Program for the 2004 AAR Sessions
of Study of Islam Session
and Study of Islamic Mysticism Group

Time assignments are subject to change;
room and final time assignments are available
in the onsite Annual Meeting Program At-A-Glance.

    A20-50

Special Topics Forum
(not in the Study of Islam section, but of great interest)

Saturday - 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
CC - 214C; View Map
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Sponsored by the Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Ebrahim E. I. Moosa, Duke University, Presiding

Theme: When Reconciliation Fails: Global Politics and the Study of Religion

Panelists:

Mona Siddiqui, University of Glasgow

Walter Mignolo, Duke University

S. Mostafa Mohaghhegh Damad, Academy of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran

See the Program Highlights for a description.

    A20-109

Study of Islam Section and Islamic Mysticism Group
Saturday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
CC - 212B; View Map
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New Program Unit

Vincent J. Cornell, University of Arkansas, Presiding

Theme: Discourses of Early Sufism

Kenneth Garden, University of Chicago
Al-Ghazali's Four-Part Structure and the Underlying Logic of the Revival of the Religious Sciences

Joseph Lumbard, American University, Cairo
From Biography to Hagiography, the Creation of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ghazali

Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University
Intimacy and Union in Early Female Sufi Discourse

Annabel Keeler, Wolfson College
Qushayri's Lata'if al-isharat: A "Mystical" Commentary on the Qur'an?

Responding:

Marcia Hermansen, Loyola University, Chicago

Business Meeting:

Vincent J. Cornell, University of Arkansas, Presiding

    A21-14

Study of Islam Section and Theology and Religious Reflection Section
Sunday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CC - 001A; View Map
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Zayn Kassam, Pomona College, Presiding

Theme: Theodicy and the Problem of Evil in the Islamic Tradition

Mehdi Aminrazavi, University of Mary Washington
Omar Khayyam on Theodicy: The Irreconcilability of the Intellectual and the Existential

Frank Griffel, Institute for Advanced Study, Yale University
Determination and the Best of All Possible Word in the Early al-Ghazali

Jon Hoover, Near East School of Theology
The Justice of God and the Best of All Possible Worlds: The Optimism of Ibn Taymiyya

Ibrahim Kalin, College of the Holy Cross
“Why Do Animals Eat Other Animals?”: Mulla Sadra on the Best of All Possible Worlds

Responding:

Eric Ormsby, McGill University

    A21-53

Study of Islam Section
Sunday - 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
CC - 206A; View Map
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Rubina Ramji, University of Ottawa, Presiding

Theme: Thinking beyond Books: Exploring Media in Teaching Islam

Timothy C. Cahill, Loyola University, New Orleans
Teaching Islam in a Wired Environment

June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart University
An Introduction to Islam in Image and Sound

Amir Hussain, California State University, Northridge
"A Message on the Wind": Incorporating Audio and Visual Materials into Courses on Islam

Kristin Sands, Sarah Lawrence College
Crossing Borders: Teaching Transnational Islam through the Internet

Responding:

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, University of Florida

Business Meeting:

Omid Safi, Colgate University, Presiding
Nelly Van Doorn-Harder, Valparaiso University, Presiding

    A21-108

Study of Islam Section and Study of Judaism Section
Sunday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
CC - 203A; View Map
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Gordon D. Newby, Emory University, Presiding

Theme: Law in Judaism and Islam

David Novak, University of Toronto
Natural Law as a Border Concept between Judaism and Islam

David Freidenreich, Columbia University
Jewish and Islamic Restrictions on Foreign Food: A Case Study in the Significance of Similarity

Raquel Ukeles, Harvard University
Comparing Religions One at a Time: Juxtaposing Jewish and Islamic Law to Illuminate Islamic Normative Practice

Mark Wagner, New York University
Jewish Mysticism on Trial in a Muslim Court

Responding:

Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, University of Virginia

    A21-128

Plenary Address
Sunday - 7:00 pm-8:00 pm
CC - Ballroom C-1; View Map
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Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Presiding

Theme: Islam in the West: The North American Context

Panelists:

Tariq Ramadan, University of Notre Dame

See the Program Highlights for a description.

