parallels—as we have the She started her research activity in 2008, under the opportunity to compare the same qurʾanic passages supervision of François Déroche. In 2015, she submitted preserved in both copies—we will bring to light some her dissertation titled “The Written Transmission of the aspects of the written transmission of the Qurʾan in Qurʾan. Study of a Corpus of Manuscripts from the 2nd the early centuries and the role of the copyist within H./8th CE” (INALCO/EPHE). Until 2018, she carried on it. We will show first that an evident hierarchy was her research at the Collège de France, Chair History effective between manuscripts of different sizes and of the Qurʾan. Involved first in the French-German orientations, already at the beginning of the second Coranica project, then in the Paleocoran project, she century AH. Then we will examine the principle published Codex Amrensis 1, the first volume of the of copying according to an exemplar: What are the collection of facsimile and diplomatic editions of the scribal rules in the transmission? What is the role of earliest Qurʾans. the supposedly copyist’s freedom in the way of writing the text or placing diacritics? Scribal Practices in Early Qurʾanic Manuscripts from Fustat: The Role of the Copyist in the Daniel Alan Brubaker, Qurʾan Gateway Transmission of the Qurʾan Daniel Alan Brubaker did his doctoral work at Rice The qurʾanic manuscripts from the first centuries of University on physical corrections in early Qurʾan Islam are fragmentary and anonymous. We do not manuscripts. Today he continues this research know anything about the context in which they have independently, traveling to study manuscripts, and been copied. Who wrote the manuscripts? For what delivering public lectures and conference papers. He purposes? Where and when have they been produced? is the author of Corrections in Early Qurʾan Manuscripts: This kind of information is, however, crucial, first Twenty Examples, has contributed to several edited for shedding light on the scribal practices at the volumes, and has two additional monographs beginning of the written transmission, and second for forthcoming. He co-founded Qurʾan Gateway and understanding the value of the qurʾanic textual variants is working on further tools and material to serve the found in these materials. Indeed, the discrepancies scholarly community focused on early Islam. He has between two copies could be due to different factors: taught university courses in Arabic, world religions, time gaps, regional distances, or distinct milieux of and Qurʾan; he also teaches biblical Hebrew weekly production. at his home.

IQSAweb.org 35 Partial Correction? A Discussion of One Non- Roy Michael McCoy, University of Notre Dame Palimpsest and Variant Qurʾan Fragment, Possibly Roy Michael McCoy III, DPhil (Oxon) is a Postdoctoral Seventh Century Fellow in the Department of Theology at the University There exist many physical alterations to the writing of Notre Dame. He earned his doctorate on the use of in Qurʾan manuscripts of the first several hijri the Arabic Bible in the Qurʾan commentaries () centuries, and by now I have catalogued thousands. of Ibn Barrajan (d. 536/1141) and al-Biqa’i (d. 885/1480). Every “correction” offers us a dual witness: First, a For the last four years, he has also worked for Qurʾan witness to the moment of the manuscript’s original Gateway on textual criticism and identification production, and second, a witness to a later moment of scribal habits in early Qurʾan manuscripts. His when something was felt to be incorrect and thus current project is focused on the relationship between warranting the effort of alteration. I have focused Christian and qurʾanic Arabic orthography in early most of my attention in recent years upon merely manuscripts (ca. eighth to tenth centuries CE) and the cataloguing and describing instances of correction. classification and analysis of shared paleographical In this work, I have found that, with rare exceptions, and codicological features. corrections bring the rasm (consonantal skeleton) Mother or Birth in Surat al-Ma idah (Q 5:110)? toward a state that conforms to that of the dominant “ ” “ ” ’ Theological and Linguistic Observations on the edition now standard. But what does it mean when a Rasm of Early Qurʾan Manuscripts manuscript has been corrected in multiple locations yet When reading walidatika in Q al-Ma idah 5:110 the elsewhere, sometimes even on the same page, remains ’ , significantly out of conformity with the edition now alif qasirah (“dagger alif”) used in F1924 is performing a theologically and exegetically herculean task by standard, and even perhaps out of conformity with rendering this form as your mother. Instead I propose the permissible range described in the qira’at rasm “ ” literature? This paper gives attention to one horizontal- that the alternative reading of waldatika/wildatika, “your format fragment of twelve folios located in the Museum birth,” better coheres with early Qurʾan manuscript witnesses and the theological context for Q 5:110. of Islamic Art in Doha, MS.474.2003. The fragment, The focus here is to demonstrate that the insertion or which begins with bi-ma kanu (Q al-An’am 6:157), omission of an alif in the rasm exemplified by w-l-d- contains about thirty instances of physical alteration, , yet its rasm remains variant (when compared to the t-k at Q 5:110, can significantly change the meaning now-standard rasm) in other places. These variants of the text. Whether the manuscript tradition or the include not only the rather common orthographic subsequent interpretive tradition should be used as a hermeneutical lens for reading Q 5:110 is an important variations involving the medial alif, for example, question this paper will bear in mind. Therefore but also instances involving full words, including a , number of instances of missing text when compared the alternative reading of waldatika/wildatika will be addressed from three perspectives (1) by examining with the (so-called) ‘Uthmanic rasm. In this paper, I manuscripts that do not employ a long alif here (2) describe the fragment’s physical and textual features , preliminary to a consideration of what they indicate by analyzing the theological and linguistic context of Q 5:110 in relation to other qur anic passages about its time of origin and of correction, and what the ʾ , fact that some corrections were made in this fragment namely Q Maryam 19:30–34, and (3) by looking at the counterpointal engagement between the Qur an and but, elsewhere, a non-’Uthmanic rasm was permitted “ ” ʾ non-canonical gospel traditions at Q 5:110. First the by the correctors to remain may mean. Along the way, , analysis of manuscript patterns will be facilitated by I discuss the relationship of some of this manuscript’s particular features to similar ones in other early Qurʾan examining the consonantal skeleton (rasm) of Q 5:110 in several early Qur an manuscripts (of various script fragments, particularly fragments containing the same ʾ styles) including the Cairo Mushaf Sharif (Hijazi IV passages. Finally, I consider whether the weight of , evidence supports the possibility that this fragment is script style), Doha MS 474.2003 (AI script style), and Kuwait MS LNS 19 CA (Hijazi I script style) to name a survivor of ‘Uthman’s campaign of standardization/ , suppression. a few.

36 IQSAweb.org Next, an analysis of the linguistic and theological Close study of these vocalized Qurʾans shows that a context will be conducted (1) by comparing the use large number of them, in fact, reflect non-canonical of umm with walidah for “mother”/”Maryam” in the reading traditions, suggesting that such readings in Qurʾan to determine how each term is used and (2) the second and third centuries were not just marginal by situating the reading of waldatika/wildatika (“your readings, but in fact important enough to be put birth”) (a) in the immediate context of Q 5:110–16 and into the highly monumental and expensive Kufic (b) in the context of Q 19:30–34, which also refers to manuscripts. Jesus’s birth. Further, the relationship between the This contribution will examine several vocalized Meccan and Medinan Qurʾan as it relates to the birth Qurʾans of the digitized archive of the Bibliothèque narratives observed in Q 5 and Q 19 will be discussed nationale de France. It will show that it is possible to as well. Then, the paper will conclude by exploring extract from such manuscripts clear indications of not this account of waldatika/wildatika in relation to the just the specific variants present in each manuscript, but Qurʾan’s formulaic phrase ayyadnahu bi-ruhi ‘l-qudusi also the more general systematic linguistic principles (“We strengthened him with the ”). How this that were reflected in their readings. phrase has a bearing on “your birth” will be analyzed with both qurʾanic contexts (cf. Q al-Baqarah 2:87 and Manal Najjar, University of Tabuk, 253) and non-canonical gospel texts in view. Manal Najjar is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics at the Arabic Language Department of Marijn van Putten Leiden University , the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. She works on Marijn van Putten is specialized in the linguistic the theory of discourse, text linguistics, and discourse history of Arabic and Berber. He is currently focused analysis. She has published several articles in the on researching the linguistic features of the qurʾanic fields of Linguistics and Qurʾanic Studies. She has consonantal text and its relationship to the Arabic as also participated in many international conferences reflected in the early Islamic papyri and inscriptions. throughout the world. He also works on the history of the qurʾanic reading traditions and the textual transmission of the qurʾanic The Distinction of the Ottoman Orthography in the text. Besides this, he continues to work on the Holy Qurʾan: A Pragmatic Reading reconstruction of the historical morphology of Proto- The Ottoman orthography in the Holy Qurʾan Berber. is distinctively unique. In different contexts, the same word exhibits a variety of distinct forms of Before Canonization: Qurʾanic Manuscripts as orthographic constructions. This allows for different Evidence for Pre-Canonical Reading Traditions shades of meaning that are in harmony with their The qurʾanic readings traditions were first canonized contextual use. This study aims at analyzing the by Ibn Mujahid around the early fourth century AH. differences between the Ottoman orthography and Before that time there were, of course, already qurʾanic the conventional Arabic writing system concerning readings around that had garnered considerable certain words, and as a result noting the differences popularity, and earlier works on the qurʾanic readings in meaning this orthographic variation might have appear to have existed, although these have not come created. For example, one qurʾanic variant complies down to us. with the conventional orthography, such as writing the Post-canonization, many works continued to collect medial long vowel alif in the form of alif mamdudah in isolated readings that did not make it into the canon. words like salat (“prayer”), (“charity”), and hayat Not all of these are recorded in full detail, and they do (“life”); whereas, in other qurʾanic verses, the same not necessarily capture the full breadth of readings that word is written in a different variant following the were adhered to in the early Islamic period. Ottoman orthography where the medial long vowel A large primary source for the pre-canonical readings alif is written in the form of the Arabic letter waw but of the Qurʾan has gone largely untapped. There is a with identical pronunciation. This variation in shaping large collection of vocalized Kufic Qurʾans that stem the vowel alif implies variations in meaning, which this from around the second and third Islamic centuries. paper seeks to unveil in light of pragmatic analysis.

