The European Science Foundation (ESF) hosted an exploratory workshop entitled The Esoteric Interpretation of the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍Muslims believe that the Holy 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍 contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More at the University of Cambridge during 17-20 July. The four-day workshop, organized and convened by Dr Annabel Keeler, was jointly funded by the 午夜剧场 and ESF. The 午夜剧场 was represented at the workshop by Dr Daftary, Dr Ali Qutbuddin, Dr Feras Hamza, Dr Toby Mayer and Dr Omar Al铆-de-Unzaga.
The main objective of this workshop was to bring together the results of recent scholarship in the field of the esoteric interpretation of the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍. From North America, Europe, the Middle East, specially Iran and Turkey, scholars at the workshop were able to compare and contrast the methods employed in various texts belonging to the esoteric tradition of 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍ic interpretation, with a view to understand what, if anything, they all had in common. Particular attention was paid to the question of what merits the label 鈥榚soteric鈥 and 鈥榚xoteric鈥, for as the workshop progressed it seemed that such distinctions were not always useful, nor indeed accurate (see program for a list of all papers).
At the beginning of the workshop, Prof. Etan Kohlberg, a well known scholar of early Shi鈥榠 studies, introduced the participants to the work of the ESF, an association of learned societies and funding agencies within Europe, which promotes scientific research in Europe through conferences, communications and the funding of research programmes.
The opening address on the first day of the workshop was delivered by Prof. Gerhard Bowering (Yale), who provided an overview of the essential elements of the hermeneutics, the science or method for interpretation of texts, of Sufis, Twelver Shi鈥榠s and IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Ja士far al-峁⒛乨iq (d. 765), as his successor.. The subsequent presentations followed a largely chronological trajectory. The first paper, by Farhana Mayer, discussed the interpretive methods encountered in Sulami鈥檚 recension of the exegetical material ascribed to Imam Ja鈥榝ar al-Sadiq, and the last paper, delivered by Dr Kristin Sands, focused on 鈥楽ufi commentaries in English in the 20th century鈥.
Dr Ali Qutbuddin spoke about Ismaili hermeneutics of the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍 based primarily on al-Mu鈥檃yyad al-Shirazi鈥檚 Majalis (11th century CE.). Dr Annabel Keeler focused on Maybudi鈥檚 鈥減rophetology of love鈥 by analsying his commentary on the story of Yusuf (Joseph) and Zulaykha. Speaking on the role of the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍 in the Rasa鈥檌l ikhwan al-safa鈥, Dr Omar Al铆-de-Unzaga discussed the correspondence of the concept of 鈥榓ngels鈥 in the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍 to the celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic cosmos.
In his summary and concluding remarks, Professor Hermann Landolt, Senior Research Fellow at the 午夜剧场, picked up on some of the themes that were discussed throughout the workshop and reiterated the need to re-think the categories of esoteric and exoteric interpretations of the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍. The closing round-table discussion acknowledged the merit of relatively small workshops and tried to identify ways of funding and convening similar workshops in the future with a view to enhancing the contributions to the field of 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍ic Studies.