    A22-13

Study of Islam Section
Monday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CC - 201; View Map
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Omid Safi, Colgate University, Presiding

Theme: Recasting Prophet Muhammad and the Qur'an

Kecia Ali, Brandeis University
"I Was a Girl of Nine": Recent Online Controversies over the Prophet's Marriage to Aisha

Amer Latif, Marlboro College
Mercy in Literalness: Ibn al-Arabi’s Quranic Hermeneutics

Seth Carney, University of London
The Prophet Muhammad as Ecunemical Figure: Legal and Mystical Interpretations

Sarah Bowen Savant, Harvard University
Muhammad’s Spiritual Ancestors and Their Blood Descendants: Charting Persian Identity in Medieval Islam

Responding:

Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Washington University

    A22-18

Afro-American Religious History Group
Monday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CC - 209; View Map
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Aminah Beverly McCloud, DePaul University, Presiding

Theme: The Legacy of C. Eric Lincoln and the Study of Islam in North America

Panelists:

Edward E. Curtis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Jamillah Karim, Duke University

Richard B. Turner, University of Iowa

Responding:

Carolyn Rouse, Princeton University

Business Meeting:

Debra Mubashshir Majeed, Beloit College, Presiding

    A22-65

Islamic Mysticism Group and Mysticism Group
Monday - 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
CC - 001A; View Map
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Barbara R. von Schlegell, University of Pennsylvania, Presiding

Theme: In Theory and in Practice: Sufi Thinkers on the Integration of Ontology and Ethics

Richard J. McGregor, Vanderbilt University
The Ontology of the Master-Disciple Relationship: The Shaykhs of the Wafa’iyya

Timothy Gianotti, University of Oregon
Knowledge Illuminating Practice, Practice Precipitating Knowledge: The Symbiotic Relationship of the Practical and the Theoretical in the Mystical Thought of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning
Languages of Experience: The Theory and Practice of a General Semantics Sufi

Laury Silvers, Skidmore College
The Presence of Theoretical Sufism in the Early Period: With an Example of the Interrelationship between the Theoretical and the Practical from the Work of Abu Bakr al-Wasiti (d. ca. 320/928)

Responding:

T. Emil Homerin, University of Rochester

    A22-118

Islamic Mysticism Group
Monday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
MRC - Salon K; View Map
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New Program Unit

Carl W. Ernst, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Presiding

Theme: Transformations of Islamic Mystical Traditions

Yuan-Lin Tsai, Nanhua University
Sufism in Wang Dai-yu’s San-yi (the Threefold of Oneness) Theory: The Advent of Chinese Muslim Syncretism

Elizabeth R. Alexandrin, McGill University
The Sphere of "Walayah": Typologies of the Imam in the 'Majalis al-Mu'ayyadiyyah

Vernon James Schubel, Kenyon College
No Sympathy for the Devil: Adam, Iblis, and Hallaj in the Alevi-Bektashi Tradition

Shafique Virani, Zayed University
Uneasy Bedfellows: Sufism and Ismailism in the Wake of the Mongol Invasions

Responding:

Barbara R. von Schlegell, University of Pennsylvania

    A22-109

Study of Islam Section
Monday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
CC - 001B; View Map
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Margaret A. Leeming, University of California, Santa Barbara, Vassar College, Presiding

Theme: Test Cases and Contestations of Islamic Law

Marion Katz, New York University
Wudu' and the Study of Islamic Ritual

Paul R. Powers, Lewis and Clark College
Offending Man and God: Crime, Sin, and Expiation in Islamic Law

Paul Heck, Princeton University
No Monopoly of Salvation: The Case of Muhammad al-Habash (Damascus, Syria)

Mona Hassan, Princeton University
Delineating Islam: The Scholarly Activities of an Early Muslim Woman

Jacquelene Brinton, University of Virginia
Rethinking the Role of Religious Discourse and Practice in Political Reform: The Case of the Ottoman Ulama and the Reforms of Mahmud II

    A23-6

Study of Islam Section
Tuesday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CC - 208; View Map
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Ruqayya Y. Khan, Trinity University, Presiding

Theme: Contemporary Islam in a Contested World

Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Luther College
"Clashism" Alive and Well? Some Recent Evangelical Christian Publications on Islam

Rachel Scott, University of London
Islamist Attitudes towards Christians in Egypt: An Analysis of Thought and Political Context (1970-2003)

Roy Jackson, King’s College, London
Avoiding the Deadly Boring God: Muhammad Iqbal’s Admiration for the "Nietzschean God" of Islam

Roxanne D. Marcotte, University of Queensland
Religious Freedom in Islam

Simon Wood, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Islamic Da'wah and the "Religion of the Other': Rashid Rida's Revision of Islamic Exclusivism

Responding:

Nelly Van Doorn-Harder, Valparaiso University