IQSAweb.org 37 Drawing on qurʾanic studies scholarship by P25-147a Fiegenbaum (1973), Crollius (1974), Graham (1984), and Qurʾanic Studies: Methodology and Madigan (2001), the paper first argues that the qurʾanic Hermeneutics concept of kitab does not refer to physical scriptures, but, rather, has the meaning of divine prescription and Theme: Divine Revelation, Scripture, and Speech in decree symbolized by “divine writing.” Qurʾanic kitab Qurʾanic and Islamic Thought is a genus category that includes prophetic revelatory Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität guidance and divine decrees. Second, building on Freiburg, Presiding Madigan (2006), Sinai (2006), and Neuwirth (2010), See biography above, page 30. the paper argues that the revelatory process described in the Qurʾan distinguishes between a “transcendent Khalil Andani, Harvard University kitab”—a celestial domain of God’s knowledge and Khalil Andani is completing his Ph.D. in Islamic decrees called kitab mubin—and piecemeal Arabic Studies from Harvard University s Department of ’ qurʾans, which are situated “adaptations” (tafsil) of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, where his transcendent kitab tailored to audiences. dissertation focuses on Muslim understandings of Thirdly the paper critically engages arguments from qurʾanic revelation according to the Qurʾan, classical , Bell (1934) Jeffery (1950) Izutsu (1964) Fiegenbaum tafsir, classical kalam, early Shi’ism, and classical , , , (1973) and Neuwirth (2015) concerning the qurʾanic Ismaili thought. Khalil’s publications include articles , notions of sending down (tanzil) speech of God (kalam in Religion Compass, the Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, , and the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. In early allah), and inspiration (wahy). The paper thereby shows that tanzil/inzal does not actually describe the revelatory 2020, Khalil will begin an appointment as Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College in Rock process and that kalam allah does not mean verbal linguistic speech. It is then argued that qurʾanic wahy Island, Illinois. denotes a non-verbal form of divine communication From Transcendent Kitab to Piecemeal Qurʾans: A conveyed to the Prophet’s heart through the mediation Qurʾanic Model of Revelation of the Holy Spirit. This entails that wahy is a process The predominant view of qurʾanic revelation in by which the Prophet “reads” the transcendent kitab Sunni Muslim qurʾanic exegesis (tafsir) and theology and verbalizes it into Arabic qurʾans. (kalam) has the Gabriel verbally dictate to the To corroborate this reading, the paper shows that Prophet Muhammad, in a piecemeal fashion over early Muslim understandings of qurʾanic revelation, twenty years, the contents of a pre-existent heavenly as reflected in the Qurʾan and early hadith, blur the Qurʾan, identified as the literal or verbalized speech hard distinction between “divine word and prophetic of God, which the Prophet recites verbatim to his word” (Graham 1977) and elevate the Prophet’s extra- audience. Most Islamic studies scholarship takes this qurʾanic speech to the same level as the qurʾans. It “scriptural-verbal dictation” theory of revelation for also discusses how the canonization of the Arabic granted as something common to virtually all Muslims. qurʾans into a single corpus caused an important A historical study of Muslim concepts of qurʾanic shift in the meaning of kitab / kitab allah during the revelation, beginning with the qurʾanic notion and first century. This development informed traditional extending to various Islamic discourses and schools, Sunni theories of qurʾanic revelation found in tafsir remains a desideratum in the fields of Qurʾanic Studies and kalam. However, the earlier qurʾanic idea of and Islamic Intellectual History. as non-verbal inspiration, entailing revelatory agency As a first step towards this goal, the present paper for Muhammad, was still retained by some Muslims as focuses on the qurʾanic concept of revelation and seen among the Ismailis, the Peripatetics, and certain argues that the Qurʾan portrays the Prophet as a echoes in ‘Ulum al-Qurʾan literature. recipient of non-verbal inspiration (wahy) from a Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota “transcendent kitab”, which he expresses or “recites” as piecemeal Arabic qurʾans tailored to his audience. See biography above, page 8.

38 IQSAweb.org A Common Archetypal Scripture, or Major and I briefly outline this idea’s genealogy and its Minor Scriptures? Narratives of Scriptural History meandering lines of propagation from a report of in Academic and Exegetical Writings Wahb b. Munabbih (d. ca. 110/728) to the influential One of the fundamental and pervasive assumptions of tafsir works of al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144) and al- modern Qurʾan scholarship is the idea that the Qurʾan Baydawi (d. ca. 700/1300) and thence to the writings conceptualizes all prophets as variations of the same of later commentators. basic prototype and their revelations as essentially Having charted the complexity and dynamism of identical. In the first part of this paper, I argue that this exegetical reflection on the relationship between conception of prophetic and scriptural history can be scriptures, and having sketched the genealogy of traced to the scholarship of Aloys Sprenger, a highly certain modern scholarly assumptions on this subject, influential historian of early Islam in the nineteenth the presentation closes by reflecting on the implications century. Sprenger believed that Muhammad was of these observations for the study of the qurʾanic text. under the influence of Jewish-Christian ideas. Using the Clementine literature as a repository of these ideas, Arezu Riahi, Harvard University Sprenger attempted to find some of their qurʾanic Arezu Riahi is a current Ph.D. student in the Department counterparts, an attempt that resulted in his particular of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of understanding of the Qurʾan’s scripturology and Harvard University, where she studies Medieval prophetology. Arabic Philosophy under the supervision of Khaled el-Rouayheb. She is tracing the development of I next examine more than two dozen works of tafsir Avicennian metaphysics and logic in the philosophical to show that pre-modern Muslim scholars espoused currents developing throughout late fifteenth to early a diverse array of opinions on the question of the sixteenth century Shiraz. Her doctoral research focuses consonance of divine scriptures. While some writers on two specific thinkers: Jalal al-Din al-Dawani (d. considered scriptures to be more or less identical, 908/1502) and Sadr al-Din al-Dashtaki (d. 903/1498). She others posited a far more limited degree of overlap is working to explore how al-Dawani and al-Dashtaki s between prophetic revelations. According to Muqatil ’ writings on Avicennian metaphysics and logic relate b. Sulayman (d. 150/767), for example, the common to contemporary analytic understandings of essence denominator of scriptures is to be found in Q al- , existence, and their varying modalities. An’am 6:151–153—a qurʾanic version of the Ten Commandments—while al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272) Conceptualizing God’s Speech: The Formulations of maintained that the teaching shared by all scriptures is Fakhr al-Din al-Razi simply “the rejection of and the affirmation Scholarship on the nature of revelation in Islamic of monotheism.” theology has tended to focus on the created vs Continuing the examination of exegetical writings, the uncreated Qurʾan debate between the Mu’tazilis and presentation draws attention to an often overlooked the Ash’ariṣ, which is presumed to have ended by the but highly significant feature of post-classical Muslim eleventh century. Far less attention has been given scholarship: the Islamic exegetical tradition came to the revival of this debate among post-classical to embrace a division of scriptures into two distinct Islamic theologians and to their more nuanced categories, what we may call “major” and “minor” positions with respect to divine speech. This paper scriptures, mapping the former to the qurʾanic will explore the central themes of post-classical debates designation kutub and the latter to the termssuhuf and surrounding the transmission and essential nature zubur. According to this division, technically speaking of God’s Speech (kalam allah), a controversial topic kutub is a qurʾanic label for scriptures that contain handled by theologians (mutakallimun) and Peripatetic substantial legislation, a category that includes the philosophers (falasifah) throughout the Islamic Torah, the Gospel, the Qurʾan, and sometimes also the intellectual tradition. It focuses on the Neo-Ash’ari Book of . On the other hand, suhuf and zubur theories of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, the thirteenth century designate writings that were revealed before the Torah polymath, arguing that he refashions the long-standing and had a sapiental, non-binding nature. debate over the eternity of God’s speech and the nature of language by situating God’s speech within a more metaphysical rather than strictly epistemological or theological framework.

