Call for Papers: Sharḥ, Tafsīr, and Ḥāshiya, University of Zurich
Please send a 400-word abstract to james.weaver@uzh.ch and forster@zedat.fu-berlin.de no later than August 31, 2019. We welcome contributions in English, French or German.
The selected participants will be notified by October 30, 2019.
The University of Zurich will host Sharḥ, Tafsīr, and Ḥāshiya, a workshop on the form, function, and context of pre-modern commentary writing in Arabic, on June 15-16, 2020.
We invite papers dealing with commentaries written in Arabic any time before roughly the 15th century, belonging to any genre (philosophy, theology, literature, medicine, sciences, etc.). Possible questions to be dealt with may include (but are not limited to):
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How does a commentary work? Which elements of a text receive what kind of attention, which parts are not commentated upon? What kinds of relationship exist between the text and the commentary?
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What is considered a good commentary, a bad commentary?
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Why was it ever important to write a commentary? Are there different kinds of motivation that lead to different kinds of commentary?
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Who wrote commentaries and when? Is commentary writing something a beginner does or rather the opposite? Do people write different kinds of commentaries at different stages in their careers?
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Who are the intended readers and audiences?
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Who really commissioned, read, owned, or taught a commentary? Where were they composed?
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How are commentaries presented in their manuscripts? How is the link between the base-text and the commentary established, both linguistically and at the level of layout?
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Why are there so many “auto-commentaries”, i.e. commentaries written by the author of the commented work?
Original Source: International Qur’anic Studies Association
