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Islamic Studies Colloquium of Pembroke College, University of Oxford will take place on 27-28thSeptember 2013 at Pembroke College, Oxford (UK).Convenors: Elisabeth Kendall, Ahmad Khan, Christopher Melchert, NicolaiSinaiVenue: Pembroke College, Oxford. OX1 1DWDate: 27-28 September 2013*Attendance is free and open to all, but attendees must register no laterthan 16 September 2013 with Ahmad Khan (ahmad.khan@pmb.ox.ac.uk)Both the resurgence of Islamist politics and the political, social, andintellectual upheaval accompanying the Arab Spring challenge us toreconsider the interplay between the pre-modern Islamic tradition and modernproponents of continuity, reform, and change in the Muslim world. Thecolloquium therefore invites scholars with an in-depth knowledge of theclassical Islamicate heritage to explore modern texts that stake out somesort of claim to pre-modern traditions in disciplines as diverse as Islamiclaw, hadith, Qur'anic exegesis, politics, and literature. The colloquiumwill encourage specialists to embark on a hermeneutically sophisticatedexercise that avoids some of the extremes to which an examination of how theclassical heritage functions in the modern Islamic world has often beensubjected. The colloquium aims to move beyond works that contain the tacitassumption that modern Muslims are subconsciously steered by the Islamictradition, without exerting any sort of agency or control over it, andstudies that suggest that modern Muslim thinkers arbitrarily distortelements of the tradition to which they lay claim. Instead, we invitescholars to consider modern re-appropriations of pre-modern concepts, texts,persons, and events, and thereby to transcend an increasing bifurcationbetween classical and contemporary Islamic studies.Presenters will be encouraged to consider how a modern Islamic author’s useof the pre-modern Muslim tradition works against current scholarlyunderstanding of the longer tradition; what historical factorscontemporaneous to the modern text in question might have contributed to theparticular hermeneutical shape of the text’s interaction with the pre-moderntradition; whether we are able to identify attempts by modern authors tobuild layers upon the existing architecture that steer the tradition towardsnew and previously uncharted territory and exegetical possibilities; whatreactions and contestations modern reconfigurations of pre-moderntraditions, ideas, and persons have solicited, and among which parties andgroups; how modern authors have attempted to navigate perceived departuresfrom the ‘authority’ of the pre-modern Islamic tradition; and preciselywhich features of the Islamic tradition are the subject of continuation,change, departure, or disputation.Thanks to the generosity of Brian Wilson, a long-standing benefactor ofArabic studies at Pembroke, the colloquium will invite academics andspecialists to present papers broadly connected to the set of questionsoutlined above.COLLOQUIUM PROGRAMMEFriday 27 September 201317:00 – 17:15 Welcome NoteChristopher Melchert (Pembroke College, University of Oxford)17:15 – 18:15 Keynote LectureCarole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh): “Jihad and Islah in the 21stCentury: Continuity and Change”Saturday 28 September 201309:30 – 11:00 (Chair: Nicolai Sinai)Robert Gleave (University of Exeter): "Modern Shi'ite Legal Theory and theClassical Tradition”Christopher Melchert (University of Oxford): "Muhammad Nasir al-Dinal-Albani's Hadith Criticism”Ahmad Khan (University of Oxford): “‘Too Big to Fail’: Modern Contestationsbetween Muslim Reformers and Late Sunni Traditionalists”11:00 – 11:30 Coffee11:30 – 13:00 (Chair: Elisabeth Kendall) Nicolai Sinai (University ofOxford): “Reading the Qur’an with Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935) and SayyidQutb (d. 1966)”Islam Dayeh (Freie Universitat Berlin): “Is there Takhyil in the Qur’an?Exegesis and Literary Criticism in Twentieth-Century Cairo”Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies): “Ayatollah Sanaei'sInterpretation of Women's Testimony (Q 2:282), in light of Tradition,History, and Cultural Norms”13:00 – 14:00 Lunch14:00 – 15:00 (Chair: Robert Gleave)Marilyn Booth (University of Edinburgh): “Biographical Dictionaries: LateNineteenth-Century Likenesses”Elisabeth Kendall (University of Oxford): “Al-Qa'ida in the ArabianPeninsula: The Classical Poetic tradition”15:00 – 15:30 Coffee15:30 – 16:30 (Chair: Ahmad Khan)Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham): “Ibn Taymiyya between Moderation andRadicalism”Christian Lange (Utrecht University): “Contemporary Sunni traditionalistLiterature on Paradise and Hell: The Case of 'Umar Sulayman al-Ashqar (d.2012)”16:30 – 17:00 Coffee, Farewells