IQSAweb.org 39 Al-Razi’s original distinction between three types of This paper presents one persistent form of selectivity speech in his new theory of God’s language serves in the scholarly study of Sufism having to do with as the foundation for the more controversial and an issue that preoccupied early specialists, namely, indeed innovative perspectives on the issue which are the establishment of a proper relationship between offered by his commentators—including both Ash’ari Sufism and the Islamic revelation (i.e. the Qurʾan). and non-Ash’ari thinkers—in the centuries after his European and American scholars of Sufism in the late death. The paper situates al-Razi’s conception of God’s nineteenth and early twentieth centuries questioned speech within a continuum of evolving philosophical the extent to which the Qurʾan was a mystical text, and ideas in the post-classical period, with attention to the indeed whether Sufism (held to be a type of mysticism) amendments and contributions of his commentators. was ultimately an Islamic phenomenon. Behind this The analysis reveals that the debate of God’s speech sort of interrogation, I argue, lay a complex set of exerted much more influence on the development of selection biases, from the widely shared and influential foundational metaphysical treatises than previously understanding of Sufism as a kind of mysticism, to thought. Al-Razi engages with older Mu’tazili the emergence of a new (Western) canon of great Sufi arguments for the createdness of God’s speech and figures used to support that view. In this presentation, concedes some ground to them. In his exegesis of I highlight three pivotal moments in this process, and various qurʾanic verses, including Q al-Shura 42:51, the several factors involved at each moment that led Razi accepts different modes of divine communication, to a selective reading of the historical Sufi tradition. I including the creation of sounds and letters in a also draw attention to Sufi figures and texts that were substrate as per Mu’tazili positions; but he also retains read and studied in the central parts of the Islamic the Ash’ari concept of mental speech (kalam nafsi) and world in the late nineteenth century, texts and figures attempts to differentiate this attribute from ’God s will that nevertheless failed to be incorporated into the and knowledge. These formulations of al-Razi further Western canon, ostensibly because they belonged to enlivened the debate surrounding divine speech in a later degenerate phase of Sufism (a view widely post-classical thought among his commentators. shared by early scholars). Later Sufism, however, affords many contrasting examples to the kind of Arjun Nair University of Southern California , speculative and ungrounded mysticism represented Arjun Nair is Assistant Professor of Religion at the in the Western canon, and suggests a rather different University of Southern California. His general field image of Sufism as a tradition of ethics and psychology of research is the intellectual and cultural history fully grounded within the Qurʾan ethos. Finally, I of Sufism and Islamic Philosophy. He is interested show how the conception of Sufism that emerged particularly in commentary and print cultures, and among early Western scholars was aided by certain their role in defining and re-defining these traditions productive ambiguities in the writings of the Sufi in the medieval and modern period. His research to authors themselves, particularly in their conception date has centered on Sufi poetic commentary andtafsir , of revelation. These authors frequently spoke of the focusing on the ways these genres and the commentary Qurʾan as a book with multiple levels or meanings, or format in general have advanced Sufi intellectual a book whose verses/signs appeared on the horizons culture by uniting diverse scholarly currents or , and in the souls of believers, thus outside as well reauthorizing classical works in new settings. as within the book of revelation. These generative A Story of Selectivity: Conceiving the Qurʾan in ambiguities encouraged Western scholars to detach Early Scholarship on Sufism Sufism from a narrower understanding of Islamic Recent research in Islamic intellectual history is revelation in ways that Sufis themselves may have beginning to reveal the ways in which earlier Western found problematic. Such hitherto unacknowledged scholarship distorted the image of Islamic theology and “east-to-west” influences help to more fully explain philosophy through a selective reading of texts and the selective reading of Sufism among early Western figures. However sympathetic even“ good” Orientalist scholars, and to more fully reveal the subtle operations scholarship may have been, it inevitably fell prey to the of one of the more persistent forms of selectivity within limitations of its milieu, from the limited availability that scholarly study. of reliable editions of texts to more compromising intellectual and partisan biases.

40 IQSAweb.org Nevin Reda, Emmanuel College of Victoria The contemporary context is characterized by the University in the University of Toronto “spiritual turn” and the emerging professionalization Nevin Reda is Assistant Professor of Muslim Studies of Islamic spiritual care and counselling, which points at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the to the importance of studying the Qurʾan’s spiritual University of Toronto. Her primary area of research substrate and its relationship to practice. For the is the poetics and hermeneutics of qurʾanic narrative Qurʾan’s spiritual dimension, this paper looks to the structure, sometimes utilizing insights from Biblical Islamic mystical tradition, Sufism, conceptualizing Studies. She also works in ethical-legal theory (usul the Qurʾan as a spiritual method for individuals, al-), often from an Islamic feminist perspective. She communities and humanity in general to grow from the has published The al-Baqara Crescendo: Understanding the animal self (al-nafs al-ammarah bi-’l-su’) to the completed Qurʾan’s Style, Narrative, Structure and Running Themes self (al-nafs al-kamilah), each surah functioning as a step and is currently working with Yasmin Amin on a co- in the process. To this end, the paper examines the edited volume entitled Islamic Interpretive Tradition Qurʾan’s style and its utilization of various techniques, and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, such as narratives, questions, and theological reflection, and Change. which recall the different therapeutic methods used by spiritual care workers and spiritually integrative What is the Qurʾan? A Practical, Spiritually psychotherapists in their counselling practice. In terms Integrative Perspective of the arrangement of surahs, the paper examines the The European tradition of hermeneutics has noteworthy first seven and the last three surahs, showing their connections with some of the new trends and directions parallels with the Sufi conceptualizations of the first in the study of the Qurʾan today. In Islamic feminist and last stages of the spiritual path. Such an approach exegesis, Asma Barlas has utilized Paul Ricoeur’s (d. is concerned with the human experience of the text 2005) ideas when arguing for reading the Qurʾan as and its relationship to practice, recalling Gadamer’s a “cumulative holistic process.” Abdolkarim Soroush notion of “fusion of horizons,” when a reader’s orbit studied Jürgen Habermas and others, casting all intersects with that of the text, producing context- exegesis as processes of ra’y (opinion, reason, personal specific interpretations. Although some of the insights judgment) and thereby painting a more positive picture of these European philosophers and theologians are of this interpretive category, which is epistemologically of interest in the ongoing question of “What is the suspect in traditionalist Islamic hermeneutics. More Qurʾan?”, they have their limitations, their particular recently, Nazila Isgandarova has touched on the “horizon” being informed by Protestant Christianity, contributions of Hans-Georg Gadamer (d. 2002), Paul in which the Qurʾan figures very little. Tillich (d. 1965), and Ricoeur in the area of Islamic spiritual care and counselling, when examining Q al-Nisa’ 4:34 in connection with domestic violence. All three European thinkers have had an impact in practical theology, a discipline that is concerned with the relationship between theory or “text” and its practical application and which is of increasing interest to new directions in Islamic scholarship. This paper draws on these various ideas: the need for examining the Qurʾan as a whole and its relationship to its various parts, the connection between text and reader, and the Qurʾan’s practical application in the contemporary context, when exploring the question, “What is the Qurʾan?”, from a spiritually integrative perspective. It is also in conversation with two ongoing, interrelated questions in Qurʾanic Studies: genre and the organization of the Qurʾan, or, in other words, the relationship of the whole qurʾanic text to its various parts, the surahs, and how this plays out in their ordering.

IQSAweb.org 41

Reports

Executive Summary It is with great pleasure that the International Qurʾanic Studies Association (IQSA) holds its 2019 annual meeting in San Diego, California. This year’s conference hosts multiple sessions with dozens of presenters and discussants coming from across the globe. The following report by the executive director summarizes the progress of IQSA throughout 2019 as well as forthcoming plans. Governance You may feel inclined to sponsor a particular The board held its spring 2019 meeting in Tangier, cause—such as publications, annual or international Morocco. The executive director reported to council meetings, general or graduate receptions, and so on. IQSA’s financial, operational, and administrative If you believe in fostering qurʾanic scholarship, activity. The board discussed updates within the building bridges, and using scholarship as a means standing committees, and approved plans for a for peace and mutual understanding—please give. 2021 international meeting at the Biblioteca La Pira, Please make your tax-deductible donation at http:// Palermo, Italy. The board completed a positive members.iqsaweb.org/donate. evaluation of executive director, Emran El-Badawi, while offering constructive feedback. Expenditure & Operations Annual expenditure by the end of 2019 is Membership & Benefits approximately $29,000 (up from $19,000 in 2018). Paid members number just over near 300—up from The increase in expenditure is a result of holding last year—with lapsed or unpaid members still the International Meeting and higher publishing numbering well over 100. The technical problem costs. Projected revenue and donations in the connected to automatic payments has been amount of $18,000, minus fees, will cover just over resolved, facilitating the membership process. The half of these costs. Revenue from membership dues large number of unpaid memberships significantly is slightly higher, although there is more room for reduces overall revenue. Past and future IQSA improvement; revenue from advertising is flat. members are kindly instructed to continue paying These numbers demonstrate that costs continue to their annual membership dues manually until outstrip revenue. Unfortunately, additional costs further notice. IQSA currently has six lifetime are absorbed by affiliates, partners and individuals. members, and one institutional member. This is also why attendees will be charged for the general and graduate student receptions starting Donations & Sponsorships this year. Further support and revenue streams are IQSA did not receive large external support in the still needed and actively being sought. Members are past year, making your donations and service all requested to help. the more significant. IQSA shares its gratitude with its donors and sponsors for 2019. We thank Reminders for 2019 DeGruyter Press and IQSA board members for Friends and members of IQSA should feel free to co-sponsoring this year’s general reception; and send all general inquiries to [email protected]. to all of you who have given generously—thank Stay up to date by joining us online. Please do not you. IQSA is an independent tax-exempt 501(c)3 forget to subscribe to our blog by joining the mailing nonprofit organization. This means that our world list from IQSAweb.org. Join the IQSA Discussion class programming and publishing is only possible Group on Yahoo! by writing to iqsa-subscribe@ through your generosity and participation. Senior yahoogroups.com, like us on Facebook, and follow colleagues, professionals, and partner organizations us on Twitter (@IQSAWEB). We thank you for your are especially encouraged to give generously. support and participation, and we look forward to seeing you in Boston, MA for 2020! Emran El-Badawi

