International Conference: Historicizing the Shiʿi Hadith Corpus, Leiden University, September 12-14, 2022

The central sources of religious doctrine and law in Islam are the Qurʾān and the hadith. Hadith is, by volume, the far greater of these two sources. While there has been an increasing production of sophisticated studies on Sunni hadith traditions, the study of Shiʿi hadith requires far greater attention than it has hitherto received.

This conference focuses on the processes which led to the early production, evolution, dissemination and canonisation of a set of distinctively Shiʿi hadith corpora. These corpora are both clearly linked to the greater project of hadith in Islam, but they also reflect processes specific to the Shiʿi communities. In the conference, both the specificities of the various Shiʿi hadith corpora (Twelver, Zaydi, Ismaili, and so on) will be addressed, as well as their links and cleavages with hadith corpora preserved by other Muslim traditions.

This conference brings together leading scholars studying the formation and canonisation of Shiʿi hadith corpora, with the aim of reflecting upon progress made, existing lacunae, and to sketch out future directions.

Participants in the conference will reflect upon key sub-topics in the study of Shiʿi hadith, including particular figures, geographical schools, texts, social contexts, topics and methods, while addressing the larger questions in the field.

Confirmed Speakers

• Belal Alabbas (University of Exeter)
• Hassan Ansari (Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton University)
• Robert Gleave (University of Exeter)
• Edmund Hayes (Radboud University)
• Seyfeddin Kara (University of Toronto)
• Kumail Rajani (University of Exeter)
• Devin Stewart (Emory University)
• Mathieu Terrier (Centre nationale de la recherce scientifique)
• Roy Vilozny (University of Haifa)
• George Warner (Ruhr University Bochum)

For more details, see here.