Hadith, Piety, and Law: Conference Honors Prof. Melchert

The event will take place on Monday, September 25, 2023, bringing together leading scholars of Islamic law, hadith studies, and early Islamic intellectual history.

For registration, reservations, and further information, participants are requested to contact: ruth.macdonald@humanities.ox.ac.uk

Program Schedule

09:00 – 09:15 | Arrival

09:15 – 09:30 | Welcome Remarks

Robert Gleave (University of Exeter)

09:30 – 11:00 | Islamic Law (Session I)

Chair: Maribel Fierro (Spanish National Research Council, Madrid)

Devin J. Stewart (Emory University): Five Theories on al-Shafi‘i’s Risala
Joseph E. Lowry (University of Pennsylvania): The Executor of Law from the Qur’anic Perspective
Ahmad Khan (American University in Cairo): Hadith, Caliphs, and Lawmaking in the Ninth Century

11:00 – 11:30 | Break

11:30 – 13:00 | Hadith Studies

Chair: Pavel Pavlovitch (University of Sofia)

Bilal El-Bass (University of Bristol): The Life and Works of Abu ‘Isa al-Tirmidhi
Marzena Bednarczuk (University of Tübingen): Order and Diversity in Hadith Transmission Chains
Mathieu Tillier (Sorbonne University): Hadith Transmission in Ninth-Century Egypt: A Papyrological Perspective

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:30 | Piety and Sufism

Chair: Talal Al-Azem (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies)

Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies): Laughter, Weeping, and Qur’anic Piety
Harith bin Ramli: Abu Talib al-Makki and the Origins of Basran Sufism

15:30 – 16:00 | Break

16:00 – 17:00 | Islamic Law (Session II)

Chair: Robert Gleave (University of Exeter)

Paul Goldhill (University of Exeter): Abu Mus‘ab al-Zuhri and the Defense of the Regional School of Medina
Salman Younas (Cambridge Muslim College): Hadith Criticism from the Perspective of Tariqat al-Fuqaha in the Thought of Abu Bakr al-Jassas

17:00 – 17:30