Monday, May 14
16:00 Welcome
Session A: The Problematic of Prophecy in the Scriptural Monotheisms
Chair: Christoph Uehlinger (University of Zurich)
16:15 – 17:00 Holger Zellentin (University of Cambridge): Prophecy: Divine Assault on the Human Tradition in Islam, Christianity and Judaism
17:00 – 17:45 Reuven Firestone (University of Zurich): How to “Diss” a (False) Prophet: Protecting Religion by Rejecting God’s Messengers
17:45 – 18:15 Discussion
18:30 Apéro riche
Tuesday, May 15
Session B: “First is Best”
Chair: Sarah Werren (University of Zurich)
8:30 – 9:15 David Berger (Yeshiva University, New York): Prophecy, Law, and Messianism: Judaism’s Identification and Assessment of Prophets in its Encounter with Christianity and Islam
9:15 – 10:00 Daniel J. Lasker (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva): Verification
Prophecy and Interreligious Polemics in the Thought of Saadia Gaon and Judah Halevi
10:00 – 10:15 Coffee/Tea Break
Session C: “The Best is Saved for Last”
Chair: Farida Stickel (University of Zurich)
10:15 – 11:00 Rana Alsoufi (University of Lucerne): The Seal of Prophecy in Islam and its Repercussions on Muslims' Perceptions of Divine Prophecy
11:00 – 11:45 Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen): “And have We not raised high your renown?” (Qur'an 94:4) – Muslim Discourses of the Eminence of the Prophet Muḥammad and their Meaning and Function in Contemporary Islamic Thought
11:45 – 12:15 Discussion
12:15 Lunch
Session D: Comparative Prophethood
Chair: Ulrich Rudolph (University of Zurich)
13:15 – 14:00 Stefan Schreiner (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen): Moses – the Father of all Prophets vs. Mani and Muḥammad – the Seals of the Prophets: On the Development of an Apologetic-Polemical Concept
14:00 – 14:45 Lejla Demiri (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen): “Closest to the Best Should be Better Than the Rest”: A Medieval Muslim Assessment of the Prophethood of Moses, Jesus and Muḥammad
14:45 – 15:00 Coffee/Tea Break
Chair: Monika Amsler (University of Zurich)
15:00 – 15:45 Iqbal Abd El-Raziq (Tel Aviv University): “The One with the Mantle” – Dhū al-Kifl in Early and Classical Muslim Sources: An Etymological Examination
15:45– 16:30 Pim Valkenberg (The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.): Polemics with People of Scripture in the Qur’an: Jewish and Christian Objections to a New Scripture and a New Prophet – and the Qur’an’s Replies to these Objections
16:30 – 17:00 Discussion
19:00 Conference Dinner
Wednesday, May 16
Session E: The “Problem of Purity”
Chair: James Weaver (University of Zurich)
9:00 – 9:45 Hamza Zafer (University of Washington, Seattle): The Prophet and the Patriarch: The Axial Tension in Qur’anic Narrative
9:45 – 10:30 Younus Mirza (Allegheny College, Washington D.C.): The End of the Isra'iliyat: How Modern Abridgements of Tafsir Ibn Kathir Remove Jewish Material
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee/Tea Break
10:45 – 11:30 Liran Yadgar (Yale University, New Haven): Ibn Kammuna’s Position on Prophecy and His Christian and Muslim Opponents
11:30 – 12:00 Discussion
12:00 Lunch
Session F: Innovations in Argument
Chair: Daniel Barbu (Universities of Bern and Geneva)
13:30 – 14:15 Robert Chazan (New York University): The Innovative Turn in Thirteenth-Century Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics
14:15 – 15:00 Barbara Roggema (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): False Prophets or False Followers? The Idea of Conspiracy in Interreligious Kalam
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee/Tea Break
15:30 – 16:15 Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau (Université de Strasbourg): “He Is Demon-Possessed:” Evangelic and Qur’anic Argumentative Bases for Traditional Defense of Prophetical Authority
16:15 – 16:45 Christoph Uehlinger (University of Zurich): Convergences, Dead Ends, and Dilemmata – with an Opening on Secularism and Modern (Western) States
16:45 – 17:30 Final Discussion
Concluding Words (Reuven Firestone)