IQSAweb.org 43 IQSA Nominations Committee The Nominating Committee oversees all nominations In consultation with the Council, Andrew O’Connor suggesting a number of suitable candidates for was nominated as a new member and chair of the most IQSA leadership positions, through a process Programming Committee to replace Nicolai Sinai of consultation and discussion with the Board and – at the same time – Marianna Klar, as she of Directors. After the Board, with discretionary stepped down from her position of chair of the powers for emendations and suggestions, approves Committee. a ranked list, the Nominating Committee reaches Carol Bakhos was nominated as a new member of the out to the nominees. During 2019, the nominations Publication and Research Committee to replace both committee consisted of four members: Asma Hilali Mehdi Azaiez and Michael Pregill, thus reducing the and Devin Stewart, who are also members of size of the committee by one. Council, Farid Esack and Hamza Zafer. In its deliberation, the Committee sought to balance This year, the Committee had to fill a number of a large number of requirements an ideal candidate important positions beginning in 2020, partially by would fulfil, including a scholar’s commitment to reappointment, and partially by appointing new IQSA, public profile, and contribution to the field. candidates. Among the suitable candidates, we also sought We have nominated Holger Zellentin to succeed to balance IQSA’s leadership in terms of Gabriel Said Reynolds as chair of Council in 2020. gender, religious commitments, and geographic Shari Lowin was nominated as a first new member representation, issues whose importance continues of the Council. As Holger Zellentin was already part to grow. of the Council serving as a secretary, Suleyman Dost As chair of the Committee, I want to express my was nominated as a second new member to keep the gratitude to all new, current, and parting members nine-member number of the Council. of the board and of the nominations committee for As a replacement for Farid Esack and Hamza Zafer the work during this past year. who completed their term, we have nominated Alba Fedeli Stephen Burge and Nora K. Schmid as new members of the Nominating Committee.

44 IQSAweb.org IQSA Programming Committee IQSA’s Programming Committee (PC) is responsible The Programming Committee would like to take for the academic content of the Annual Meeting and this opportunity to thank previous chairs, especially reports to the Board of Directors. It approves new Cornelia Horn and Sarra Tlili, for their many program units, oversees the operation of existing years of service, and to welcome Johanne Louise ones, and shapes future meetings in the light of its Christiansen, Mohsen Goudarzi, and Nora K. evaluation of past ones. Schmid into the fold. The current shape of IQSA’s program units is as The call for papers for IQSA’s 2019 meeting was follows: published in early January, and by April a total of 1. Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic 55 submissions had been received and reviewed by Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus the session chairs. At the San Diego meeting, IQSA’s Chairs: Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau and six programming units will hold a total of eight Mohsen Goudarzi sessions, with two additional sessions presided over by John Tolan and Roberto Tottoli “( The European 2. The Qurʾan: Manuscripts and Textual Qurʾan”) and Thomas Hoffmann and Johanna Pink Criticism (“The Societal Qurʾan”). A Presidential Address has Chairs: Alba Fedeli and Shady H. Nasser also been timetabled for the San Diego meeting. 3. The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition The relatively limited number of sessions at the Chairs: Nora K. Schmid and Holger San Diego meeting has again made it possible to Zellentin avoid any double booking of IQSA sessions this 4. Qurʾanic Studies: Methodology and year. With the help of SBL’s programming team, Hermeneutics the Programming Committee has made it a priority Chairs: Karen Bauer and Feras Hamza to ensure that IQSA sessions are held at the same 5. Surah Studies venue, as far as possible. Chairs: Marianna Klar and Shawkat Marianna Klar Toorawa 6. The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity Chairs: Johanne Louise Christiansen and Michael Pregill

IQSAweb.org 45 IQSA Publications & Research Committee First convened in December 2013, the IQSA ISIQ Monograph Series has released its first Publications and Research Committee (PRC) is publication this year, the English translation and tasked with supervising the various branches of the updated release of Michael Cuypers’ A Qurʾānic IQSA publishing division. These include the annual, Apocalypse: A Reading of the Thirty-Three Last Sūrahs Journal of the International Qurʾanic Studies Association of the Qurʾān. Soon to be released are selected (JIQSA), the monthly book review known as Review published proceedings of the firstIQSA International of Qurʾanic Research (RQR), and the IQSA monograph Conference, held in Jogjakarta Indonesia and series known as IQSA Studies in the Qurʾan (ISIQ). edited by Mun’im Sirri. New submissions to ISIQ The current editors of these three branches are are currently under review, including selected Nicolai Sinai (JIQSA), Shari Lowin (RQR) and David proceedings of the second IQSA International Powers (ISIQ monograph series). Conference Beit al-Hikma in Carthage, Indonesia. JIQSA. Two editions have been published thus The monograph series is happy to accept new far, and JIQSA 3 will be released close to the 2019 submissions and discuss research projects expected San Diego annual meeting. Articles include the to produce a scholarly monograph. For more, please presidential address of Gerald R. Hawting on be in touch with the editor via the IQSA website. the Meccan Sanctuary, with a response by Sean The current IQSA Studies in Qur’ān monograph Anthony; the winner of the Andrew Rippin Best series is David S. Powers. The first publication in Paper Prize Johanne Christiansen for her study of the series is Michael Cuypers, A Qurʾanic Apocalypse: Sūrat Anfāl (8:35) on views of religious processions; A Reading of the Thirty-Three Last Surahs of the a comparative examination of bodily resurrection in Qurʾan, translated by Jerry Ryan (2018). The second the Qurʾan and Syriac literature by David Bertaina; publication is New Trends in Qurʾanic Studies: Text, a qurʾanic response to a theological question raised Context, and Interpretation, ed. Munʾim Sirry (2019); also in the Bible by Zohar Hadromi-Allouche; and a this volume includes an introduction by the editor study of the controversy over al-qirā’ah bi’l-alḥān by and a revised version of fifteen essays presented at Chrisopher Melchert. JIQSA 4 has been essentially the IQSA conference held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia filled, but JIQSA 5 is accepting submissions. JIQSA in August 2015. The monograph series editor is in has historically had a fast turn-around time between contact with several scholars who are working on submission and publication, so it has become a book manuscripts on the Qurʾan and welcomes popular venue for young scholars. submissions from members of IQSA and their RQR. This service has been extremely well received colleagues. All submissions will undergo peer by a growing readership. Nine reviews have been review to determine suitability for publication published this academic year by esteemed scholars Reuven Firestone including Devin Stewart, Sami Helewa, David Cook, Sulayman Dost and Ayman Ibrahim on the most important current publications in the field. These are all available on the IQSA website, and you can sign up to have them delivered directly to your inbox as they are released. You can also be counted among the honored RQR contributors by contacting Shari Lowin through the IQSA website/RQR.

