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NEW JOURNAL: Intellectual History of the Islamicate World

Leiden: Brill (ISSN 2212-9421)

In the medieval, late medieval and pre-modern world of Islam, Muslims, Jews and Christians

constituted a unique cultural and intellectual commonality. They shared a language, Arabic (and at

times Persian), which they spoke in daily life and which they also used for their theological,

philosophical, legal and scientific writings. Moreover, they often read the same books, so that a

continuous, multi-dimensional exchange of ideas, texts, and forms of discourse was the norm rather

than the exception. While this has been amply demonstrated for some selected periods and regions,

scholars usually opt for a one-dimensional approach with an (often exclusive) focus on either

Muslim, Jewish or Christian authors and their writings. Thejournal Intellectual History of the Islamicate

World provides a forum for research that systematically crosses the boundaries between three major

disciplines of academia and research, viz. Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies and the study of (Eastern)

Christianity. It encourages discussion among representatives of these and related disciplines, with a

view to promoting a new understanding of intellectual history in all its facets throughout the

Islamicate world, from its emergence until modern times and from different methodologicalperspectives. Intellectual History of the Islamicate World covers such themes as philosophy, theology,

exegesis, law and legal methodology, sciences and medicine.

Intellectual History of the Islamicate World is double blind peer-reviewed. Initially, it will publish two

issues per year, or one double issue, usually with pre-determined topics. Calls for papers will be

announced on the journals own website: www.brill.com/ihiw. All submissions and queries should

be addressed to the editor-in-chief.

Sabine Schmidtke (sabineschmidtke@gmail.com)

Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, Lejla Demiri, Michael Ebstein, Lukas Muehlethaler, Meira Polliack,

Reza Pourjavady, Khaled el-Rouayheb, Gregor Schwarb, Meryem Sebti, Ayman Shihadeh, Alexander

Treiger

Peter Adamson, Maroun Aouad, Sonja Brentjes, Rmi Brague, Michael Cook, Maribel Fierro, Sidney

Griffith, Dimitri Gutas, Wilferd Madelung, Hossein Modarressi, Rushdi Rashed, Ulrich Rudolph, EmilySavage-Smith, Daniel de Smet, Tony Street, Sarah Stroumsa, Robert Wisnovsky, Aron Zysow

Volume One (2013):

[deadline: September 15, 2012]

The Bibles pivotal role in the conception of divine revelation among Jews, Christians and Muslims

has enabled it to exert a profound influence on the literary interface as well as the religious and

cultural interaction between the three faiths throughout their historical encounter. The Bible in

Arabic became therefore an integral part of the three religions intellectual histories, self-consciousness and cultural positioning vis--vis one another, and so came to serve as a source both

for interreligious dialogue as well as discord, which informs their wider political and cultural

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dynamics to this very day. Contributions to this volume may address issues ranging from the

scriptural translation movement(s) (9th through 11th centuries, including Christian, Jewish and

Samaritan translations), Islamic literary reactions to the (oral and written) dissemination of Biblical

materials in Arabic (polemics, literary adaptations, etc.) to relevant aspects of social and material

history. Another theme that can be addressed is Comparative Exegesis. Contributions may look,

for example, at Syriac, Christian Arabic, and Judeo-Arabic Biblical exegesis and Qurnic exegesissynoptically, as well as at Christian and Jewish readings of the Qur n and Muslim readings of the

Bible.

Volume Two (2014):

[deadline: September 15, 2013]

The volume will address phenomena of reciprocity between Muslims, Christians and Jews in the

field of kalm. It is well known that especially Jewish thinkers increasingly adopted Muslim (and

Christian) rational theology from the 10th century onwards (esp. Mutazilite theology), and a similar

phenomenon can be observed in 13th and 14th century Coptic theological writings that were under

the influence of Asharite (Ghazl, Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz) and Jewish thinkers (Maimonides). By thesame token, there is a near-consensus among contemporary scholars that the Muslim dialectical

technique of kalm can be traced back to similar patterns of dilemmatic dialogue that were

characteristic for the Christological controversies raging in 6th century Alexandria, 7th century

Syria but also Manichaean patterns of disputation. Contributions are invited that will address new

texts, aspects and issues within this intellectual whirlpool ofkalm.

Volume Three (2015):

[deadline: September 15, 2014]

The volume envisages to break new ground in the field of Graeco-Arabic Studies by showing that in

addition to the Baghdad translation movement, there were multiple other contexts in which

translations of Greek (and Syriac) works into Arabic were produced. This volume will attempt to

cover these diverse Graeco-Arabic translation movements holistically and comparatively. Within

this context authors are encouraged to submit contributions on the translations of Christian works

(particularly Church Fathers) from Greek and Syriac into Arabic, produced at the monastery of Mar

Saba in Palestine, in Byzantine Antioch, and in other localities, which fall by the wayside in most

discussions of Graeco-Arabica. This body of material, which consists of many hundreds of

manuscripts, has not been sufficiently examined in modern scholarship. Contributions, assessing

the significance of these translations for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic intellectual history and/or

comparing this Christian translation movement to the Baghdad translation movement, are

particularly welcome. Another aspect that has also so far been neglected is the significance of

Graeco-Arabica, particularly Aristotle and pseudo-Aristotle but also other authors such as Alexander

of Aphrodisias, for later Islamic philosophy (from the 13th century on). Contributions could address,

for example, the rediscovery of the Theology of Aristotle in Renaissance Persia, the Muslim and Jewish

reception of the long version of the Theology, or the translations from Greek and Latin into Arabic

made by Ottoman scholars in the early 18th century.