Rock, Paper, Scripture: Sources and Materials in Late Antique Arabia and Early Islam

Workshop Program

Friday, November 6

9:00–10:00 Welcome & Beinecke Visit (Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

10:00–10:10 Move to HQ 276

10:30–12:00 Panel 1: Grammar & Literacy in the Late Ancient Ḥijāz

Ahmad Al-Jallad & Salma Albezreh

“By the Blade and What They Carve: The Epigraphic Shadow of Literacy on the Eve of Islam”

Marijn van Putten

“Uncovering Old Hijazi Grammatical Terminology”

Respondent: Kevin van Bladel

Moderator: Esha Meher

2:00–3:30 Panel 2: Yemen, Soothsayers, and More

Devin Stewart

“Yemen and the Rise of Islam”

Adam DeSchriver

“Al-kuhhān, mā adrāka mā l-kuhhān: Soothsayers, Divination, and Early Islam”

Respondent: Travis Zadeh

Moderator: Doha Tazi Hemida

4:00–5:30 Panel 3: Other Materials: The Warrior’s Armor and the Scribe’s Papyrus

Reyhan Durmaz

“The Shine of al-Ṣamṣāma: Arms as Relics in the Early Islamic Middle East”

Tobias Scheunchen

“Writing like a State: Material Culture and Early Islamic Bureaucracy”

Respondent: Steven Judd

Moderator: Mona Mostafa

Saturday, November 7

10:00–11:30 Panel 4: Beyond Arabic Prose: Shiʿr and Leshānā Suryāyā in Late Ancient Arabia

Pamela Klasova

“Arabic Poetry as a Source for Late Antique Arabia and Early Islam: How Does It Fit?”

Jack Tannous

“More Thoughts on Syriac and the Qur’an”

Respondent: Hannah Stork

Moderator: Ramina Hajisadeghi

1:30–3:00 Panel 5: Sīra and Ṭabaqāt: Writing the Lives of the Prophet and the First Caliph

Mehmetcan Akpınar:

“The Earliest Biography of Abū Bakr (d. 634): Unraveling Ibn Saʿd’s (d. 845) Account of the First Caliph”

Sana Khan

“Muḥammad at al-Ṭāʾif: Issues of Chronology in the Sīrah”

Respondent: Yaara Perlman

Moderator: Alyjan Dara

3:30–5:00 Panel 6: Muḥammad(s): Ibn ʿAbdallāh and Others

Ashher Masood

“Muḥammads after Muḥammad”

Sean Anthony & Kevin van Bladel

“Identifying the Qurʾānic Ṣābiʾūn”

Respondent: Shawkat Toorawa

Moderator: Fatme Chehouri