Recent Conference Presentations
Bāz gashtīm bi-Qur’ān: Excursus and the Politics of Translation in the Tafsīr-i Ṭabarī |
“Bāz gashtīm bi-Qurʾān: Excursus and the Politics of Translation in the Tafsīr-i Ṭabarī,” presented at the Middle East Studies Association of North America, Annual Meeting, November 2008. Washington, D.C..
In the tenth century, Abū Ṣāliḥ Manṣūr (I) b. Nūḥ, the Sāmānid ruler of Khurāsān and Transoxiana (r. 350-65/961-76), commissioned a Persian translation of Ṭabarī’s major Qurʾānic commentary, which contained an accompanying interlinear translation of the Qurʾān. While documentary evidence in the form of anecdotal accounts demonstrates that the practice of translating the Qurʾān into Persian preceded the Sāmānid commission, as a dated work, the Tafsīr-i Ṭabarī represents the earliest translation of the Qurʾān known to exist. The group of prominent Ḥanafī ulamāʾ charged with translating the commentary does much more than shorten the long lines of transmission and the lengthy narratives; the end result is a complete reworking of Ṭabarī’s original. So great is the reconfiguration that it is often hard to determine exactly where the original Arabic tafsīr is to be found. In this paper I argue that, as with the translation of Ṭabarī’s Taʾrīkh, undertaken by Abū ʿAlī Balʿamī (d. 363/974), also at the request of Manṣūr b. Nūḥ, the glaring discrepancies between the Persian tafsīr and the work it aims to reproduce suggests an entire realignment intended to fit the political and ideological needs of the Sāmānid court. The direct involvement of the state in the production of this translation not only elevates Persian as a language fit for interpreting the Qurʾān, but also weaves the Sāmānid dynasty itself into the fabric of religious discourse. By examining the hermeneutical strategies and political implications underpinning this Sāmānid translation, I address how the Tafsīr-i Ṭabarī fits into the broader development of Persian exegetical writing during the course of the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries.
“‘A man without a bit of the Qur’ān in his belly is like a broken-down house’—Ingesting the Qur’ān and the Early Charismatic Power of Scripture,” presented at the American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, November 2008. Chicago, Il.
This paper explores the widespread theurgical traditions of ingesting the Qur’ān. Many modern scholars have associated the practice of writing particular verses of the Qur’ān on paper to be dissolved in water and then ingested with marginal, popular or folkloric currents within Islam. However, this tradition, often referred to as erasure (maḥw), was widely discussed by early Muslim scholars and fits into a broader set of talismanic engagements with the Qur’ān as an otherworldly divine articulation. Such practices as making amulets and reciting incantations drawn from the Qur’ān are not only widespread, but ostensibly stretch back to the very beginnings of Islam. By exploring how early jurists and theologians discussed the charismatic power of the Qur’ān, this paper argues that both the notion and function of scripture continued to be contested throughout the formative periods of Islamic intellectual history.
“An Angelic Translation: Tracing the Voice of Gabriel in the Qur’ān,” presented at the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference, Annual Conference, October 2008. Villanova University, Villanova, PA.
Recurrent throughout various exegetical descriptions concerning the stages of revelation from God to Muḥammad is the figure of Gabriel as divine intermediary. According to several early Muslim accounts, the Companion Ibn ʿAbbās stated that “God has only sent down from Heaven a scripture (kitāb) in Hebrew. Gabriel [then] would translate [this] (yutarjimu) for every Prophet into the language of his own people.” Sufyān al-Thawrī, in contrast, is said to have argued that Gabriel received the divine revelation in Arabic, “then, in turn, each Prophet translated the message for his own people into their language.” The diverse opinions which surround Gabriel’s role in the revelation to Muḥammad intersect with broader questions concerning the nature of divine language; Gabriel is, by extension, implicated in the theological debates over the eternality of the Qur’ān. Muslim exegetes saw that any qualification on the part played Gabriel in the dissemination of revelation would have direct bearing on the nature of the Qur’ān and its own status as the speech of God (kalām allāh). This paper outlines the broader theological issues implicated by the role of Gabriel as a divine interpreter (tarjumān), through an exposition of Mu‘tazilī, Ash‘arī, and Māturīdī responses to this issue, along with an examination of the juridical position advanced by the reformist Ḥanbalī scholar, Ibn Taymiyya, concerning the status of Gabriel in the process of the revelation. Particular attention is given to the larger implications of these debates for the early practice of translating the Qur’ān into the vernaculars.
“With Rhyme and Reason: Early Persian Translations of the Qur’ān,” presented at the American Academy of Religion, Annual Conference, November 2007. San Diego, CA.
From a relatively early period, translations of the Qur’ān have served as a natural conduit for educating non-Arabic speaking Muslims curious about their religion and its history. While most of the major juridical traditions, both Sunnī and Shī‘ī alike, reject the permissibility of using a translation to fulfill the obligations of ritual prayer (ṣalāt), almost all of them encourage the translation of the Qur’ān for the purposes of comprehension. My paper examines various theological and juridical debates concerning the translatability of the Qur’ān in light of the numerous translations produced in Persian between the tenth and twelfth centuries. This paper explores the question of the inimitability (i‘jāz) of the Qur’ān in the context of Persian rhyming translations, giving particular attention to the rhetorical strategies employed in the Mashhad fragment and in the interlinear commentary of Abū Ḥafṣ Najm al-Dīn al-Nasafī (d. 1142), Ḥanafī scholar of Samarqand.
