Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Berliner Institut für Islamische Theologie

The digital workshop Intertextuality in the Qurʾān and Early Qurʾānic Exegesis: Exploring Christian Apocryphal Texts will be held on 13 and 14 February 2025. It will focus on investigating the nuanced relationship between Christian apocryphal texts and Islamic religious literature. We aim to scrutinize the dialogues that unfold between the Qurʾān and various Christian texts, both canonical and apocryphal. In the past, scholars rooted in Islamic and Christian traditions have explored and discussed the phenomenon of intertextuality, analyzing texts that reference and incorporate elements of other texts. This intertextual engagement is vividly illustrated in the Qurʾān itself, where narratives often parallel or reflect themes found in apocryphal Jewish and Christian traditions, suggesting a rich tapestry of external influences from non-canonical biblical sources. Notwithstanding these efforts, there remains a significant void in the academic literature using modern literary methodologies to investigate these intertextual references. The workshop will address these lacunae by advocating a structured literary approach to analyzing intertextual references between Qurʾānic narratives, early Qurʾānic exegesis and Christian apocryphal texts.

This workshop is the first in a series of international workshops and conferences that will be jointly organized between the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Institute for Islamic Theology at the University of Vienna. We invite scholars and researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds to join us in the exploration of intertextuality in the Qurʾān and early Qurʾānic exegesis. Through collaborative investigation and scholarly discourse, we aim to cultivate a better understanding of the complex interactions between Islamic and Christian textual traditions.

For registration, please contact bitislte@hu-berlin.de or tugrul.kurt@univie.ac.at.