Devin J. Stewart

Last updated

Devin J. Stewart is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic language and literature. His research interests include Islamic law, the Qur'an, Islamic schools and branches and varieties of Arabic. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Education

Stewart graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University in 1984 after completing a 143-page long senior thesis titled "Three Wise Men: The Safawi Religious Institution 1576 - 1629." [5] He completed the Center for Arabic Study Abroad's program at the American University in Cairo, and then earned his PhD with distinction in Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Pennsylvania six years later. [1] [6]

Career

Stewart has taught Arabic studies, Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies at the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University for the past two decades. He also serves on the editorial board for the Library of Arabic Literature. [1] [7] He has also functioned as a guest lecturer on university courses in Jewish studies. [8]

Much of Stewart's work has focused on the reconstruction of early Muslim legal theory based on ancient texts. He has also called attention to infrequently studied genres of Arabic literature such as Maqama. [9]

Work

Articles

Books

Conference and lectures

Edited works

Research projects

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allah</span> Arabic word for God

Allah is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means "the god", and is linguistically related to the Aramaic words Elah and Syriac ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlāhā) and the Hebrew word El (Elohim) for God.

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah was an Islamic scholar of Persian descent. He served as a judge during the Abbasid Caliphate, but was best known for his contributions to Arabic literature. He was an Athari theologian and polymath who wrote on diverse subjects, such as Qur'anic exegesis, hadith, theology, philosophy, law and jurisprudence, grammar, philology, history, astronomy, agriculture and botany.

Abū Ḥayyān Athīr ad-Dīn al-Gharnāṭī, whose full name is Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf bin ‘Alī ibn Yūsuf ibn Hayyān, sometimes called Ibn Hayyan, was a celebrated commentator on the Quran and foremost Arabic grammarian of his era. His magnum opus Tafsir al-Bahr al-Muhit is the most important reference on Qur'anic expressions and the issues of grammar, vocabulary, etymology and the transcriber-copyists of the Qur'an. Quite exceptionally for a linguist of Arabic of his day was his strong interest in non-Arabic languages. He wrote several works of comparative linguistics for Arabic speakers, and gives extensive comparative grammatical analysis and explanation.

The Jariri school is the name given to a short-lived Sunni school of fiqh that was derived from the work of al-Tabari, the 9th and 10th-century Persian Muslim scholar in Baghdad. Although it eventually became extinct, al-Tabari's madhhab flourished among Sunni ulama for two centuries after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuttab</span> Traditional elementary school in the Islamic world

A kuttab or maktab is a type of elementary school in the Muslim world. Though the kuttab was primarily used for teaching children in reading, writing, grammar, and Islamic studies, such as memorizing and reciting the Qur'an, other practical and theoretical subjects were also often taught. The kuttāb represents an old-fashioned method of education in Muslim majority countries, in which a sheikh teaches a group of students who sit in front of him on the ground. Until the 20th century, when modern schools developed, kuttabs were the prevalent means of mass education in much of the Islamic world.

Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad Ibn Zaydouni al-Makhzūmī (1003–1071) or simply known as Ibn Zaydoun or Abenzaidun was an Arab Andalusian poet of Cordoba and Seville. He was considered the greatest neoclassical poet of al-Andalus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Dammen McAuliffe</span> American educator and scholar of Islam (born 1944)

Jane Dammen McAuliffe is an American educator, scholar of Islam and the inaugural director of national and international outreach at the Library of Congress. She is a president emeritus of Bryn Mawr College and former dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University. As a specialist in the Qur'an and its interpretation, McAuliffe has edited the six-volume Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān and continues to lead the editorial team for the online edition of the work.

The canon of work by Ibn Hazm, prolific and important Andalusian jurist, belletrist, and heresiographer is extensive. He was said to have written over 400 books.

Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abū ʿUmar al-Namarī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī al-Mālikī, commonly known as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr was an eleventh-century Arab Maliki scholar and Athari theologian who served as the Qadi of Lisbon. He died in December 2, 1071 (aged 93).

Dāwūd bin ʿAlī bin Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī was a Persian Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the study of Islamic law (sharīʿa) and the fields of hermeneutics, biographical evaluation, and historiography of early Islam. He is widely regarded as the founder of the Ẓāhirī school of thought (madhhab), the fifth school of thought in Sunnī Islam, characterized by its strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) and societal custom or knowledge (urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Islamic historiographical texts as "the scholar of the era."

Abu Abdillah Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin 'Urfah bin Sulaiman bin al-Mughira bin Habib bin al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufra al-Azdi better known as Niftawayh, was a Medieval Muslim scholar. He was considered to be the best writer of his time, in addition to an expert in Muslim prophetic tradition and comparative readings of the Qur'an.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣbahānī, also known as Avendeath, was a medieval theologian and scholar of the Arabic language and Islamic law. He was one of the early propagators of his father Dawud al-Zahiri's method in jurisprudence, Zahirism.