46 IQSAweb.org IQSA International Meeting 2019

Tangier Global Forum University of New England | Tangier, Morocco (25–26 July, 2019) The fourth biennial international meeting of IQSA took place in Morocco on July 25–26 at the University of New England in Tangier, hosted by the Tangier Global Forum directed by Anouar Majid. Scholars of various backgrounds and disciplines convened from at least fourteen countries, and participated in seven different panels over two days in three languages (English, Arabic, and French). The theme of this year’s meeting, “Reading the Qurʾan in the Context of Empire,” provided a broad framework spanning the late antique world to the age of European colonialism and beyond. As part of the opening addresses, Devin Stewart helped situate the field and its current activities in historical context through a retrospective on Western Qurʾanic studies. Further contributing to this perspective was the keynote address by Hela Ouardi in French, on “Quatre siecles de lecture: Histoire de l’etude du Coran en France: essai de periodization.” The second keynote lecture in English was delivered by Fred Donner, who spoke on “The Qurʾan and the State.” Papers presented at the conference covered a broad range of topics, from analysis of Qurʾanic poetics as linked to prophetology (Hamza Zafer and Devin Stewart) to historical perspectives on the Qurʾan in the context ofTangier imperial, Morocco geopolitics (Juan Cole and John Tolan). Raashid Goyal, Suleyman Dost, and Gabriel Reynolds focused respectively on individual Qurʾanic terms implicated either in narratives about the early community or in conceptions of the divine. Papers by Michel Cuypers (with Sami Larbes), Mehdi Azaiez, and Nadeen M. Alsulaimi dealt with the analysis of Qurʾanic rhetoric and literary style or structure. The Qurʾan’s relationship to Biblical traditions was the subject of a number of presentation, including one in English (Bruce Fudge) and two in Arabic (Saber Moulay Ahmed and Rabii al-Hashimi Noqri), in addition to a paper on early tafsīr (Arafat A. Razzaque) and a comparative reading of the Book of Mormon (Morgan Davis). Relatedly, Holger Zellentin spoke about the Qurʾan’s critique of the Rabbis in light of specific developments in late-antique Jewish history. A key strand of presentations on both days dealt with issues of canonization and reception history, including early manuscripts (Marijn van Putten), debates on the Uthmanic codex (Emmanuelle Stefanidis and Amidu O. Sanni), works of faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān (Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau), and late-medieval tafsīr (Mohammed Al Dhfar). Modern reception history, on the other hand, was the subject of several interesting papers on diverse topics: contemporary Indonesian tafsīr on TV and the internet (Akrimi Matswah), Muslim liberal thought from the Middle East to Southeast Asia (Zahrul Fata), the influential ideas of Moroccan intellectual al-Shāhid al-Būshīkhī (Mohamed Lamallam), and a contentious modern French translation of the Qurʾan (Hasan Bazayniyah). The conference in Tangier was thus a successful testament to IQSA’s mandate as an international academic association to help scholars meet and share a platform that they might not otherwise. Majid Daneshgar and Arafat Razzaque

Cape Spartel, Morocco

IQSAweb.org 47 Participation and Membership

IQSAweb.org IQSAweb.org has all the information necessary for Advertise with Us you to benefit from IQSA and for you to get involved. IQSA is the first and only learned society of its On this site, visitors can familiarize themselves with kind devoted to the critical investigation of the IQSA’s governance, resources, and programs, as Qurʾan, encompassing a broad community of well as learn about its policies, vision, and history. scholars, students, publishers, and members To receive updates, subscribe online by entering of the public. IQSA encourages advertising your e-mail address where it states “Follow IQSA by partnerships and opportunities in the following E-Mail” on the left margin of IQSA’s website. capacities: 1. Advertise in the Annual Meeting Program Online Discussion Group: Book – Every year the International Join the Yahoo! Discussion Group to share ideas, Qurʾanic Studies Association holds an discuss, and collaborate with other scholars and Annual Meeting in conjunction with the members of IQSA. Join by writing to iqsa-subscribe@ Society of Biblical Literature/American yahoogroups.com. Academy of Religion, attracting a wide audience in the scholarly community Weekly Blog Updates: from across the nation. The accompanying The IQSA blog has attracted widespread international Program Book published by IQSA is read interest and participation of scholars, students, and by hundreds at the Annual Meeting and the general public. The blog includes weekly updates thousands around the world, providing about IQSA, information on its academic meetings a critical platform for relevant businesses (North American and International), schedules market their publications and services. for other conferences and colloquia taking place Email [email protected] to reserve an around the world, and various stories and reports advertising space today! on new research. IQSA strongly encourages all those 2. Advertise in Print – IQSA provides working on new and exciting Qurʾanic Studies advertising space in three of its flagship projects to contribute to the IQSA blog. publications: the Journal of the International Qurʾanic Studies Association (JIQSA), the Become a Member of IQSA: monthly Review of Qurʾanic Research, and the Become a member of IQSA, join from the IQSA forthcoming monograph series IQSA Studies website, located under “Membership & Governance.” in the Qurʾan (ISIQ). Email contact@iqsaweb. Be sure to follow IQSAweb.org for updates about this org for details. and other matters. Through the website, members 3. Advertise Online – While IQSA does not will receive access to our publications including , : currently hold a physical headquarters, its ^ Review of Qurʾanic Research website serves as the central meeting point ^ Membership Directory and face of the organization visited by hundreds of members and non-members ^ Bilingual English-Arabic Journal of the every day. Email [email protected] to International Qurʾanic Studies Association inquire about advertising with us online via If you are interested in getting involved, writing for www.iqsaweb.org. the IQSA blog or have advertising or other inquiries , , 4. Send an Email to IQSA Members – IQSA please write to contact@iqsaweb org Do not forget to . . will send emails on behalf of publishers and find IQSA on Facebook and Twitter! other advertisers of interest to our members. Donate: The publisher/advertiser is responsible for composing the email. Please contact the Support IQSA s work by making a tax-deductible ’ Executive Office at [email protected] for contribution Donate online at members iqsaweb org/ . . . more information. donate or e-mail us at [email protected]. 48 IQSAweb.org IQSA Mission and Strategic Vision

Mission Statement: Foster Qurʾanic Scholarship Strategic Vision Statement: The International Qurʾanic Studies Association is the first learned society devoted to the study of the Qurʾan from a variety of academic disciplines. The Association was founded to meet the following needs: ^ Regular meetings for scholars of the Qurʾan ^ Cutting edge, intellectually rigorous, academic research on the Qurʾan ^ A bridge between different global communities of Qurʾanic scholarship ^ Regular and meaningful academic interchange between scholars of the Bible and scholars of the Qurʾan ^ Involvement of Islamic scholarly institutions and faith communities The Association offers its members opportunities for mutual support, intellectual growth, and professional development through the following: ^ Advancing academic study of the Qurʾan, its context, its relationship to other scriptural traditions, and its literary and cultural influence ^ Collaborating with educational institutions and other appropriate organizations to support Qurʾanic scholarship and teaching ^ Developing resources for diverse audiences, including students, faith communities, and the general public ^ Facilitating broad and open discussion from a variety of academic perspectives ^ Organizing congresses for scholarly exchange ^ Publishing Qurʾanic scholarship ^ Encouraging and facilitating digital technology in the discipline ^ Promoting cooperation across global boundaries Core Values: ^ Accountability ^ Openness to Change ^ Collaboration ^ Professionalism ^ Collegiality ^ Respect for Diversity ^ Critical Inquiry ^ Scholarly Integrity ^ Inclusivity ^ Tolerance

IQSAweb.org 49 Announcing IQSA Boston 2020

The International Qurʾanic Studies Association will meet in November 2020 with SBL/AAR in Boston, MA. The meeting will feature IQSA’s annual presidential address. Participants will need to become IQSA members through IQSAweb.org, and then register for the IQSA conference through Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). IQSA is therefore pleased to invite submissions for the Boston 2020 Annual Meeting in the following program units: 1. Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qurʾanic Corpus 2. The Qurʾan: Surah Studies 3. The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition 4. The Qurʾan: Methodology and Hermeneutics 5. The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity 6. The Qurʾan: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism IQSA encourages submission of papers delivered at the Annual Meeting for publication in the Journal of the International Qurʾanic Studies Association. The official Call for Papers will open in December with a deadline of March 1, 2020. All those interested should be subscribed to the blog on IQSAweb.org, in order to remain updated and receive further details on the conference, program units, and Call for Papers.

Beacon Hill, Boston, MA

50 IQSAweb.org 09-19-35_th_QSA-Schriftenreihe-Sapienta-Islamica_152x203.indd 11.09.19 – KW 37 16:54 Seite: 1 [Farbbalken für Forga28] CyanMagentaYellowBlacK

New Series Sapientia Islamica Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism Edited by Lejla Demiri, Samuela Pagani, and Sohaira Z. M. Siddiqui Editorial Board: Ahmed El Shamsy, Angelika Neuwirth, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Dan Madigan, Frank Griffel, Joseph van Ess, Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Olga Lizzini, Rotraud Hansberger, and Tim J. Winter

A significant recent development in Islamic Studies light on the still very inadequately mapped world of has been an intensification of interest in the formal medieval and later Muslim intellectuals. This impor- intellectual legacy of Muslim civilisation. A growing tant new series provides a platform for the latest and number of monographs and conferences have shed most innovative scholarly work in this area.

Early Modern Trends in Islamic Theology Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī and His Network of Scholarship (Studies and Texts) Edited by Lejla Demiri and Samuela Pagani The present volume is dedicated to the study of Abd-al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641–1731), an outstanding religious scholar from Ottoman Syria. With its interdisciplinary character, it explores Nābulusī’s impact on the intellectual and religious 2019. XI, 469 pages (Sapientia Islamica 1). history of the 17th-18th-century world of Islam, Cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156668-4; described until recently as a time of ›stagnation‹ eBook ISBN 978-3-16-156669-1 € 134.00 and ›decline‹.

