Eleventh Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies

July 11 – 14, 2012
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK

Participants

Peter Adamson, Camilla Adang, Stijn Aerts, David Bennett, Maaike van Berkel, Monique Bernards, Helen Blatherwick, Antoine Borrut, Julia Bray, Nadia El Cheikh, Jane Clark, Paul Cobb, Michael Cooperson, Amikam Elad, Josef van Ess, Robert Gleave, Beatrice Gruendler, Najam Haider, Rotraud Hansberger, Hugh Kennedy, Alexander Key, István Kristó-Nagy, Joe Lowry, Amal Marogy, Christopher Melchert, James Montgomery, Suleiman Mourad, Pernilla Myrne, John Nawas, Bilal Orfali, Letizia Osti, Hans Peter Pökel, Dwight Reynolds, Ignacio Sánchez, Sarah Savant, Emily Selove, Jocelyn Sharlet, Shawkat Toorawa, Kathy van Vliet, James Weaver, Travis Zadeh

University of ExeterUniversity of Exeter

Programme

Welcome
Robert Gleave and István Kristó-Nagy, Welcome to the Eleventh Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies.
Language and Linguistics (chair: Hugh Kennedy)
Amal E. Marogy, Arabic linguistic reasoning in the early ʿAbbāsid period: Tribal and cultural identity and its linguistic reflection in the first Arabic grammar
Alexander Key, Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī’s (fl. ≤ 409/1018) philosophy of language
Discussion: Monique Bernards
Warfare, Violence and Heresy (chair: Shawkat Toorawa)
Amikam Elad, The Armies of al-Amīn and his Commanders: 195/810-198/813
István Kristó-Nagy, Marriage after rape. The Iranian Revival after the Post Conquest Trauma as reflected in Ibn al-Muqaffac’s oeuvre
James Weaver, Describing Difference in the long Ninth Century: How was heresiographical information transmitted?
Discussion: Paul Cobb
Sanctuaries and Prayers (chair: James Montgomery)
Travis Zadeh, Entering the Kaʿba: ʿAbbāsid ceremonial and the formation of the Meccan sanctuary
Stijn Aerts, The ʿAbbāsid prayer
Discussion: John Nawas
Microcosm (chair: Monique Bernards)
Emily Selove, The Cosmic Crasher: Abū l-Qāsim and the microcosm
Discussion: Antoine Borrut
Finances and Archives (chair: Hugh Kennedy)
Letizia Osti, The financial implications of a job at court
Maaike van Berkel, Reconstructing the archives of Baghdād
Discussion: Shawkat Toorawa
Natural Philosophy in the Islamic World (chair: John Nawas)
Peter Adamson, Abū Bakr al-Rāzī’s critique of Aristotelian physics
David Bennett, The mutual interpenetration of spirit and (other) bodies
Rotraud Hansberger, Ps.-Proclus’s Questions on Natural Things and its relation to Job of Edessa’s Book of Treasures
Discussion: Josef van Ess
Books and Music (chair: Shawkat Toorawa)
Beatrice Gruendler, Book culture before Book print: A case study in media change
Dwight Reynolds, Musical contact between al-Andalus and the ʿAbbāsid Empire in the third/ninth century
Discussion: Julia Bray
Revolutionary and ʿAbbāsid Shīʿism (chair: John Nawas)
Ignacio Sánchez, Mufākhara as propaganda: al-Jāhiẓ’s Faḍl Hāshim ʿalā ʿAbd al-Shams and the de-Hāshimitisation of the Hāshimites
Najam Haider, The underground life and death of ʿĪsā b. Zayd (d. 168/785)
Robert Gleave, Self-harm and suicide in early Imāmī law and theology
Discussion: Sarah Savant
Fiqh (chair: Monique Bernards)
Joe Lowry, Legal reasoning and authority in the Shāfiʿī madhhab
Christopher Melchert, The early Ḥanafiyya and Kufa
Discussion: Camilla Adang
Muʿtazila and Fiqh (chair: James Montgomery)
Suleiman A. Mourad, The lost Ḥanafīs and Shāfiʿīs: The Muʿtazila jurists of the ʿAbbāsid period
Discussion: Hugh Kennedy
Storytellers and Sufi poets (chair: Shawkat Toorawa)
Jocelyn Sharlet, The Lion-Eater and the Storytellers: ʿAmr b. al-ʿAjlān, ʿAmr b. Maʾdīkarib, and Jamīl b. Maʿmar
Bilal Orfali, Samāʿ (beatific audition) and authorial voices in early Sufi anthologies
Discussion: James Montgomery
Women, Men, Gender (chair: John Nawas)
Nadia El Cheikh, Hind bint ʿUtba in “Other Times”
Pernilla Myrne, Jealousy, love and faithfulness in some ʿAbbāsid books from the tenth century
Hans Peter Pökel, Masculinities, authority and the case of eunuchs at the ʿAbbāsid Court
Discussion: Michael Cooperson
General Meeting (chair: James Montgomery)