Tag Archives: Muslim Biblical Studies

Psalms of the Muslim David: Rewritten Bible or Rewritten Qurʾān?

At the American Oriental Society meeting in 2010 I broke from my habit of presenting progress on my Islamic legal hermeneutics project, and presented an introduction to a curious text I had recently begun to study: a complete rewriting, by Muslims authors and in a Qur’anic style, of the “Psalms of David”:

David R. Vishanoff. “Psalms of the Muslim David: Rewritten Bible or Rewritten Qurʾān?” American Oriental Society, St. Louis, March 14, 2010.

I will not post the presentation here, since it has been entirely superseded by subsequent publications, especially my article “An Imagined Book Gets a New Text: Psalms of the Muslim David.”

Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium: The Psalms of David from Christian Scripture to Islamic Sermon

Having heard my paper “A Muslim Rewriting of Psalm 2” at the Society of Biblical Literature in 2007, David Thomas kindly invited me to the 2009 Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium in Birmingham, where I made my first attempt at a comprehensive survey of a small and curious body of Islamic literature that purports to present the original “Psalms of David,” rewritten by Muslims authors in a Qur’anic style:

David R. Vishanoff. “An Imagined Book Gets a New Text: The Psalms of David from Christian Scripture to Islamic Sermon.” Sixth Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity and Islam, Birmingham, UK, September 18, 2009.

I will not post the presentation here, since it has been entirely superseded by subsequent publications, especially my article “An Imagined Book Gets a New Text: Psalms of the Muslim David.

A Muslim Rewriting of Psalm 2

In 2007 the Qur’an and Biblical Literature section of the Society of Biblical Literature hosted a panel I had organized on “Muslim Biblical Studies,” at which I presented a paper analyzing in detail the relationship between the Biblical Psalm 2 and its counterpart in an Islamic text that purports to be the authentic Psalms that God revealed to David:

David R. Vishanoff. “A Muslim Rewriting of Psalm 2: Interreligious Resistance and Intrareligious Critique.” Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, November 18, 2007.

I will not post the presentation here, since it has been entirely superseded by my published article “Why Do the Nations Rage? Boundaries of Canon and Community in a Muslim’s Rewriting of Psalm 2.

Translation of a Muslim rewriting of Psalm 2

Here is an old translation of a Muslim rewriting of Psalm 2 (Word, with parallel Biblical text) from Florence ms 267, ed. Krarup.

I have given an extended analysis of this particular psalm in the article “Why Do the Nations Rage? Boundaries of Canon and Community in a Muslim’s Rewriting of Psalm 2,” Comparative Islamic Studies 6 (2010 [2012]): 151–179.

I have discussed other aspects of the Islamic Psalms literature in several other articles and presentations, which constitute the bulk of what has been posted on this site under the tag Muslim Biblical Studies.

Reading Scriptures Across Religious Lines in Colonial India

This paper, presented while I was a graduate student at Emory University, compares two Hindus, two Christians, and two Muslims who wrote about one another’s scriptures–some appreciatively and some critically–during the long and fascinating 19th century in India. I loved this research, and I still hope to turn it into a major publication someday. In the meantime, here is a pdf of the paper as delivered. It may be cited as:

David R. Vishanoff. “Reading Scriptures Across Religious Lines in Colonial India: Interreligious Conflict and Reconciliation, and the Intrareligious Contestation of Identity.” Religion, Identity, and Reconciliation conference, Emory University Graduate Division of Religion, Atlanta, March 31, 2001.

The paper summarized a much longer and more theoretical but less well written paper that I submitted to Emory as my minor field general examination, of which a pdf is available here.