Call for Papers

Date: November 8-10, 2019

Venue: Münster, Germany

Abstract Submission Deadline: July 31, 2019

Organizer: Center for Islamic Theology (Prof. Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide and Catharina Rachik) and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” of the University of Muenster Conference

The aim of the conference in 2019 is to establish a vivid international discourse as well as to create an academic network in which open discussions will be able to develop or to improve scholarly methods for the contextual interpretation of the Qur’an.

Considering the methods alluded to above, several critical questions arise that are to be discussed during the conference. In particular, we are looking for contributions concerning the following questions:

• Do we have enough authentic Islamic and non-Islamic historical sources to reconstruct the historical context of the Qur’anic revelation?
• Which sources, studies and academic researchers could be employed to contextualize the Qur’an historically?
• Is it possible to reconstruct a reliable chronology of the Qur’anic revelation, refraining from historical information, included in sīrah-works, which are themselves not always unproblematic in nature? What are the most important attempts to reconstruct the Qur’anic chronology and how controversial are they? What constitutes the main argument for or against already existing chronologies such as Nöldecke’s, Blanchere’s, or Bell’s?
• The occasions of the revelation (asbāb an-nuzūl), to which many scholars of the Qur’an refer to are apparently part of the hadīth-literature, which were written down much later 2 than the Qur’an. How reliable are they, and to what extent are they helpful by means of reconstructing the historical event of the Qur’an?
• If the existing historical material – in- and outside the Islamic tradition – is not sufficient to reconstruct the historical context of the 7th century convincingly, what would be a viable alternative to address the context? What further methodologies could help in reconstructing the historical context?
• Some scholars even claim that it is impossible altogether to reconstruct the historical context of the Qur’an. Which consequences would such resignation imply for contemporary Qur’anic hermeneutics? Would it be possible to develop new approaches to the Qur’an that are not based on the historical reconstruction of its context?
• What are the consequences of this discussion for on application of the so-called ‘historical critical method’ of the Qur’an?
• How can we build a bridge between historical/ critical and Islamic approaches to the subject matter?

Source: University of Munster