“The ‘Discovery of Writing’ in the Qur’an: Tracing an Epistemic Revolution in Arab Late Antiquity

Please join us for the R. Stephen Humphreys Distinuished Lecture:
The “Discovery of Writing” in the Qur’an: Tracing an Epistemic Revolution in Arab Late Antiquity”

Professor Angelika Neuwirth
Arabic Studies, Free University (Berlin)

Tuesday, May 21st at 4:00 pm
HSSB 4080

The Qur’an—being the first significant non-oral literary text in the Arabic language—induced an epistemic revolution in the Arabic-speaking world of Late Antiquity. This fundamental renewal of the Arab Late Antique world was achieved through the Qur’anic negotiation and re-interpretation not only of the neighboring Jewish and Christian traditions but no less through the re-working of the Ancient Arabic lexicon of concepts. The talk will discuss the emergence of a communal identity based on the newly discovered authority of writing and in particular the understanding of the prophetical proclamation, qur’an, as a “reading” from a celestial text. At the same time, the poetical concept of script as a frustratingly mute and unintelligible sign system (wahy) will be un-demonized: Qur’anic wahy is communication par excellence.

Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Stephen Huphreys Distinguished Lecture Series.