Early Islamic Narrative Aesthetics and Legal Culture
International Conference
To be held in Tübingen, April 10-11, 2026
Scholarship on the formation of early Islamic legal culture tends to privilege accounts of the history of Islamic law: from Hijazi "origins" to comparatively late processes of theorization and institutionalization, leading to the emergence of the Islamic legal schools and the development of legal hermeneutics. Qur'anic law itself often plays a marginal role in such accounts. This is not surprising since there are some noteworthy discontinuities between Qur'anic and Islamic law.
While the ties between Qur'anic and Islamic legal thought and expression remain to be investigated in greater detail, one important aspect of early Islamic legal culture remains especially under-explored: legal narratives.
We invite speakers to rethink the formative period of Islamic legal culture by identifying and discussing Qur'anic and early Islamic "legal stories." These are narratives whose aesthetics helped diffuse and anchor societal norms and legal and ethical ideas. Such stories played a crucial role in shaping Qur'anic and early Islamic legal culture and, while suggesting societal transformations, they indeed also displayed continuities in legal thought and practice between the Qur'an and the Islamic tradition.
Venue
Universität Tübingen, Alte Aula
Münzgasse 30
72070 Tübingen
Registration and Contact
nora.schmid@uni-tuebingen.de
Organization
Nora K. Schmid and Holger Zellentin
SFB 1391 Andere Ästhetik