“The Quran in its Historical Context,” an international conference addressing the most recent theories, controversies and discoveries in the field of Quranic studies, will be held April 19 to 21 (Sunday to Tuesday) at the University of Notre Dame. The conference is free and open to the public.

The conference, which will provide a unique forum for discussion of the historical circumstances in which the Quran was formed and of its relationship to the Bible, will open with a lecture titled “The Multi-dimensional Quranic Worldview: Tartib al-Tilawa versus Tartib al-Nuzul” by prominent Egyptian Muslim scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd of the University of Humanistics in The Netherlands. Abdolkarim Soroush, a philosopher, innovative interpreter of the Quran and one of the leading opposition figures in Iran, will give a response. Robert Hoyland of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland will deliver a lecture titled “The Earliest Written Evidence of the Arabic Language and Its Importance for the Study of the Quran” on April 20.

Leading scholars from a wide range of countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Germany and the United Kingdom, will lead panel discussions titled “Quranic Origins: Manuscript Evidence,” “Quranic Origins: Historical Evidence,” “The Quran and Earlier Religious Tradition,” “The Quran as Literature,” and “The Quran and Historical Linguistics.”

All events will be held in McKenna Hall, with the exception of Hoyland’s lecture, which will be held in the Rare Books Room of the Hesburgh Library. Additional information, including a complete schedule and list of speakers, is available at http://quranconference.nd.edu. The conference is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Henkels Lecture Series of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, Graduate School, Medieval Institute, and Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Related Links

Nicholas Kristof Commentary