“Fire Cannot Harm It: Early Debates on the Charismatic Power of the Qur’ānic Codex,” invited participant in the SOAS Biennial Qur’ān Conference, University of London, November 2007. London, UK.
This paper examines early debates concerning the status and sanctity of the material Qurʾānic codex, by focusing on a range of interpretations of a widely circulated ḥadīth, which states, “If the Qurʾān were written on a hide, fire would not be able to harm it.” The Sunnī polymath Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889) in his Taʾwīl Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth turns to this saying as proof of the unique charismatic power of the Qurʾān. Such a sentiment, broadly reflected throughout the Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān literature, suggests the popular veneration of the material Qurʾān as a physical articulation of divine speech, viewed as possessing talismanic power, inscribed on amulets for incantations and even at times ingested. The Twelver Shīʿī theologian al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (d. 436/1044), in contrast, takes apart this particular ḥadīth when arguing that the Qurʾān as a physical object has no special superiority which would separate it from any other text and were it destroyed and forgotten by humankind it would then disappear forever. This position forms part of al-Murtaḍā’s broader theological examination into the nature of the Qurʾān as revelation and his belief in divine deterrence (ṣarfa) as the fundamental cause of Qurʾānic inimitability (iʿjāz). Such radically opposed approaches to the status of the physical codex are indicative of the contested nature of the Qurʾān as both physical object and as divine revelation. This paper examines the implications of these debates for fathoming the larger theological and juridical issues surrounding the material Qurʾān in order to detail the early importance of the Qurʾānic codex as an object of veneration.
“From Drops of Blood: Charisma and Political Legitimacy in the translatio of an ‘Uthmānic Codex,’” presented at the American Oriental Society, Annual Meeting, March 2007. San Antonio, TX.
In his history of the ẓāhiriyya movement, I. Goldziher (1884) makes a passing reference to the veneration in North Africa of an ancient Qur’ānic codex (muṣḥaf) considered to have been copied by the martyr ‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān, third of the “rightly guided caliphs” of Islam. This paper uncovers the story of an ‘Uthmānic muṣḥaf which passed from generation to generation across the western stretches of Islam. From the Umayyad caliphate in al-Andalus to the dynasty of the Banū Marīn in North Africa, I follow the loss and recovery of the prized codex through the historiographical writings of Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Idrīsī, Ibn ʻIdhārī, Ibn Marzūq, Ibn Khaldūn, al-Maqqarī, and others. During the course of this paper, I detail the early mythology surrounding this particular relic, from the folios stained with ‘Uthmān’s blood to the introduction of the codex into the peninsula during the second/eighth century by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil, first Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus. One of four sent to the corners of the earth, the codex possesses divine charisma, which bestows political authority and religious legitimacy to the various dynasties who acquire it. Brought into battle against Christians and fellow Muslims, decorated with ornate coverings, and made into the object of countless panegyrics, the story of the ‘Uthmānic codex on the western frontiers of Islam offers a glimpse into a sustained network of meaning and power. While exploring the symbolic role of the codex in aligning successive Muslim dynasties to the early history of Islam, I silhouette the similar phenomena of the furta sacra and the translatio of relics in medieval Christian tradition, as a strategy to examine the broader political and religious significance surrounding this object of continued veneration.
“Mediating the ‘Savage’ in Arabic and Persian Geographical Writing,” presented at the Middle East Studies Association of North America, Annual Meeting, November 2006. Boston, MA.
The territory of the savage, the barbarian, the cannibal, the mutawaḥḥish represents a liminal space of difference and ambiguity, fully negotiated in Arabic and Persian geographical traditions. Starting with the intrepid adventures of Sallām al-Tarjumān (fl. 227/842) and Ibn Faḍlān (fl. 309/922), this paper examines the mapping of wondrous islands and barbarous nations on the margins of the world, tracing the role of interpretation and translation across linguistic and cultural barriers. Of particular interest are narratives of communication enacted through diverse forms of mediation, as with the intercession of a translator, through the interpretation of gestures and signs, or out of the coded trade of goods in an elaborate dance of presence and absence (mughāyaba), known as “dumb barter” or “silent trade.”In the course of this paper, I turn to the economy of “silent trade” as a means to mediate the savage and as an established trope in the imagination of the frontier. With attention given to al-Bīrūnī (d. 439/1048), al-Marvazī (fl. 503/1110), and Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Aḥmad Ṭūsī (fl. 555/1160), I trace the rhetoric of wonder (‘ajab) in the discourse of savagery (waḥshīya) to mediate the tensions between such binaries as center and margin; civilized and barbarous; literate and illiterate. This paper journeys to the very edge of the inhabited world (ma‘mūra / 'ābādhānī) to such remote climes only frequented by the Siberian Yūra, the Kimäk Turks, and the Rūs. Constant, throughout my examination, is a concern for literal and figurative acts of translation (naqala / tarjama) that are foregrounded when negotiating frontiers.
