Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

University of Pennsylvania

 

Thirteenth Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies

 

Religious Communities in Islamic Empires (pdf link)

 

April 30 – May 2, 2007

 

Logan Hall, Terrace Room

249 S. 36th Street

 

Monday, April 30

Logan Hall, Terrace Room

University of Pennsylvania

249 S. 36th Street

 

9:30 am

Coffee and light breakfast

 

 

10:00 am

Greetings

 

David Ruderman, Ella Darivoff Director, CAJS

E. Ann Matter, Associate Dean, School of Arts and Sciences

 

 

10:15 am

Custodians of Tradition

Chair: Jamal Elias, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS

 

Sagit Butbul, Hebrew University/CAJS

Translations in Contact: Early Judeo-Arabic Biblical Translations and Syriac Exegesis

 

David Hollenberg, James Madison University/CAJS

The Aesthetics of Islamic Esotericism

 

Vera Moreen, CAJS

Isrā’iliyāt in Iran: al-Nisābūrī’s Dāstānhā-yi Payghambarān

 

Respondent: Walid Saleh, University of Toronto

 

 

12:15 pm

Lunch Break

 

 

1:30 pm

The World of Arabic 

Chair: Ross Brann, Cornell University/CAJS

 

Aharon Maman, Hebrew University/CAJS

Rav Hai Gaon’s Lexicographical Method in Light of al-Khalīl’s Kitāb al-‘Ayn

 

Miriam Goldstein, Hebrew University/CAJS

“Slow of Speech and Slow of Tongue?”: Prophecy and Transmission of the Divine Message in the Islamic World

 

Jonathan Decter, Brandeis University/CAJS

Ibrahim Ibn al-Fakhkhār al-Yahūdī: An Arabic Poet and Diplomat in Castile and the Maghrib

 

Respondent: Daniel Frank, Ohio State University

 

 

3:30 pm

Coffee Break

 

 

4:00 pm

Worlds Apart and Together: Science and Society

Chair: Emma Gannagé, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

 

Alfred Ivry, New York University/CAJS

Competing and Complementing Epistemologies

 

Robert Morrison, Whitman College/CAJS

The Transmission of Iranian Science into Judeo-Arabic Culture

 

Charles Manekin, University of Maryland/CAJS

Maimonides’ Critique of Aristotelian Celestial Science

 

Respondent: James Robinson, University of Chicago

 

 

6:45 pm

Dinner (by invitation)

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 420 Walnut Street


Tuesday, May 1

Logan Hall, Terrace Room

University of Pennsylvania

249 S. 36th Street

 

9:00 am

Muslims as Rulers: Adaptations to a New Reality

Chair: Patricia Crone, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

 

Milka Levy-Rubin, Hebrew University/CAJS

Coming to Grips: Generating Means for Subordination of the Non-Muslim Population

 

Jamsheed Choksy, Indiana University

Political Realities and Minority Reactions: Premodern and Early Modern Iran

 

Respondent: Mark R. Cohen, Princeton University/CAJS

 

 

11:00 am

Coffee Break

 

 

11:30 am

Religious Law in a Religious Age: Comparative Perspectives

The panelists request that the papers of this session be read in advance. The papers will be available via email at allenshe@sas.upenn.edu

 

Chair: Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania

 

Gideon Libson, Hebrew University/CAJS

Recourse of Jews to Non-Jewish Courts under Islam and under Christianity in the Middle Ages

 

David Freidenreich, CAJS

Foreign Food under Foreign Rule: Developments in Christian and Jewish Law within an Islamic Milieu

 

Joseph David, CAJS

Conceptual Analysis as a Comparative Tool: Judicial Error in Jewish and Islamic Jurisprudence

 

Raquel Ukeles, Fairfield University

Beyond Questions of Influence: Phenomenological Comparison of Islamic and Jewish Law

 

Respondent: Joseph Lowry, University of Pennsylvania


1:30 pm

Lunch Break

 

 

3:00 pm

The Common Marketplace

Chair: Norman Stillman, University of Oklahoma

 

Jessica Goldberg, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS

Trade and Identity: The Self-Definitions of 11th Century Mediterranean Merchants

 

Molly Greene, Princeton University

Mediterranean Trade: Was it Legal?

 

Yaron Ben-Naeh, Hebrew University/CAJS

At the Bazār: The Significance of Interethnic Encounters in the Ottoman Marketplace

 

Respondent: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Hebrew University/CAJS

 

 

5:30 pm

Dinner & Evening Program (by invitation)

Houston Hall, Bodek Lounge

3417 Spruce Street

 

 

Wednesday, May 2

Logan Hall, Terrace Room

University of Pennsylvania

249 S. 36th Street

 

9:00 am

Faiths in Conflict

Chair: Heather Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania

 

Daniel Lasker, Ben-Gurion University/CAJS

The Impact of Interreligious Polemic on Philosophy

 

Sidney Griffith, Catholic University of America

Hunayn ibn Ishāq’s Adab al-Falāsifah: Philosophy and Christian Apology in Early Abbasid Times

 

 

Daniel Tsadik, Hebrew University/CAJS

The Twelve Princes of Ishmael: Shi’i Jewish Polemical Exchanges

 

Respondent: Frank Griffel, Yale University


11:00 am

Coffee Break

 

 

11:30 am

Concluding Session: Religious Communities in Islamic Empires

Chair: David Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS

 

Haggai Ben-Shammai, Hebrew University/CAJS

Raymond Scheindlin, Jewish Theological Seminary of America/CAJS

Norman Stillman, University of Oklahoma

Sarah Stroumsa, Hebrew University/CAJS

 

 

1:00 pm

Concluding Luncheon (by invitation)

Houston Hall, Hall of Flags

3417 Spruce Street