The Qur’ān and the Hermeneutics of Globality
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (3 December 2023) | Viewed by 319
Special Issue Editor
Interests: classical Arabic; Qur’anic Studies; comparative literature; intellectual history, postcolonialism
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It has been commonly understood that tafsīr al-Qur’ān, in the Sunni and Shiite traditions, is a conventional genre without much innovation. However, as Walid Saleh reminds us, tafsīr is “also the most unpredictable of genres,” with no “unanimous rules for how to interpret the Qur’ān.” To this effect, tafsīr could well provide us with an estimable archeology of Muslim thought across time. Still, recent and current scholarship on Qur’ānic commentary has, for the most part, concerned itself with investigating tafsīr’s generic or sub-genre history, tracing it in classical and medieval Islam, including super-glosses (ḥawāshī), examining the extent of its theological leanings across Islamic schools of thought, such as the Ash‘arite and Mu‘tazilites, or even simply focusing intensively on the work of one less studied or over-studied single mufassir. Yet, the latest commentaries on the Qur’ān have begun to break fresh ground in situating the scripture more globally within literary, philosophical, and historical settings. Such new exegetical horizons are motivated by a desire for freedom, that is, freeing the Qur’ān from the hegemonic centrality of the conventional medieval explications and opening it up to the world in what might be called a new hermeneutics of globality. This Special Issue aims to investigate such hermeneutics as it manifests itself in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to interpreting the Qur’ān. We welcome proposals that position the Qur’ān, in part or in whole, in dialogue with itself, that is, its own language, as well as its own multi-generational tradition, or with various other disciplines, including comparative literary and philosophical thought, translation studies, and transregional ethical and aesthetic discourses in Western Europe, North America, and the Global South.
We welcome authors to submit a proposed title and an abstract of 250-300 words summarizing their intended contribution via email to the Guest Editor, Dr. Mohammad Salama (msalama2@gmu.edu), copying in the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Joyce Xi (joyce.xi@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor to ensure that the submissions fit the scope of the Special Issue. The last day for the submission of abstracts is Monday, March 6th, 2023, COB. Authors shall receive notification of their proposal’s acceptance no later than Monday, March 20th, 2023, COB. Upon acceptance, full manuscript submission is due on Monday, December 3rd, 2023, COB.
Prof. Dr. Mohammad R. Salama
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- aesthetics
- I‘jāz
- Kalām
- literary exegesis
- philosophy
- rhetoric
- Shiite
- Sunni
- Sufi
- Tafsīr (Riwāya, Dirāya, Nafsī, al-Qur’ān bi’l-Qur’ān)
- Ta’wīl
- translation
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