It was good to be back at the first British Association for Islamic Studies conference to be held in person since 2019. My paper this year was:
“Anthropological Reorientations in Qur’anic Hermeneutics: History, Structuralism, Ideology, Phenomenology, and Postmodernism between Europe and Indonesia.” British Association for Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh, June 6, 2022.
Here is a pdf of the slides for my presentation.
Many thanks to Amir Dziri and Hansjörg Schmid, both of the Swiss Center for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg, for inviting me to join an exciting, coherent, and flawlessly organized conference celebrating the dissertations of seven graduates of their doctoral program in “Islam and Society: Islamic-theological Studies.” My presentation responded to an innovative and sophisticated dissertation by Esma Isis-Arnautović (“Vom Menschenbild zum Paradigma: Zur Begründbarkeit einer theologischen Anthropologie im Islam”):
“The Anthropological Turn in Islamic Theologies of Revelation.” On the Future of a Young Discipline: Islamic-theological Studies between Systematic and Practical Research, Swiss Center for Islam and Society, University of Fribourg / Paulus Akademie, Zurich, May 31, 2022.
Here is a pdf of the slides for my presentation.
The whole conference has been interpreted and memorialized in a magnificent summary by Esma Isis-Arnautović, Amir Dziri and Hansjörg Schmid, “From Zakāt to Theological Anthropology: Systematic and Practical Approaches in Islamic-Theological Studies,” available at https://doi.org/10.51363/unifr.szigs.2023.009.
Thanks to Anna Pohorielova for her fine photographs.
Many thanks to Serdar Kurnaz, his Working Group for Islamic Philosophy of Law, and his team from the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, for calling together what turned out to be a creative, imaginative, and wide-ranging conference on “Constructing Islamic Philosophy of Law: Obstacles, Challenges and Solutions.” It was held in the old Veterinary Anatomy Theater (pictured) at Humboldt University in Berlin on May 27-28, 2022. My paper was:
“Classical Islamic Legal Theory and Modern European Philosophy in Conversation: Language, Ethics, History, Politics, and Phenomenology.” Constructing Islamic Philosophy of Law: Obstacles, Challenges and Solutions, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt University, Berlin, May 27, 2022.
Here is a pdf of the slides for the presentation.
The inside of the Veterinary Anatomy Theater:
Several translated selections from the Islamic Zabur that are of special interest for Christian-Muslim relations are now available in an affordable sourcebook suitable for use in teaching: The Bloomsbury Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, 600-1500, edited by David Thomas and available from Bloomsbury. My contribution is:
David R. Vishanoff. “Islamic Psalms of David.” In The Bloomsbury Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, 600-1500, ed. David Thomas, 30–33. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.
It includes the following excerpts:
A volume of essays resulting from a conference on “The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” held in Warsaw in 2016, has been published by Brill (https://brill.com/view/title/60409):
Marzena Zawanowska and Mateusz Wilk, eds. The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
Many thanks to Marzena and Mateusz for bringing this rich and highly interdisciplinary volume to press, and for organizing and hosting the memorable conference at which it originated. My own contribution to the volume is:
David R. Vishanoff. “Images of David in Several Muslim Rewritings of the Psalms.” In The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King, ed. Marzena Zawanowska and Mateusz Wilk, 273–298. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
Here is a pdf of the PREPRINT version of the paper; note that pagination, layout, and minor details may differ from the version of record published in the book, which is available from Brill at https://brill.com/view/title/60409.
Abstract: Among the many extant Arabic manuscripts of “the Psalms of David” are some that start out sounding like translations of the Biblical Psalms but that turn out, on further investigation, to contain fresh compositions by Muslim authors. Several different versions of these psalms have come down to us, and each presents a somewhat different image of David, depending on the outlook and objectives of its creator. This paper explores the range of strategies employed to turn David into what each author considered an appropriately Islamic figure. In keeping with the moderately ascetic and anti-establishment tone of these rewritten psalms, most versions downplay David’s kingly function and emphasize instead his role as a prophet and, above all, as an exemplar of otherworldly piety. The Biblical story of David’s sin of adultery and murder poses a special problem, which each editor handles in his own way: some play it up to make him a model of repentance, while others, following mainstream Muslim scholars, ignore or mitigate his sin to make him fit their ideals of piety and prophethood. The paper concludes that the pious Muslim writers who compiled and edited the several versions of these psalms did not see themselves as engaged in an interreligious debate over the true character of David or the true text of his Psalms (the Zabur mentioned in the Qur’an), but instead used the symbols of David and his Psalms quite freely and creatively to argue against their more worldly fellow Muslims and to promote their own particular visions of Islamic piety.