Transfer and Religion Interactions between Judaism, Christianity and Islam from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century Edited by Alexander A. Dubrau, Davide Scotto, and Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino The present volume offers a contribution to the cross-cultural study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and gives new insights for research into the 2020. 380 pages (est.) (Sapientia Islamica). Cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156241-9; history of religious transfers between the Abrahamic eBook ISBN 978-3-16-156984-5 faiths. € 125.00 (est.) (March)

Mohr Siebeck Information on Tübingen Mohr Siebeck eBooks: [email protected] mohrsiebeck.com/ebooks mohrsiebeck.com Call For Papers

Journal of the International Qurʾanic Studies Association The Journal of the International Qurʾanic Studies Editors: Association (JIQSA) commenced publication annually Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford / Pembroke in 2016, with Michael E. Pregill and Vanessa De Gifis College, UK (volumes 3 and following) serving as its founding editors. Articles are rigorously Michael E. Pregill, University of California, Los peer-reviewed through a double-blind review Angeles, USA (volumes 1 to 3) process, with reviewers appointed by the Head Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University, USA Editors in consultation with the Editorial Board. (volumes 1 and 2) The journal s launch reflects a time of particular vitality ’ Editorial Board: and growth in Qurʾanic Studies, and its primary goal is Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Strasbourg, to encourage the further development of the discipline France in innovative ways. Methodologies of particular Majid Daneshgar University of Otago New interest to the journal include historical-critical, , , Zealand contextual-comparative, and literary approaches to the Qurʾan. We especially welcome articles that Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University, USA explore the Qurʾan’s origins in the religious, cultural, Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College, USA social, and political contexts of Late Antiquity; its Asma Hilali, University of Lille, France connections to various literary precursors, especially Marianna Klar, University of Oxford, UK the scriptural and parascriptural traditions of older John Reeves, University of North Carolina at religious communities; the historical reception Charlotte, USA of the Qurʾan in the west; the hermeneutics and Sarra Tlili, University of Florida, USA methodology of qurʾanic exegesis and translation Shawkat Toorawa, Yale University, USA (both traditional and modern); the transmission and evolution of the textus receptus and the manuscript tradition; and the application of various literary and philological modes of investigation into qurʾanic style and compositional structure. The journal’s website, including additional information and contact details, can be found at http://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa. For more information on the International Qurʾanic Studies Association, please visit www.iqsaweb.org.

52 IQSAweb.org Review of Qurʾanic Research

The Review of Qurʾanic Research (RQR) is a unique Editor: Shari Lowin is Professor of Religious online companion to the International Qurʾanic Studies and Program Director of Middle Eastern Studies Association (IQSA). IQSA is committed to Studies at Stonehill College, Massachusetts. In 2002, the advancement and dissemination of high quality Lowin completed her Ph.D in Department of Near scholarship on the Qurʾan and to the facilitation Eastern Languages and Civilizations at University of deeper understandings of the Qurʾan through of Chicago. Her research centers on the interplay scholarly collaboration. RQR is an online resource between Judaism and Islam in the early and early that features reviews of cutting-edge scholarship in medieval Islamic periods, c. 800–1200 CE, focusing the field of qurʾanic studies and allied fields. mainly on the development of Jewish and Muslim Reviewers: Our editorial board solicits reviews from exegetical narratives. Of her most recent publications appropriate academic reviewers for each volume is Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems of al-Andalus reviewed. RQR editors request that reviewers write (Routledge, 2013), which examines Arabic and their review in a timely manner (usually 90 days) Hebrew eros poetry (‘ishq/shirat hesheq poems) of th th and in accordance with best scholarly practices. religious scholars in 10 –13 century Muslim Spain. Authors who wish to submit their own reviews for Other works include comparative studies of Judaism consideration are considered on a case by case basis. and Islam focused on the narratives of Abraham and on accounts of enemies of God in the midrash Submissions: While RQR acts mainly as a aggadah and in the hadith, including a monograph clearinghouse for the review of new scholarly entitled The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Islamic publications (monographs, translations, edited and Jewish Exegetical Narratives (Brill, 2006). texts, reference works, etc.), published works of cultural and religious significance that fall outside All inquiries can be directed to the RQR editor, Shari the traditional domain of academic publication Lowin (Stonehill College) at [email protected]. may also be reviewed. Publishers and authors who wish to submit their publications for review in RQR should contact the RQR editor Shari Lowin (Stonehill College) at [email protected].

IQSAweb.org 53 People

Karen Bauer, Institute of Ismaili Studies BOARD OF DIRECTORS Karen Bauer (Ph.D., Princeton University, 2008) is a Devin J. Stewart, Emory University, President Research Associate in the Qurʾanic Studies Unit of Devin Stewart is Professor of Arabic and Islamic the Institute of Ismaili Studies, where she researches Studies at Emory University. His research has focused the Qurʾan and Qurʾanic exegesis (tafsir). She has on Islamic law and legal education, the text of the published widely on tafsir and on gender in Islamic Qurʾan, Shi’ite Islam, Islamic sectarian relations, and thought and has recently begun a project on emotion Arabic dialectology. His published works include in the Qurʾan. Her publications include Gender Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite Responses to Hierarchy in the Qurʾan: Medieval Interpretations, Modern the Sunni Legal System and a number of articles on Responses, and Aims, Methods, and Contexts of Qurʾanic leading Shi’ite scholars of the sixteenth, seventeenth, Interpretation (ed.), and she has written articles on topics and eighteenth centuries. His work on the Qurʾan such as women’s right to be judges in medieval Islamic includes “Saj’ in the Qurʾan: Prosody and Structure” law, the potential and actual audiences for medieval in the Journal of Arabic Literature and “Rhymed Prose” tafsir, and the relationship between documentary in the revised edition of the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾan. evidence and tafsir in contracts of marriage. Asma Hilali, University of Lille, President Elect Fred Donner, University of Chicago Asma Hilali is a Research Associate at the Institute of Fred M. Donner is Professor of Near Eastern History Ismaili Studies, London and an Associate Professor in in the Oriental Institute and Department of Near Islamic Stuides at the University of Lille. She gained Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University her PhD from l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, of Chicago. His main field of research is the origins of Paris. She has worked in various research centres in Islam and early Islamic History. He is the author of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Her main Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam and interest is related to the transmission of religious Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic literature in early and mediaeval Islam, and the issues Historical Writing. of how religious texts were used and what impact this Johanna Pink, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität use had on their forms and contents. Freiburg (Germany) Mehdi Azaiez, KU Leuven See biography above, page 30. Mehdi Azaiez is Assistant Professor of Islamic Sarra Tlili, University of Florida Theology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Aix-en- Dr. Tlili is a scholar of Arab and Islamic studies. She Provence. His main fields of research are Qurʾanic graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. Studies and early Islam. During 2012–2013, he was an instructor in Islamic Studies at the University of Her primary research interests are stylistics of the Qurʾan and Arabic literature. Among Notre Dame and codirector, along with Gabriel Said , the courses she has taught are The Qurʾan as Literature Reynolds, of the “Qurʾan Seminar,” an academic project “ ” dedicated to increasing scholarly understanding of the and “Sustainability in Arabic Texts.” Qurʾanic text. He recently published Le Contre-discours Gabriel Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Chair coranique and Le Coran. Nouvelles approches. See biography above, page 10. Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge, Secretary See biography above, page 13. Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston – Ex Officio See biography above, page 25.

