8. Florence 2017

New Perspectives and Contexts in the Study of Islamic Origins

 The aim of this meeting is to examine afresh formative Islam in its Late Antique context. Conference proceedings of select papers is forthcoming.
Chairs: Guillaume Dye (Free University of Brussels), Tommaso Tesei (The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Polonsky Academy), Gabriele Boccaccini (University of Michigan)
Dates: June 12-16, 2017
Location: Florence, Italy

Monday 12 June 2017

08:00-15:00 Arrivals and Lunch
17:00 Welcome
14:45-19:30 Session 1: Bible and Qur’ān
  • Gabriel Reynolds, “Biblical Turns of Phrases in the Qur’ān”
  • Respondent – Isaac Oliver

20:00 Dinner

Tuesday 13 June 2017

09:00 – 10:15. Short Papers: Piety and Society in Early Islam
  • Mette Bjerregaard Mortensen, “The Concept of Muhājirūn – and Its Potential Significance for the Piety of the Seventh Century Qur’ānic Movement”
  • Philip Wood, “Communalism and social boundaries in the canons of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre and his predecessors”
  • Christian C. Saehner, “What can Zoroastrian Sources Tell us about Early Islamic History?”

10:45–12:30 Session 2: Origins of Qur’anic Militancy

  • Tommaso Tesei, “Heraclius’ War Propaganda and the Origins of the Qur’ānic Concept of Fighting Martyrdom”
  • Respondent: Christian Sahner
13:00 Lunch
14:30-16:15 Session 3
  • Boaz Shoshan, “The Sāsānian Conquest of Ḥimyar Reconsidered”
  • Respondent: Michael Bonner
16:45 – 18:00. Reading Sessions
  • a) David S. Powers, “The raid of Usāma b. Ziyad (Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, 3:1117-1128)”
  • b) Tommaso Tesei & Guillaume Dye, “The Qur’anic She-Camel”

Wednesday 14 June 2017

8:00 Meeting at the Hotel and transfer by bus to the Synagogue of Florence
9:00 – 10:15 Short Papers: The Qur’ān as a Literary-Polemical Document
  • Guillaume Dye, “Mapping the Sources of the Qur’anic Jesus”
  • Paul Neuenkirchen, “Eschatology and Creeds – Reading the Qur’ān as Homily”
  • Thomas Hoffmann
10:30 – 12:15 Session 4: Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins
  • Aaron Hughes, The Current Status and Problems of Islamic Origins”
  • Respondent: Guillaume Dye
12:15-13:15 Visit of the Synagogue and Jewish Museum
13:15 Lunch
15:00 – 17:00 (optional) Meeting on Women in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Syracuse University, Florence, organized by COREIS: Main speakers: Debora Spini (NY University of Florence), Sherazade Housman (Università Gregoriana) e Marisa Trythall (Georgetown University).
17:00 Meeting at Syracuse University, City Tour in bus and transfer to the Faculty of Theology
18:00 (optional): Lecture by Michael Bonner at the Faculty of Theology
19:45 Reception for our group at the Faculty of Theology
21:00 Dinner – Transfer by bus to the hotel

Thursday 15 June 2017

09:00 – 10:15 Short Papers: Early Islam and Jewish Traditions
  • Annette Yoshiko Reed, “Enoch between Late Antiquity and Islam”
  • Isaac Oliver, “Hanging by a Rabbinic Thread: The Qur’anic Construction of the Ideal Jew in Surat Al-Baqarah”
  • Julian Stinchcomb, “The Queen of Shebah in the Qur’ān and Late Antique Midrash”
10:45 – 12:30 Session 5
  • Marcus Milwright, “Shock of the New? Writing and the Propagation of Religious Ideology in the First Century of Islam”
  • Respondent: Manfred Kropp
13:00 Lunch
14:30 – 16:15 Short Papers: Living in a Material World
  • Gilles Courtieu, “Why Hārūt, why Mārūt, why Hārūt and Mārūt?”
  • Alba Fedeli
  • Robert Kerr, “التحريف الإسلامي. Forging ahead into the Islamic Past”
  • Arianna D’Ottone, “Arabic Glasses (coin weights, jetons and vessels stamps) from Umayyad Syria”
18:00: Transfer by bus to Bivigliano – Dinner

Friday 16 June 2017

09:00 – 10:45 Session 6: Eschatology and Empire
  • Stephen Shoemaker, The Portents of the Hour: Eschatology and Empire in the Early Islamic Tradition”
  • Respondent: Tommaso Tesei
11:15 – 12:00 Closing Plenary Session