“The Wiles of Creation: Assaying the Strange and the Marvelous in Qazwīnī’s ‘Ajā’ib al-Makhlūqāt,” presented at the American Oriental Society, Annual Meeting, March 2006. Seattle, WA.
The medieval tradition in Arabic and Persian of writing on the wonders (‘ajā’ib) of existence seeks to popularize, for a general audience, scientific and philosophical material concerning the nature of the world. This paper examines how Zakariyyā’ al-Qazwīnī (d. 1283), arguably the most famous contributer to this genre, in the introduction to his wonder-book, ‘Ajā’ib al-makhlūqāt, treats the question of veracity in the narration of the wondrous. Central to Qazwīnī’s exposition of the strange and marvelous is a sustained interest in the pleasure (al-ladhdha) produced through the narration of ‘elegant tales’ (ḥikāyāt ẓarīfa). Despite his concern for the popular entertainment value of this material, Qazwīnī continually returns to the question of authenticity. For Qazwīnī, the estimation of these wondrous accounts also depends on their relative truth value. My paper adumbrates this tension between the fictive and the real by exploring some intellectual antecedents to Qazwīnī’s treatment of the marvelous, which also foreground similar topoi in the pursuit of veracity. Though Qazwīnī has been accused of blindly plagiarizing earlier authorities, I seek to demonstrate the often sophisticated use which he makes of his sources. Qazwīnī’s indebtedness to Yāqūt’s (d. 1229) geographical dictionary has long been recognized (Kowalska, 1966); however, the role which the wonder-book by the Persian author, Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd b. Aḥmad al-Ṭūsī (fl. 1160), plays in Qazwīnī’s universe has gone largely unnoticed. Not only does Qazwīnī take his title from this earlier Saljūk author, but, so too does the arrangement of Qazwīnī’s work bear striking similarities to his Persian predecessor. All three of these authors reveal misgivings over the authenticity of the many marvelous accounts which they narrate. Nonetheless, Qazwīnī’s treatment of this established motif concerning the truth value of the marvelous proves to be a unique and lasting contribution to the field.
“Battling with the Word of God: Translating the Qur’ān in the Contexts of Medieval Iberia,” invited speaker, Islamicate Frontiers Workshop, Humanities Center, November 2005. Harvard University, MA.
This paper explores, in the historical contexts of the Iberian Peninsula, the varying approaches to the mediation of the Qur’ān across Christian-Muslim borders. Through three case studies from the history of Muslim Spain, I silhouette the place of translation in the expression of Muslim-Christian discourses of identity. First, I adumbrate the significance of how the caliph, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III (d. 961) lost his Qur’ānic codex, while battling his Christian rival. Second, I examine the import, in terms of Christian-Muslim interactions, of the Latin translation of the Qur’ān in the twelfth century. Finally, I turn to a Spanish translation of the Qur’ān completed by an anonymous Morisco in 1606—three years before the final expulsions from the Peninsula would begin. Throughout the course of this presentation, I examine the questions of the translatability of the Qur’ān along with the role of sacred text in the formation of religious identity.
“Mapping the Apocalypse in Medieval Islam: Sallām al-Tarjumān’s Journey to the Wall of Gog and Magog,” presented at the American Academy of Religion, Regional Conference, May 2005. Montreal, QC.
Focusing on one case study, this paper examines how Qur’ānic accounts of the apocalypse informed notions of geographical space in Medieval Islam. My point of departure is the story of Sallām al-Tarjumān (the interpreter / translator), who in the ninth century set out to discover the wall of Gog and Magog. The Biblical account of these ‘barbaric bearers of the apocalypse’ entered into the Qur’ān through Syriac sources where the story of Gog and Magog was fused with the Alexander myth cycle. Islamic traditions build upon the anecdote of how Alexander the Great builds a wall somewhere in the remote stretches of the earth against these tribes to save humanity from destruction. By exploring attitudes towards the monsterous races of Gog and Magog, this paper traces how the narrative of Sallām’s journey to the edge of the known world inscribed itself into Arabic and Persian medieval geographical writings.
“Subversion and Transliteration: Miguel de Luna’s translation of Abū Qāsim b. Ṭāriq, in the Verdadera Historia (Granada, 1599),” presented at the Humanities Center, Alphabet Conference, April 2003. Harvard University, MA.
This paper examines the broader religious and political significance of the literary forgery, the Verdadera historia del rey don Rodrigo, written by Miguel de Luna, court translator for Philip II (r. 1556-98) of Spain. Received as an AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT, Luna’s work presents a radical rereading of the history of religious idenity in the Iberian Peninsula. In order to contextualize the broader significance of Luna’s writing, this paper explores the role of the Arab historian in the historiographic discourse of the period. Specific Attention is given to how the Verdadera historia, while ostnesibly focusing on the eighth-Century Muslim Conquest of Spain, Gives voice to the religious and political contingencies of sixteenth-century Spain, facing the Morisco Population.