Stéphane Pradines Aga Khan University, London icon-calendar November 24, 2015 Stéphane Pradines has worked over fifteen years with an international team on the excavations of the walls of Cairo. These excavations uncovered four closely linked structures: a first Fatimid rammed-earth wall dating 969-971 built by Ǧawhar al-Ṣiqillī (d. 381/992); a second
Guillaume de Vaulx PhD student at Paris-IV University icon-calendar November 3, 2015 Guillaume de Vaulx presented under the title “Reason against reason” a medieval Christian-Muslim polemic. The debate opposed the Nestorian bishop Isrāʾīl al-Kaskarī to Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Saraḫsī, one of al-Kindī disciples who the speaker suspects to be the author
Michel Cuypers, The composition of the Qur’an, Rhetorical analysis, Bloomsbury, London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney, 2015 (202 pages). The text of the Qur’an appears to many to be desperately muddled and lacking any coherence. TheComposition of the Qur’an provides a systematic presentation of the writing processes (or rhetoric) and argues
Adrien Candiard Alumnus of the French École normale supérieure, Paris icon-calendar June 16, 2015 Muḥammad ʿAbduh identifies the reality of Islam and its rationality, and opposes the tradition he sees as rehearsed. In this, he is an heir of the Enlightenment and their pretention in inventing a unique universal system of
Ahmed Waguih PhD candidate in Islamic theology at Dār al-ʿUlūm (Cairo University) icon-calendar May 19, 2015 Ibn Taymiyya (m. 728/1328) is a brilliant author who holds a very special place in the Islamic tradition. He regularly accused the ʿulamāʾ of his time of having a non-critical attitude toward the Islamic sciences,
Ahmed Gomaa Doctor of al-Azhar University, and manuscript editor icon-calendar April 21, 2015 Dr. Ahmed Gomaa made a presentation on Ibn al-Qastallani (d. 686/1287) and his criticism of the Sufism deviations during his life time. In the very painful context of the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, and
Jean Druel Doctor in Arabic linguistics icon-calendar March 17, 2015 As the classical corpus of the Arabic language was practically closed by the 4th/10th century, the post-Arab lexicographers were then able to practice their art with the exhaustive compilation of the language’s words.
Giuseppe Scattolin Doctor in Sufism icon-calendar March 10, 2015 Dr. Scattolin presented his new book, Ta’ammulāt fī al-taṣawwuf wa-l-ḥiwār al-dīnī (“Reflections on Sufism and interreligious dialogue”). In particular, he presented on the three levels of reading Sufi texts: 1) contextual, on the meaning of words in the text itself, 2) historical, on
Jonathan Stutz PhD student at the University of Basel icon-calendar March 3, 2015 The comparison of Muslims and Christians Arabic narratives of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity allows us to discover very different historical representations of the Emperor. Christian and Muslims writers do not have the same intentions when they write the history of
Alaa Badawi PhD candidate in history, Cairo University icon-calendar February 19, 2015 After the 8th/14th century, physicians were mostly technicians who no longer received formation in logic or philosophy. Medicine was restricted to a corpus of knowledge and to some surgical techniques without any innovation.
