Images & Intersections, Muslim Literatures AboutImages & Intersections AboutMuslim Literatures Conference: Islamic Stories of the Prophets Michael Pregill October 12, 2015 Share Detail, Moses and Khiḍr at the Waters of Life, folio from a Fālnāma (Book of Omens), Safavid Iran, c. 1580 (Topkapı Palace Museum H. 1703, f. 9b; from M. Farhad and S. Bağcı, Falnama: The Book of Omens [Sackler Museum, 2009], 156) In cooperation with Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale and ILEX Foundation, we are proud to present the two-day conference Islamic Stories of the Prophets: Semantics, Discourse, and Genre at Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale October 14 and 15, 2015. This two-day conference commemorates the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Tilman Nagel’s seminal work Die Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ: ein Beitrag zur arabischen Literaturgeschichte, the first comprehensive study of the literary genre of the stories of the prophets. The conference aims to review the state of the field on qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ and closely related topics, and to discuss the latest developments in this area, from literary, historical, and political approaches to analysis of semantics, discourse, and genre. Contributions will range in focus from evaluations of founding figures in the genre to modern manifestations in a variety of traditional and non-traditional media. Presentations will analyze recently printed editions and unstudied manuscripts; the political, social, and religious contexts of production of works in the field; and connections with other genres and the literatures and traditions of other communities. The conference is co-convened by Roberto Tottoli, Marianna Klar, and Michael Pregill. For more information, please e-mail qisasconference@gmail.com. A PDF version of the program can be downloaded here. The abstracts of the conference papers can be downloaded here. Conference Schedule: Islamic Stories of the Prophets: Semantics, Discourse, and Genre Napoli, Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Palazzo Dumesnil, via Chiatamone, 61 14–15 October 2015 Wednesday 14 October OPENING LECTURE Tilman Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) “How to achieve an Islamic interpretation of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ” PANEL 1: What is ‘Islamic’ about qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ? Carol Bakhos (UCLA) “The case of al-Kisāʾī” Gottfried Hagen (University of Michigan) “Between Yūsuf and Karbalāʾ: suffering and salvation history in Fuẓūlī’s Garden of the Felicitous” Brannon Wheeler (United States Naval Academy) “In the footprints of the Buddha: comparing the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ to the Jatakas” PANEL 2: Defining the Genre and Corpus of qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ Roberto Tottoli (Università di Napoli L’Orientale) “Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ texts and editions: bibliographical questions regarding al-Thaʿlabī’s ʿArāʾis al-majālis” Marianna Klar (SOAS, University of London) “Textual stability in al-Kisāʾī’s Shuʿayb narrative” Jens Scheiner (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) “Did the quṣṣāṣ narrate qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ?” PANEL 3: Qiṣaṣ Materials of the Mamlūk Period as Case Study Camilla Adang (Tel Aviv University) “Tales of the prophets in al-Maqrīzī’s al-Khabar ʿan al-bashar: from Saul to Solomon” Joseph Sadan (Tel Aviv University) “The prophet Job (Ayyūb) and his wife Raḥma: a post-qurʾanic dramatic composition” Walid Saleh (University of Toronto) “On a Mamlūk treatise on al-Khiḍr: Ibn Imām al-Kāmiliyya (d. 874/1470) and India Office Islamic 1529” Thursday 15 October PANEL 4: The Political Implications of qiṣaṣ Materials: Shīʿī Examples Michael Pregill (Boston University) “When is a qiṣaṣ not a qiṣaṣ? Taʾwīl, propaganda, and political prophetology” George Warner (SOAS, University of London) “Qiṣaṣ al-aʾimma? The true, the miraculous, and the interesting in Imāmī Shīʿī stories of the prophets and imāms” Omid Ghaemmaghami (SUNY Binghamton) “And there befell the Israelites a period of concealment: notes on Moses and the Shīʿī messiah in early Twelver apologetic literature” PANEL 5: Qiṣaṣ Outside the Bounds of qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ Helen Blatherwick (SOAS, University of London) “Solomon legends in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan” Ayşe Polat (University of Chicago) “The human Jesus: a 1922 Ottoman periodical debate” Shari L. Lowin (Stonehill College) “Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ in an Andalusian poem of desire” PANEL 6: Qiṣaṣ at the Edges of Islam Herbert Berg (University of North Carolina Wilmington) “Elijah Muhammad’s prophets: the white Adam, the black Jesus, and the black Christ” Reuven Firestone (HUC-JIR/Los Angeles) “The Story of the Ten Sages: an Israelite story of the Prophet, or a Jewish qiṣṣa of counter-history” Meira Polliack (Tel-Aviv University) “The term qiṣṣa/qiṣaṣ in medieval Judeo-Arabic biblical exegesis and its wider implications” CONCLUDING LECTURE Concepción Castillo (University of Granada) “Forty years in qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ: a retrospective”
