Register for the 2021 IQSA International Meeting
IQSA International Conference 2021
“Giorgio La Pira” Library, Palermo, Italy
All times on the conference schedule are listed in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).
Qur’an in Contact: Plurality of Views from Other Traditions, Disciplines and Peripheries
Monday 5 July 2021
2:00 PM – Introductory remarks by IQSA and La Pira
Alberto Melloni, Secretary of Fscire and the Giorgio La Pira Library team, Convenors
Hythem Sidky, IQSA Executive Director
Alba Fedeli, Director of the Conference
3:00 – 4:00 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues
4:00 – 6:00 PM – Panel 1. Scripture, Epigraphic Corpora, Gnosticism, and Beda Venerabilis
1.1 Notes on the Genre of Scripture in the Qur’an (20 min)
Devin J. Stewart, Emory University, USA
1.2 “Invoke Allāh or Invoke al-Raḥmān”: the Multiple Names of the Arabian One God(s). A Comparison between the Qur’an and the Arabian Epigraphic Corpora (20 min)
Valentina Grasso, University of Cambridge, UK
1.3 Gnostics of Arabia: Syncretizing Indigenous Beliefs (20 min)
Abdulla Galadari, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE
1.4 Cædmon, Muḥammad, and the Sleepers of Ephesus (20 min)
Thomas Eich, Hamburg University, Germany
Discussion (40 min)
6:15 – 7:15 PM – Publisher’s Corner
The Exceptional Qu’ran: Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric in Islam’s Holy Book – Author Talk and Book Preview
Johanne Louise Christiansen and a representative from Gorgias Press
Tuesday 6 July 2021
2:00 – 4:45 PM – Panel 2. Characters, Narratives, and Strategies in the Qur’anic Text
2.1 Characters Round or Flat? Hud and Salih in Context (20 min)
David Penchansky, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
2.2 Unbinding Isaac: Comedy, Critique, and Conversation between Midrash and Tafsīr (20 min)
Madeline Wyse, University of California – Berkeley, USA
2.3 Confrontation between the Early Christians and their Enemies in Qur’an 61:14 and its Allusion to Luke 10 (20 min)
Mohammad Ghandehari, independent scholar
Discussion (30 min)
Short break (15 min)
2.4 Who is Solomon of the Qur’an? An Inquiry into the Pragmatic Mind of Muhammad (20 min)
Mustapha Tajdin, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, UAE
2.5 Cognitive Verbs as a Strategy for Expressing Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in the Qur’an (20 min)
Yehudit Dror, University of Haifa, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Israel
Discussion (20 min)
5:15 – 7:15 PM – Panel 3. Qur’anic Perspective and Other Views
3.1 What is the fiṭra? A Qur’anic Perspective (20 min)
Jacob Kildoo, University of Notre Dame, USA
3.2 On Ḥanīf as an Arabic Qur’anic Term (20 min)
Ivan Dyulgerov, Sofia University “St. Kiment Ohridski”, Bulgaria
3.3 The Neoplatonic Qur’an: Nasir-i Khusraw’s Ismaili Vision of Qur’anic Revelation (20 min)
Khalil Andani, Augustana College, USA
3.4 The Qur’an and the Rabbis – A New Look at the Evidence (20 min)
Holger Zellentin, Universität Tübingen, Germany
Discussion (40 min)
7:30 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues
Wednesday 7 July 2021
2:00 – 3:30 PM – Panel 4. Miracles and Magic: Explorations in the Qur’an and the Supernatural
Panel Organiser: Stephen Burge, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
4.1 The Miracles of Muḥammad in the Qur’an and the Sīra: The Conception of Muḥammad as Case Study (20 min)
Rebecca Williams, University of South Alabama, USA
4.2 From Supernatural to Natural: Modernist Sunnī and Aḥmadī Exegetes on Prophetic Miracles (20 min)
Nebil Husayn, University of Miami, USA
4.3 Magic and Modernism: The Tafsīr al-Manār on Occultism and Q. 2:102 (20 min)
Stephen Burge, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
Discussion (30 min)
4:30 – 6:30 PM – Panel 5. Theology, Mysticism, and Pluralism
5.1 Mulla Sadra on the Interpretation of the Qur’an: Mystical or Pseudo-mystical (20 min)
Reza Akbari, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran
5.2 Nonviolence Horizon in the Qur’an: Is it Possible to Go Beyond the Just War Theory? (20 min)
Adnane Mokrani, La Pira-Fscire, Palermo, Italy
5.3 Dialogue in the Holy Qur’an in Light of Pluralism and Peace-making (20 min)
Munshid Falih Wadi, University of Diyala, Iraq and Angela Bivol, independent researcher
5.4 A Religion for All Religions. Abul Kalam Azad’s Idea of Pluralism in Tarjuman-ul-Qur’an (20 min)
Shameer K Sulaiman, Other Books, Calicut, Kerala, India
Discussion (40 min)
6:45 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues
Thursday 8 July 2021
2:00 – 4:00 PM – Panel 6. Carriers of the Text and Readings 1: Manuscripts, Illustrations, Amulets, and Printed Editions
6.1 Qur’anic Healing or Magic? Amulets as Medical Intervention inside Islamic West Africa (20 min)
S.Beena Butool, Department of Religion, Florida State University, USA
6.2 The Bigger Picture: Employing a Ṣan‘ā’ Manuscript for Dating Early Mosques (20 min)
Hagit Nol, Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
6.3 The Readers of Basra (20 min)
Marijn van Putten, Leiden University, Netherlands
6.4 Reading in Abraham Hinckelmann Qur’an Edition and Sources (20 min)
Abdallah El-Khatib, Qatar University, Qatar
Discussion (40 min)
4:30 – 7:45 PM – Panel 7. Carriers of the Text and Readings 2: The Qur’an in Light of Digital Humanities