54 IQSAweb.org Devin J. Stewart, Emory University Executive Office See biography above, page 54. Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston – Thomas Hoffman Københavns Universitet Executive Director and Treasurer , See biography above, page 26. See biography above, page 25. Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College Lien Iffah Naf’atu Fina, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Reuven Firestone is Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, See biography above, page 30. Senior Fellow of the Center for Religion and Civic Anne Marie Mclean – Executive Assistant Culture at the University of Southern California, and Anne Marie McLean is the Executive Assistant for the founder of the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement International Qurʾanic Studies Association. She studied in Los Angeles. Author of seven books and over one Religious Studies and Political Science at Emory & hundred scholarly articles on the Qurʾan and the Bible, Henry College and received a Masters of Theological Judaism, Islam, their relationship with one another and Studies at Emory University. She completed her second with Christianity, and phenomenology of religion, his Masters of Library and Information Studies through books include An Introduction to Islam for Jews; Children the University of Alabama and works professionally as of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims; a Reference Librarian & Outreach Coordinator at Pitts Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam; Who are the Real Theology Library (Emory University). Chosen People: The Meaning of “Chosenness” in Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and Holy War in Judaism: the Fall Justin Novotny – Blog Coordinator – Catholic and Rise of a Controversial Idea. He received rabbinical University of America ordination from Hebrew Union College and the Justin began graduate school at the Catholic University Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from New York of America in 2014. He earned his master’s in Medieval University. and Byzantine Studies in 2016 and is currently completing dissertation under the guidance of Lev Weitz. Justin’s dissertation examines narratives about Programming Unit Chairs Ethiopia within the Islamic literary tradition. While Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on at CUA, he studied both Arabic and Syriac, and his the Qurʾanic Corpus broader research interests include Qurʾanic Studies, Muslim–Christian relations, and Islamic history. Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, University of Strasbourg, Before coming to CUA, Justin completed a Masters of France Liberal Arts at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM and See biography above, page 9. taught high school history and English for three years. Mohsen Goudarzi See biography above, page 8. Programming Committee The Qurʾan: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism Marianna Klar, SOAS, University of London – Chair Alba Fedeli, Universität Hamburg, Germany See biography above, page 8. Alba Fedeli is a Research Associate at the Asien- Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg, working on See biography above, page 18. the transmission of early qurʾanic manuscripts. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cecilia Palombo, Princeton University Birmingham, UK, after studies in Italy with Sergio Cecilia Palombo is a PhD student in Near Eastern Noja Noseda. Fedeli stirred up media frenzy after the Studies at Princeton University. She researches aspects BBC announcement that the “Birmingham Qurʾan” of social, political and intellectual history in the pre- manuscript dates to Muhammad’s lifetime. Her modern Middle East, the documentary cultures of publications reflect her research interests in early Arabic-, Coptic- and Aramaic-speaking groups, the Qurʾanic manuscripts. Her work on the Mingana- transmission of the Qurʾan, and the role of religious Lewis palimpsest has been uploaded on the Cambridge organizations in government making. She has been a Digital Library. member of IQSA since 2015. IQSAweb.org 55 Shady H. Nasser, Harvard University International Programming Committee See biography above, page 35. Mun’im Sirry, University of Notre Dame The Qurʾan and the Biblical Tradition Mun’im Sirry is an Assistant Professor of Theology Holger Zellentin, University of Cambridge in the Department of Theology with additional See biography above, page 13. responsibilities for the “Contending Modernities Initiative” at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Nora K. Schmid, University of Oxford Studies, University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. See biography above, page 18. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago’s Qurʾanic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics Divinity School. His academic interest includes political theology, modern Islamic thought, Qurʾanic Karen Bauer The Institute of Ismaili Studies , Studies, and interreligious relations. His publications See biography above, page 54. have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, Feras Hamza, The Institute of Ismaili Studies including Arabica, BSOAS, Interpretation, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations Journal of Semitic Studies Feras Hamza is Head of the School of Humanities, , , Social Sciences and Health at the University of Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, The Muslim World, Studia Islamica and Die Welt des . His most recent Wollongong in Dubai, and Associate Professor in , book is entitled Scriptural Polemics: the Qur an and International Studies. Since 2016, he has also been ʾ Visiting Research Fellow in the Qurʾanic Studies Unit Other Religions. at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and is Majid Daneshgar, University of Freiburg General Series Editor for the Anthology of Qurʾanic Majid Daneshgar studied religion with a particular Commentaries Project (IIS and OUP). He is currently reference to the connection between Islamic intellectual completing a volume with Karen Bauer on Women in and exegetical progress over the course of history. He is the Qurʾan, which will be Volume II of the Anthology also interested in Malay-Indonesian Islamic literature series (Vol I: On the Nature of the Divine, co-edited with and exegetical works for which he has published co- Sajjad Rizvi). His major research focus is hermeneutics edited volumes with Peter Riddell, Andrew Rippin and Qurʾanic studies. Feras Hamza also co-edits Brill’s and Walid Saleh. He published his monograph on Islamic Literatures: Texts and Studies. Tantawi Jawhari and the Qurʾan Tafsir and Social Concerns The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity in the Twentieth Century in 2017. He is a junior fellow at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University Michael E. Pregill, University of California, Los of Freiburg, where he works on the history of textual Angeles censorship in Islamic exegetical works in Persian, See biography above, page 13. Arabic and Malay. He also worked as Assistant Sura Studies Professor and Lecturer of Islamic Studies in Malaysia and New Zealand, respectively. He was nominated for Marianna Klar, SOAS, University of London the Most Inclusive Teacher Award at the University of See biography above, page 8. Otago, New Zealand in 2015. Majid also received the Auckland Library Heritage Trust Scholarship in 2017 Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University by which he could compile the Catalogue of the Middle Shawkat M. Toorawa is Professor of Arabic and Eastern and Islamic Materials in New Zealand. Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Yale University. His rhythmic, rhyming translation of Q Luqman/31 is forthcoming in His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror: Andalusi, Judaeo-Arabic, and Other Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Ross Brann, ed. Adam Bursi, S.J. Pearce and Hamza Zafer (Brill, 2020).

56 IQSAweb.org Abdullah Saeed, University of Melbourne Mehdi Azaiez, KU Leuven Abdullah Saeed is currently the Sultan of Oman See biography above, page 54. Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies and Director of the Daniel Madigan Georgetown University National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the , University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also a Fellow Daniel Madigan, S.J. is an Associate Professor and of the Australian Academy of Humanities. His research Director of Graduate Studies in the Department focuses on the negotiation of text and context, ijtihad, of Theology at Georgetown University. His main and interpretation. Among his publications are: Islamic fields of teaching and research are Qurʾanic Studies, Banking and Interest; the coauthored Freedom of Religion, interreligious dialogue (particularly Muslim-Christian Apostasy and Islam; Interpreting the Qurʾan: Towards a relations), and comparative theology. He has also Contemporary Approach; The Qurʾan: An Introduction; taught as a visiting professor at Columbia University, Islamic Political Thought and Governance (ed.); Islam Ankara University, Boston College, and Central and Human Rights (ed.); and Reading the Qurʾan in the European University. He published The Qurʾan’s Self- Twentieth Century: Towards a Contextualist Approach. He Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture. is currently working (with Andrew Rippin) on a major research project on the reception of ideas associated with Publications and Research Committee critical historical approaches to the Qurʾan in Muslim higher education institutions. Saeed works closely with Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College – Chair various government departments and international See biography above, page 55. organizations and contributes to their projects relating David S. Powers, Cornell University to Islam and Islamic thought. He is currently a member of the UNESCO Commission of Australia David S. Powers is Professor of Islamic Studies at of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Australia. He Cornell University. His research focuses on the rise of contributes to print and electronic media on Islamic Islam and the history of Islamic law and its application issues. He has a wide range of professional and research in Muslim societies. Powers is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Islamic Law and Society and author of Studies in relationships around the world, and is on the editorial board of several international refereed journals. He is Qurʾan and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of also well-known for his interfaith activities in Australia Inheritance (University of California, 1986); Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib 1300–1500 (Cambridge and overseas, and for his contributions to this area. , University, 2002); Muhammad is Not the Father of Any Nayla Tabbara, Adyan Foundation of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (University Nayla Tabbara is Director of the Institute of Citizenship of Pennsylvania, 2009); and Zayd (University of and Diversity Management at Adyan Foundation and Pennsylvania, 2014). He is currently Director of the founding member of Adyan, Foundation for Diversity, Medieval Studies Program. Solidarity and Human Dignity, recipient of the Niwano Mehdi Azaiez, KU Leuven Peace Prize of 2018. She holds a PhD in Science of Religions from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes See biography above, page 54. (Sorbonne-Paris) and Saint Joseph University (Beirut) Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University and is a university professor in Religious and Islamic Vanessa De Gifis is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies. She has publications in the fields of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Department of Classical and theology of other religions, Education on interreligious Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne and intercultural diversity, Qurʾanic exegesis and Sufism. State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. De Gifis She works on curricula development (formal and non- received her PhD from the University of Chicago in formal) on multifaith education and inclusive citizenship. 2008 and is the author of Shaping a Qurʾanic Worldview: Among her publications are A woman’s interpretation of Scriptural Hermeneutics and the Rhetoric of Moral Reform Islam/L’islam pensé par une femme (Paris: Bayard, 2018), in the of al-Ma’mun (2014). She was co-editor of The spiritual path according to sufi commentaries of the the first two volumes of IQSA’s flagship Journal of the Qurʾan/L’itinéraire spirituel d’après les commentaires soufis du International Qurʾanic Studies Association and continues Coran (Paris: Vrin, 2018), Divine hospitality: Christian and to serve on its editorial board. Muslim Theologies of the other (WCC publications, 2017), and Islamic Studies in the Contemporary world: a cross cultural challenge ed., (Beirut, 2016). IQSAweb.org 57 Adam Zeidan, Catholic University of America John Kutsko, Society of Biblical Literature Adam Zeidan is a PhD candidate in the Department of John F. Kutsko was named Executive Director of the Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) beginning July Catholic University of America. His research focuses on 2010. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages the reflection of social relations in the use of language, and Civilizations from Harvard University and is particularly in texts of the Christian Near East. He an affiliate faculty member at Emory University. In currently works for the Encyclopaedia Britannica as the 2012, he received a grant to explore the formation of editor for its Mideast articles. a learned society for scholars of the Qurʾan, which in 2014 became the International Qurʾanic Studies Michael E. Pregill, University of California, Los Association, and serves as its consultant. He also Angeles serves on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of See biography above, page 13. General Education. He was a contributing editor of The Amir Hussain, Loyola Marymount University SBL Handbook of Style and directed its 2014 revision. He Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies is author of Between Heaven and Earth: Divine Presence at Loyola Marymount University, where he teaches and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel and Co-Editor of The courses on Islam and comparative religion. His own King James Version at 400: Assessing Its Genius as Bible area of expertise is contemporary Muslim communities Translation and Its Literary Influence. in North America. In 2018, he was elected to the Board Shari Lowin, Stonehill College of Directors of the American Academy of Religion. See biography above, page 32. From 2011 to 2015, Amir was the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. He is an advisor for the television series The Story of God with Morgan Nominations Committee Freeman. In 2008, he was appointed a fellow of the Los Alba Fedeli, Universität Hamburg, Germany – Angeles Institute for the Humanities. His most recent Chair book is the fourth edition of A Concise Introduction to World Religions for Oxford University Press in 2019. See biography above, page 55. The author or editor of 8 other books, he has also Devin J. Stewart, Emory University published over 60 book chapters and scholarly articles See biography above, page 54. about religion. Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg Munther Younes, Cornell University Farid Esack is a South African scholar of Islam and Munther A. Younes is the Reis Senior Lecturer of Arabic public intellectual who completed the Darsi Nizami Language and Linguistics at Cornell University in the in traditional madrasahs in Karachi, Pakistan, and Department of Near Eastern Studies. His research his Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham, UK. Since focuses on Arabic linguistics (phonetics, phonology, 2000, Esack has been teaching at the University of morphology, sociolinguistics, and comparative/ Johannesburg (UJ), where he is Professor in the Study historical dialectology), teaching Arabic as a foreign of Islam and head of its Department of Religion language, the language of the Qurʾan, comparative Studies. In addition to serving as a Commissioner for Semitic linguistics. He has contributed to the field with Gender Equality in the first South African democratic a number of publications, including but not limited government (appointed by President Mandela) and to The Routledge Introduction to Qurʾanic Arabic (2012), heading a number of leading national and international Kalila wa Dimna for Students of Arabic (2013), and most not-for-profit entities, he has taught religion, Islamic recently, In Search of the Original Qurʾan (forthcoming Studies, and Qurʾanic Studies in South Africa December 2018). (University of Western Cape, Cape Town and UJ), Nicolai Sinai, Oxford University Europe (Universities of Amsterdam and Hamburg), the United States (College of William and Mary Union See biography above, page 18. , Theological Seminary, Xavier University, and Harvard Divinity School) and in Asia (International Islamic University of Islamabad and Gaja Mada University in Yogjakarta).

