Periodic Reporting for period 2 - QaSLA (The Qur’an as a Source for Late Antiquity)
Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-09-30
In detail, the Qur’an’s message to the populations of Mecca and Medina can only be fully understood in the context of its sustained and critical engagement with the Jewish and the Christian traditions. QaSLA complements and redevelops this approach from the ground up by utilizing the Qur’an across disciplines as witness to the history of Judaism and Christianity. Its innovation is twofold. The Qur’an, firstly, will become the primary literary source allowing us to sketch the religious landscape of the Arabian Peninsula, for which no comparable late antique witness exists. Secondly, the Qur’an’s testimony to the religious culture of its contemporaries will enable us to approach the development of Jewish and Christian traditions throughout Late Antiquity from a new perspective.
QaSLA’s main innovation consists in turning the table on the predominant hermeneutics of Western approaches to the Qur’an, which tend to focus on the question of how the Qur’an is influenced by Judaism and Christianity. By taxonomizing the religious profiles reflected in the demonstrable interface between the Qur’an and its Jewish and Christian contemporaries, the project first reorients and then revamps this approach. QaSLA initially analyses the affinity between the Qur’an and known forms of Judaism and Christianity surrounding Arabia in order to identify which biblical, exegetical, homiletic, legal, narrative, ritual, and poetic discourses and practices circulated within the peninsula. It then employs the Qur’an as a new vantage point from which to reconsider broader late antique religious trends across the Middle East. QaSLA combines expertise across disciplines to create a novel local Arabian and an enhanced longitudinal Middle Eastern understanding of Rabbinic Jewish and Syriac, Ethiopic and Arabic Christian cultures. In a final step, the project then returns to portray the Qur’an in sharper contradistinction to more clearly defined forms of Judaism and Christianity.
The team members of the QaSLA project have been actively engaged in producing and disseminating research through research papers, conferences, and publications.
Professor Holger Zellentin, the project lead, has published a monograph, four papers, and delivered nine keynote lectures at various national and international conferences (see Publications). He has co-organized one of the QaSLA conferences of which he is currently co-editing the proceedings, and has presented his research, the Qur’an’s view of the “Israelites” and its relationship to late antique Judaism and Christianity at fourteen national and international conferences and workshops. He continues to play a prominent role in the field, serving as the chair of the board of the International Qur'anic Studies Association (IQSA) and co-chairing a Senior Research Seminar series at the University of Tubingen.
Ana Davitashvili´s research focuses on the similarities between the Qurʾan and pre-Islamic Syriac literature. She analyzes numerous Syriac as well as other Christian texts to demonstrate the Qurʾan´s particular affinity with Syriac literature. She has published a journal article in the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, as well as two book reviews (see Publications). She was the sole organiser of one of the QaSLA conferences and co-organizer of another one, and she is currently co-editing the proceedings of both. She has presented her research widely at conferences and seminars. Most recently, Ana participated in the conference ‘Unlocking the Byzantine Quran’ held at the University of Paderborn, where she presented a paper on martyrs in the Quran and Syriac texts.
Nadja Abuhussein has been working on her PhD project on the Qurʾān and Arab Christianity, translating and analyzing poems attributed to pre-Islamic Arabian poets. She has identified conceptual similarities between the Qur’an’s representations of God and depictions of God in pre-Quranic Christian Arab poetry. Nadja presented her research at conferences and seminars, and was co-organizer of our international conference, ‘Epigraphy, the Qur'an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia’, where she also chaired one of the conference’s panels. Nadja is currently planning a workshop on the Qurʾān and Arab Christianity for the spring of 2024.
Nicolai Sinai has conducted preliminary research on the question of the identity of the Meccan Israelites and the related issues of the degree and nature of Jewish traditions reflected in the Meccan surahs of the Qur’an. Alongside the advice Nicolai provides to the QaSLA post-doc scholars, he continues to present his research at conferences, and is working towards publishing his research in the form of a journal article and conference proceeding paper.
To keep the public informed about research, objectives, and upcoming events, QaSLA has established a website, qasla.eu.
Furthermore, the project offers a historically grounded interpretation of some of the most significant Qur'anic passages related to Judaism and Christianity. Through thorough analysis, it subjects the Qur’an’s role as a pivotal bridge between Late Antiquity and classical Islam to renewed scrutiny. This comprehensive approach has the potential to reshape our understanding of the history of Judaism, Christianity, the Qur’an, and Early Islam. These topics hold immense historical relevance, both within the academic sphere and beyond.
QaSLA remains committed to the dissemination of knowledge. It aims to continue to publish academic monographs and articles, sharing its findings with the scholarly community. Moreover, the project is organising conferences and workshops that facilitate dialogue and further the exploration of the Qur’an as a valuable source for Late Antiquity, contributing to the expansion of knowledge in this field.