The Qur’an: Text, Society and Culture

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The SOAS is holding the Ninth Biennial Conference on the Qur’an ‘The Qur’an: Text, Society and Culture‘ from 10-12 November 2016.

The Programme:

Thursday 10 November (Khalili Lecture Theatre, main building)

9.00–9.45 Coffee and Registration

9.45–10.00 Opening Address (Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

10.00–11.30 Panel 1: Rhyme, Style, and Structure (chair: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

Devin J. Stewart (Emory University), ‘Rhyme and Rhythm as Criteria for Determining Qur’anic Verse Endings in the Work of Ibn Sa‘id al-Dani and the “Counters”’

Marianna Klar (SOAS, University of London), ‘The Structuring Force of Rhyme in The Long Qur’anic Suras’

فايز حسان سليمان أبو عمرة (جامعة الأقصى)، السياق القرآني ودوره في فهم النصوص القرآنية

11.30–12.00 Coffee Break

12.00–1.00 Panel 2: Textual History and Chronology (chair: tbc)

Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau (Sorbonne University), ‘Diachronic Composition of the Qur’anic Text: When Argumentative Analysis Helps Chronology’

Adam Flowers (University of Chicago), ‘Reconsidering Genre in Qur’anic Studies’

1.00–2.30 Lunch

2.30–4.00 Panel 3: Language, Ideas, and Discourse (chair: Din Muhammad)

Nathaniel A. Miller (University of Cambridge), ‘Quranic Isra’ and Pre-Islamic Hijazi Imagery of Rule’

عبد الرحيم بن أحمد شنين (جامعة قاصدي مرباح ورقلة)، درء شبهة تغليب المذكّر على المؤنث عند العرب من خلال القرآن الكريم

Thomas Hoffmann (University of Copenhagen), ‘Taste My Punishment and My Warnings (Q. 54:39): On the Torments of Tantalus and Other Painful Metaphors of Taste in the Qur’an’

Friday 11 November (Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre)

9.30–11.00 Panel 4: Narration and Narrative (chair: Marianna Klar)

Jessica Mutter (University of Chicago), ‘Dramatic Form and Nested Dialogue: The Use of iltifat in the Qur’an’

Hamza M. Zafer (University of Washington), ‘The Patriarchs in the Qur’an’

Shawkat M. Toorawa (Yale University), ‘Daughters in the Qur’an’

11.00–11.30 Coffee Break

11.30–1.00 Panel 5: Law (chair: Abdul Hakim al-Matroudi (tbc))

Joseph Lowry (University of Pennsylvania), ‘Legal Language and Theology in the Qur’an: Excuse, Repentance, Forgiveness, and Fulfillment’

A. David K. Owen (Harvard University), ‘Certainty in Interpretation: Causal Knowledge in Ibn Hazm’s Account of Zahiri Qur’anic Exegesis in al-Ihkam fi usul al-ahkam

Ramon Harvey (Ebrahim College), ‘Interpreting Indenture (mukataba) in the Qur’an: Q. 24:33 Revisited’

1.00–2.45 Lunch

2.45–4.45 Panel 6: Contemporary Approaches (chair: Devin Stewart)

Ulrika Mårtensson (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), ‘‘Disciplining’ ‘Abd al-Aziz Duri’s Hijazi-Iraqi Historiographical Model: Implications for Current Qur’an Research’

عبد القادر بوشيبة (جامعة تلمسان)، لسانيات النص وآفاق قراءة النص القرآني

نزار خورشيد مامه (جامعة دهوك)، نظرية التلقي في القرآن الكريم: دراسة تحليلية

Joseph Lumbard (American University in Sharjah), ‘Decolonialising Qur’anic Studies’

Saturday 12 November (Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre)

9.30–11.00 Panel 7: Theology and Tafsir (chair: tbc)

Hannah Erlwein (SOAS, University of London), ‘A Reappraisal of Classical Islamic Arguments for God’s Existence: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Tafsir as a Case in Point’

مشرف بن أحمد الزهراني (جامعة الأمير سطام بن عبد العزيز)، القيم المعنوية والجمالية في استطرادات القاسمي التفسيرية

Aisha Geissinger (Carleton University), ‘al-Maturidi’s Exegetical Use of Variant Readings: The Strange Case of “harf Hafsa”’

11.00–11.30 Coffee Break

11.30–12.30 Panel 8: Political Dimensions of Interpretation and Translation 1 (chair: Hannah Erlwein)

Teresa Bernheimer (SOAS, University of London), ‘Opposition Groups, Coins, and the Qur’an’

Walid Saleh (University of Toronto), ‘The Political in tafsir: Q. 43:44 as an Example’

12:30–1.45 Lunch

1.45–3.15 Panel 9: Political Dimensions of Interpretation and Translation 2 (chair: Helen Blatherwick)

Noureddine Miladi (Qatar University), ‘The Representation of the Qur’an in the Western Media’

Burçin K. Mustafa (SOAS, University of London), ‘The Translation of Ambiguous Qur’anic Terms in the Realm of Doctrine Propagation’

Johanna Pink (University of Freiburg), ‘Contested Form, Contested Meaning: Literal, Literary and Exegetical Translations of the Qur’an in Contemporary Indonesia’

3.15–3:30 Closing Remarks (Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

Further Information:

For general enquiries, please contact the conference administrator at quran.conference@soas.ac.uk

For academic enquiries, please contact Dr Helen Blatherwick at hb20@soas.ac.uk

No registration is required for this conference and all are welcome to attend.

Venue: Khalili Lecture Theatre (November 10) & Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre (November 11-12), SOAS, University of London, Russell Square, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG

Organiser: Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, University of London

Organiser: Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, University of London

Contact email: quran.conference@soas.ac.uk