Rationalism and Sacred Text, 10th-12th centuries International Seminar

CSIC, Madrid, 29 November – 1 December 2006

Centro de Humanidades, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Duque de Medinaceli 6, 28014 Madrid) - Escuela de Traductores de Toledo, Toledo

Organización: María Ángeles Gallego (magallego@filol.csic.es), tel. (00-34) 914290626 Ext. 2807, Fax  (00-34) 913690940

Secretaría: Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (Sorbonne)

Comité Científico: Amira K. Bennison (Cambridge University), María Ángeles Gallego (CSIC), Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (Université de la Sorbonne), Maria Teresa Ortega Monasterio (CSIC).

Papers are 20-25 mins long and will be followed by 10mins discussion each; plenaries are 45mins long and will be followed by 15mins discussion.



Wednesday 29 November

9:30 – 9:45am: Registration
9:45am – 10:00am: Opening remarks

María Teresa Ortega Monasterio – Director of the Institute of Philology, CSIC

10:00am – First Plenary (Introduced by María Teresa Ortega Monasterio)
Haggai Ben Shammai (Hebrew University – Jerusalem): “Exegesis in the Service of Rationalist Theology: Saadya\'s Interpretation of Deterministic Expressions in the Bible”
11:00am – Coffee and tea break

First Session – Chair: Amira Bennison

11:30am – Juan Pedro Monferrer (Universidad de Córdoba): \"Reasoning Tradition: Sa‘adyah ha-Ga'on's Judaeo-Arabic translation of Psalm 29\"
12:00am – Michael Wechsler (University of Chicago): “Parallels to the "Five Theses" of the Mu'tazila in Yefet's ben Eli's Commentary on Esther”
12:30pm – Esperanza Alfonso (Universidad Complutense – Madrid): “Prefaces to Proverbs: Yefet ben Eli and Saadya Gaon”
13:00 – Friedrich Niessen (Cambridge University):“The rationalistic exegesis of a Karaite Commentary on Hosea”
13:30pm-2pm – General discussion
2pm-4pm – Lunch break


Second Session – Chair: Maribel Fierro (CSIC, Madrid)

4pm – Sabine Schmidtke (Freie Universität Berlin): “An anonymous Jewish refutation of Samaw´al al-Maghribi´s Ifham al-yahud”
4:30pm – Amira Bennison (Cambridge University): “Vagaries of Almohadanism”
5:00pm – Delfina Serrano Ruano (CSIC, Madrid) - "A matter of faith, a matter of reason: two Andalusian refutations against anthropomorfism"
5:30pm-6pm – General discussion
6:00pm – Coffee and tea break

Third Session – Chair: Mariano Gómez Aranda

6:30pm – Fred Astren (San Francisco State University): “Explaining and Exploiting the Past: Strategies for Historicizing Islam by Karaites and Others“
7:00pm – Marina Rustow (Emory University): \"The social and institutional history of Rabbanite-Karaite relations in the eleventh century\"
7:00pm-7:30pm – General discussion

Thursday, 30 November

Location: Escuela de Traductores de Toledo, Toledo

8:30am: Bus to Toledo
10:•00am – Second Plenary (Introduced by Juan Pedro Monferrer)
Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (Sorbonne): “Rationalism in medieval Hebrew Linguistics”
11:00am – Coffee and tea break

Fourth Session – Chair:  Judith Olszowy-Schlanger

11:30am – Salvador Peña (Universidad de Málaga): “In praise of Islamic humanism: the learned toward the language God spoke”
12:00pm – María Ángeles Gallego (CSIC, Madrid): “Extended meanings: Semantic rationalism in Karaite grammatical thought”
12:30pm – Gregor Schwarb: “Mutazilite theories of signification (dalala) and the interpretation of sacred texts”
1:00pm – José Martínez Delgado (Universidad de Granada): "The lexicographical theories of Shelomo ben Mubarak the Karaite in his Kitab al-Taysir”
1:30pm – General discussion
2:00pm – Lunch
4:00pm: Guided Visit of Toledo
6:30pm: Return to Madrid

Friday, 1 December

9:•30am – Third Plenary (Introduced by María Ángeles Gallego)
Daniel Lasker (Ben Gurion University): “The use of reason in Rabbanite and Karaite exegesis of the Bible”
10:30am – Coffee and tea break

Fifth Session – Chair: Delfina Serrano

11:00am – Camilla Adang (Tel Aviv University): "Rationalism and anti-rationalism in Ibn Hazm's approach to the Scriptures”
11:30am – Mordechai Cohen (Yeshiva University – New York): “Maimonides and Samuel ben Hofni On the Terms Peshuto Shel Miqra and Zāhir an-Nass”
12:00pm – Mariano Gómez Aranda (CSIC, Madrid): “Abraham ibn Ezra´s rational approach to the book of Esther: tradition and innovation”
12:30pm - Omar Ali de Unzaga (Institute of Ismaili Studies – London): “A philosophical exegesis of the Quran: The Ikhwan al-Safa”
1:00pm: General Discussion
1:30pm: Closing remarks. End of the conference