7.1 Mushaf Muscat: a New Approach to Arabic Text Editing in the Digital Age (20 min)
Thomas Milo, Decotype, Amsterdam, Netherlands
7.2 Statistical Methods for Identifying Unknown Qur’anic Readings: An Application to Pronominal Variation in Manuscripts and Secondary Literature (20 min)
Hythem Sidky, IQSA
7.3 Artificial Intelligence and Text Analytics for Understanding the Qur’an (20 min)
Eric Atwell, School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK
Discussion (30 min)
Short break (15 min)
7.4 Doc2vec to Measure Semantic Similarity between Verses of the Qur’an (20 min)
Menwa Alshammeri, Jouf University and School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK
7.5 AraBERT to Measure Semantic Relatedness between Qur’an Verses (20 min)
Abdullah Alsaleh, King Abdulaziz University and School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK
7.6 Deep Learning to Measure Semantic Relatedness between Qur’an Verses and Hadith (20 min)
Shatha Altammami, King Saud University and School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK
Discussion (30 min)
8:00 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues
Friday 9 July 2021
2:00 – 4:00 PM – Panel 8. Qur’an Translation and its Exegetical Dimension: Transfers and Transformations
Panel organizer: Johanna Pink, GloQur, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
8.1 The Construction and Reconstruction of the Qur’an’s Meaning Through Translation (20 min)
Johanna Pink, GloQur, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
8.2 “Inclined to Chop?” Debates over a “Naturalist” Reading of Q 2:260 (20 min)
Sohaib Saeed, GloQur, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
8.3 The Birth of an Islamic Language: on the Qur’an Commentary in Türki-Tatar (20 min)
Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
8.4 Standardization and Exegetical Variety in Translations of the Qur’an: Recent Cases from the King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex (20 min)
Mykhaylo Yakubovych, GloQur, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Discussion (40 min)
4:30 – 5:00 PM – Publisher’s corner
Get published! Tips and Tricks from within the Publishing Business
Sophie Wagenhofer, De Gruyter
5:15 – 8:00 PM – Panel 9. Striking Back at the Empire: Anti-imperialism in Contemporary Qur’anic Exegesis
Panel organizers: Francesca Badini and Francesco Cargnelutti, La Pira-Fscire, Palermo, Italy
9.1 Sayyid Quṭb Conception of Jihād against the Ṭawāġīt of the new Jāhiliyyah (20 min)
Riccardo Amerigo Vigliermo, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), Fscire, Italy
9.2 The Qur’an in the Political Thought of Rāshid al-Ghannūshī (20 min)
Francesco Cargnelutti, La Pira-Fscire, Palermo, Italy
9.3 The Anti-imperialism in the Interpretation of the Qur’an: Muḥammad al-Ghazālī and his Tafsīr al-Mawḍūʿī (20 min)
Francesca Badini, La Pira-Fscire, Palermo, Italy
Discussion (30 min)
Short break (15 min)
9.4 Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s Fight on Cultural Imperialism: al-Tafsīr al-Mawḍuʿī and the Islamic Alternative in Iqtiṣādunā (20 min)
Pietro Menghini, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy
9.5 Siding with the Mustaḍ‘afin: Liberation Theology and Decolonial Paradigms in Claremont Main Road Mosque’s Community Tafsir (20 min)
Margherita Picchi, La Pira-Fscire, Palermo, Italy
Discussion (20 min)
8:00 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues
Saturday 10 July 2021
2:00 – 4:00 PM – Panel 10. Women in the Qur’an and using the Qur’an: its lexicon, interpretations, exegesis, history, geography and its use to demand women’s rights
10.1 and 10.2 Women in the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Approach (40 min)
Karen Bauer, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
Feras Hamza, University of Wollongong in Dubai/the Institute of Ismaili Studies
10.3 The Most Controversial Verse in the Qur’an: a New Interpretation (20 min)
Abla Hasan, Nebraska University, USA
10.4 Using the Qur’an to Demand Women’s Rights in the Late Ottoman Empire and Beyond (20 min)
Orhan Elmaz, University of St Andrews, UK
Discussion (40 min)
4:30 – 7:15 PM – Panel 11. Medieval Falsafa and the Qur’an: a Changeable Relationship
Panel Organizer: Andrea Pintimalli, PhD, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
11.1 The Mu’tazilah Rationalization as a Valid Philosophical System to Islamic Metaphysics of Divine Unity and Divine Justice (20 min)
Syed M. Waqas, Cincinnati Christian University, Ohio, USA
11.2 “A Clear Proof of the True religion”: the Qur’an as a Normative Source in al-Bīrūnī’s Studies on Other Religious tradition (20 min)
Andrea Pintimalli, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy
11.3 From Greek ‘Demonology’ to Qur’anic Angelology: Textual Traces in al-Bīrūnī (20 min)
Vincenzo Muggittu, IIS Galilei-Pacinotti, Pisa, Italy and Andrea Pintimalli, Università La Sapienza, Roma
Discussion (30 min)
Short break (15 min)
11.4 Rational and Mystical Dimensions in al-Ghazali’s Interpretation of the Qur’an (20 min)
Ines Peta, Università di Bologna, Italy
11.5 Alchemical Tafsir in the Works of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (20 min)
Richard Todd, University of Birmingham, UK
Discussion (20 min)
7:30 PM – Concluding remarks
La Pira / IQSA
8:00 PM – Virtual meeting rooms – optional rooms for chatting spontaneously with new and old colleagues