Twelfth Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies

August 12 – August 16, 2014
Istanbul Şehir University, Turkey

To the memory of Wolfhart Heinrichs

Sehir UniversitySehir University

Participants

Camilla Adang; Maaike van Berkel; Monique Bernards; Julia Bray; Kristen Brustad; Paul Cobb; Nadia El-Cheikh; Josef van Ess; Antonella Ghersetti; Matthew Gordon; Simon Gundelfinger; Najam Haider; Paul Heck; Stefan Heidemann; Alya Karame; Hugh Kennedy; Jeannie Miller; James Montgomery; Karen Moukheiber; Pernilla Myrne; John Nawas; Letizia Osti; Wen-chin Ouyang; Ignacio Sánchez; Sarah Savant; Emily Selove; Devin Stewart; Shawkat Toorawa; Isabel Toral-Niehoff; John Turner; Uwe Vagelpohl; James Weaver; Peter Webb; Hayrettin Yücesoy; Travis Zadeh

Programme

Abbasids in Text and Art (chaired by Shawkat Toorawa)
Alya Karame Visual Manifestations in Qurʾans of the Fourth/Tenth and Fifth/Eleventh Centuries: A New Role?
Discussion Julia Bray
Forms of (Un)sociableness (chaired by John Nawas)
Emily Selove Emily Selove, Medicine and Mujūn: Medicine Gone Mad in Medieval Arabic Literature
Discussion Letizia Osti
The Abbasids: Views from the Fringe (chaired by Hayrettin Yücesoy)
Isabel Toral-Niehoff The Abbasid Legacy in Umayyad Spain: The Case of the ʿIqd al-Farīd
Matthew S. Gordon Al-Balawī’s Sīra: A View on the Demise of the Abbasid Empire
Simon Gundelfinger Al-Mutawakkil and the Ruling Elites of Iraq and Shām
Discussion Paul Cobb
The Many Worlds of al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868-9) (chaired by Shawkat Toorawa)
Jeannie Miller Al-Jāḥiẓ’s Semantics: In What Sense is Man Not the Only “Speaking Animal”?
Ignacio Sánchez Al-Jāḥīẓ on Ḥadīth Criticism
John P. Turner Al-Jāḥiẓ and the Politics of Identity
Paul L. Heck Signs of Skepticism in Early Arabic Literature: The Case of al-Jāḥiẓ
Discussion James Montgomery
Female Sexuality: Slaves, Heretics, Lovers (chaired by Wen-chin Ouyang)
Karen Moukheiber Islamic Law and Sexual Ethics: Debunking the Roles and Positions of Slave Women?
Pernilla Myrne Nails of Love: The Theory of Erotic Love in Jawāmiʿ al-Ladhdha by ʿAlī ibn Naṣr al-Kātib
Nadia El Cheikh Women, Sexuality, and the Making of Heretics: The Example of the Qaramita
Discussion Camilla Adang
Loss, Recovery, and Reuse (chaired by John Nawas)
Travis Zadeh Whatever Happened to the Siqāya of al-ʿAbbās?
Sarah Savant Studying the Abbasids in the Digital Age: The Potential and Pitfalls of Text “Reuse” Programmes
James Weaver Compiling Knowledge in the Tenth Century Middle East: Al-Maqdisī’s Kitāb al-badʾ wa-l-tārīkh and its Istanbul Manuscripts
Future Past: Language and the Canonization of the Jāhiliyya (chaired by Monique Bernards)
Kristen Brustad Sībawayhi as Icon
Peter Webb How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ghūl: The “Abbasid Guise(s)” of Ṣuʿlūk Poet Taʾabbaṭa Sharran
Discussion Antonella Ghersetti
How to Find a Palace and Get In (chaired by Hayrettin Yücesoy)
Stefan Heidemann ʿĪsābādh: The Imperial Metropolis of al-Mahdī
Maaike van Berkel Access to the Caliph
Discussion Najam Haider
Getting to Grips with Greek (chaired by David Bennett)
Devin Stewart Notes on the Greek Material in the Fihrist
Uwe Vagelpohl Hippocratic Index Fossils Embedded in Medical Translations: An Instrument to Establish a Relative Chronology of the Ḥunayn Workshop?
Discussion Josef van Ess
General Meeting (chaired by James Montgomery)