Muhammad bin Umar bin Abd al-Rahman bin Abd Allah al-Aqil, better known as Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, is a Saudi Arabian polymath. He has, at various times, been referred to as a theologian, jurist, historian, ethnographer, geographer, poet, critic and author. As a member of Saudi Arabia's "Golden Generation," he knew of life both during the poverty of the pre-oil boom era and the prosperity of the 1950s onward.

Sa'id al-Afghani was a professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of Damascus. He was regarded as one of the 20th century's leading scholars in both fields.

Bilal Orfali is a Lebanese scholar of Arabic language and literature. He currently serves as Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He is considered an expert on Arabic prose and poetry, especially during the 10th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ihsan Abbas</span> Palestinian literary scholar and Arabist

Ihsan Abbas was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut, and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. The "author of over one hundred books", during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmad al-Wansharisi</span>

Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Wansharisi was a Maghrebi Berber Muslim theologian and jurist of the Maliki school around the time of the fall of Granada. He was one of the leading authorities on the issues of Iberian Muslims living under Christian rule.

The Zahiri schoolmadhhab or al-Ẓāhirīyyah is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī in the 9th century CE. It is characterized by strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) although Iman Zahiri sometimes accepted Qiyas al Jely and usually not accept societal custom or knowledge (urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The school has also accepted Religious inference as valid.

Abu al-Hasan Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdillah Ibn al-Qasim Ibn Nafi'i Ibn Abi Bazzah, better known simply as al-Bazzi (170–250AH), was an important figure in the transmission of Qira'at, the seven canonical methods of Qur'an reading. He and Qunbul were the primary people responsible for spreading the recitation method of Ibn Kathir al-Makki, which became especially popular among the people of Mecca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literature of al-Andalus</span>

The literature of al-Andalus, also known as Andalusi literature, was produced in al-Andalus, or Islamic Iberia, from the Muslim conquest in 711 to either the Catholic conquest of Granada in 1492 or the expulsion of the Moors ending in 1614. Andalusi literature was written primarily in Arabic, but also in Hebrew, Latin, and Romance.

References

  1. 1 2 3 People Archived 2021-04-18 at the Wayback Machine - Editors. Library of Arabic Literature, 2013.
  2. Devin J. Stewart Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
  3. Devin J. Stewart (Emory University) Archived 2010-06-28 at the Wayback Machine at the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences official site.
  4. Devin Stewart Archived 2020-04-26 at the Wayback Machine at the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
  5. Stewart, Devin J. (1984). "Three Wise Men: The Safawi Religious Institution 1576 - 1629". Archived from the original on 2020-06-20. Retrieved 2020-06-18.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. 1 2 3 Devin Stewart Archived 2013-02-11 at the Wayback Machine at the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Accessed February 20, 2013.
  7. Library of Arabic Literature Archived 2013-01-13 at the Wayback Machine at NYU Press. Accessed February 20, 2013.
  8. Syllabus for "The Sephardi Experience 1492-present," delivered by Dr. Shifra Epstein. Taken from the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 15, #2, pg. 162. 1993. Issued by the American Folklore Society in conjunction with the Judaic and Near Eastern studies program at Oberlin College.
  9. Arabic Literary Thresholds: Sites of Rhetorical Turn in Contemporary Scholarship, Introduction, pg. 14. Ed. Muḥsin Jāsim Mūsawī. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2009. ISBN   9789004176898
  10. Menocal, María Rosa; Scheindlin, Raymond P.; Sells, Michael (2 November 2006). Ibn Zaydún. ISBN   9780521030236. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  11. WORKSHOP ON EVIDENCE FOR THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE QUR’AN Archived 2013-01-19 at the Wayback Machine , July 30 – 31, 2009, at the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies official site.
  12. Lecture by Dr. Devin Stewart [ permanent dead link ] at Atlanta.net. Accessed February 20, 2013.
  13. The Mellon Islamic Studies Initiative Archived 2022-08-15 at the Wayback Machine : Qur'anic Studies Today. Official site of the University of Chicago's Divinity School.
  14. Sex, Marriage, and Family & the Religions of the Book: Modern Problems, Enduring Solutions Archived 2013-05-16 at the Wayback Machine , March 27, 2003 to March 29, 2003.
  15. Text Studies on the Qur'an Archived 2012-12-12 at the Wayback Machine at Brill Online.
  16. Emory Center For Interdisciplinary Study of Religion Launches Two-Year Project On Sex, Marriage and Family Archived 2013-01-16 at the Wayback Machine at the Emory University Office of Media Relations. September 21, 2001.