58 IQSAweb.org In addition to many peer- reviewed articles, Farid Sharif Randhawa, Bayyinah Institute Esack is the author of several monographs, including Sharif Randhawa completed his Bachelor’s degree in Qurʾan, Liberation & Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression, On Being University of Washington in 2018 and is currently a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today, applying for graduate school. His interests include the and An Introduction to the Qurʾan. His current research composition of the as well as its relationship with Late Antique Biblical tradition. He has served as interests (Jews in the Qurʾan and socio-economic a researcher on these aspects of the Quran for Bayyinah justice in the Qurʾan) reflect his scholarly interest Institute, and is the author, with Nouman Ali Khan, of both in contemporary Islam and in the classical tafsir Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature. He is tradition. also affiliated with the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Quran and its Interpretation (CASQI). Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington See biography above, page 22. Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg See biography above, page 58. Asma Hilali, University of Lille See biography above, page 54. Daniel Brubaker, Qurʾan Gateway See biography above, page 35. Lifetime Members Ghazala Anwar, Independent Researcher See biography above, page 21. Reza Aslan, University of California, Riverside Reza Aslan is a religions scholar and writer whose Devin Stewart, Emory University books include New York Times bestseller Zealot: See biography above, page 54. The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, international bestseller No god but God: The Origins Evolution and , , Institutional Members Future of Islam, and God: A Human History. He was an Executive Producer for ABC’s Of Kings and Prophets, Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE) a Consulting Producer for HBO’s The Leftovers, and CMJE is a tripartite partnership of the Hebrew Union host and executive producer for Rough Draft with Reza College, the Umar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation, and the Aslan and CNN’s Believer. He teaches creative writing University of Southern California. Reuven Firestone at UC Riverside. serves as representative of this institutional member. MacPhaidin Library at Stonehill College Jane McAuliffe, Library of Congress Founded as a Catholic college in 1948 by the Jane McAuliffe is the inaugural Director of National Congregation of Holy Cross, Stonehill’s holistic and International Outreach, a new division of the approach is guided by the principles of education and Library of Congress. She is also the immediate past faith. Stonehill professors emphasize critical analysis President of Bryn Mawr College and former Dean of and creative thinking while mentoring students in Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University. McAuliffe more than 80 academic programs in the liberal arts, is general Editor of the six-volume Encyclopaedia of sciences, business and pre-professional fields. Shari the Qurʾan, the first major reference work for the Lowin and Heather O’Leary serve as representatives Qurʾan in Western languages. Other books include of this institutional member. The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Islam, The World Religions World Church Program at the Cambridge Companion to the Qurʾan, With Reverence for University of Notre Dame the Word, Abbasid Authority Affirmed, Qurʾanic Christians: The World Religions World Church Program An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis, and the offers students at the University of Notre Dame recently published The Qurʾan: A Norton Critical Edition. the opportunity to study both global religions and She is past President of the American Academy of the global Church while also receiving exposure to Religion and a member of the American Philosophical other areas of Christian theology. In their WRWC Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the coursework students have the freedom to focus on a American Academy of Arts and Sciences. particular non-Christian tradition or cultural context of the Church, and to develop their abilities in primary and research languages. Gabriel Reynolds serves as representative of this institutional member.

IQSAweb.org 59 ما يحدث اآلن أن كثريا ًمن االسئلة طُرحت، ومناهج عملية أُستحدثت، وتخصصات ومجاالت متعددة األبعاد باتت متاحة للباحثني. (د. وداد القايض، جامعة شيكاغو) القرآن كتاب مقدس مهم ومصدر ِإلهام لعقيدة املاليني من الناس. من املهم جداً أن نحاول أن ندرس هذا الكتاب وتاريخه لإلستفادة منه ، لكل من املجتعات اإلسالمية واملجتمعات األخرى. (د. سيدين جريفيث، الجامعة األمريكية الكاثوليكية) من أهم ما جذبني لدراسة القرآن هو جودة النص الشعري وعمقه وتعقيده وهو مصدر ِإلهام بجامله. أتحدث هنا كانسان متذوق وال أتحدث كمسلم، لقد جذبني القرآن بعمق معانيه وتعقيداته. (د. روفني فايرستون، كلية اإلتحاد العربية، املعهد اليهودي لدراسة الديانات فرع كاليفورنيا) أعتقد أن هذه محاولة من باحثي القرآن للعمل مع باحثي الكتاب املقدس وتبادل املناهج واألدوات، ولإلتطالع عىل مناهج تفسريية وتأويلية قيمة يف دراسات الكتاب املقدس وإن أمكن تطبيق هذه املناهج عىل دراسة القرآن. هذا تحديدا ً ٌمثري جداًإلهتاممي. (د. رضا أصالن، جامعة كاليفورنيا – ريفَرسايْ د)

أنا ٌمهتم بدراسة القرآن ألنني قد إكتشفت يف بداية مسرييت املهنية أن مخطوطات القرآن تم نسيانها لفرتة طويلة. من ذلك الوقت أخذت بالتبحر عميقايف ًدراسة القرآن وكيفية دمجه يف الرتاث اإلسالمي. (د. فرانسوا ديروش، املدرسة التطبيقية ِّللد اسات ُالعليا رباريس) يهمني عمل باحثي القرون الوسطى عندما يتصدون ويحاولون اإلجابة عىل أسئلة صعبة من وجهات نظر مختلفة. بنفس الوقت أستمتع مبشاهدة باحثني معارصين يواجهون تحديات مامثلة يف وقتنا الحارض من أن أجل إيجاد وإبتكار حلول جديدة. ( د. أندرو ريبني، جامعة فيكتوريا، كولومبيا كندا)

New Titles in Arabic and Islamic Studies

IQSA Studies in the Qurʾān no. 2 New Trends in Qur’anic Studies: Text, Context, and Interpretation Edited by Mun’im Sirry

In this book, scholars of diverse approaches critically engage with the Qur’ān and its exegesis, including questions about the milieu in which the Qur’ān emerged, the Qur’ān’s relation to the biblical tradition, its chronology, textual integrity, and its literary features. In addition, this volume addresses recent scholarship on tafsīr (qur’anic exegesis), including thematic interpretation, diacronic and syncronic readings of the Qur’ān. Various approaches to understanding the Muslim scripture with or without tafsīr are also discussed. xviii + 312 pages • 6 x 9 inches • October 2019 Hardback • ISBN 9781948488181 • $49.95 PDF eBook • ISBN 9781948488198 • $40.00

Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies no. 10 Arabic Belles Lettres Edited by Joseph E. Lowry and Shawkat M. Toorawa

Arabic Belles Lettres brings together ten studies that shed light on im- portant questions in the study of Arabic language, literature, literary history, and writerly culture. The volume is divided into three sections: Early Narratives, Medieval Authors, and Modern Egypt. This illuminat- ing collection is a must read for anyone interested in Arabic literature. xiv + 206 pages • 7 x 10 inches • September 2019 Paperback • ISBN 9781948488105 • $44.95 PDF eBook • ISBN 9781948488112 • $36.00

Available through ISD, 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2 • Bristol, CT 06010 USA Tel. (+1) 860 584 6546 • www.isdistribution.com • [email protected] LOCKWOOD PRESS lockwoodpress.com lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa