30 Years after Richard M. Frank Al-Ghazālī and Avicenna in Post-Classical Islam

Friday, April 28, 9:00am–5:30pm
Address: Humanities Quadrangle (320 York Street, New Haven, CT), Room 276.
9:00–9:15am: Welcoming Remarks by Aseel Alfataftah and Michael Lessman (Yale University)
9:15–10:30am
Jon McGinnis (University of Missouri, St. Louis), “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love: Philosophical and Theological Accounts of Love in Medieval Islam.” (Keynote Address)
10:30am–11:00am: Coffee
11:00am–12:30pm: Avicenna and al-Ghazālī ∣ Chair: David Baldi
Seyed Mousavian (Loyola University of Chicago). “Avicenna on the Impossibilia: The Letter on the Soul Revisited.”
Marco Signori (IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy). “Malak wa-falak. Noetic and Angelic Terminology in al-Ghazālī’s Maqāṣid and Tahāfut al-falāsifa.”
Lunch break: 12:30–2:00pm
2:00–3:30pm: The Reception of Avicenna ∣ Chair: Aseel Alfataftah
Franceso Zamboni (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). “The Residual of Reality: The Ontological Status of Contingency in the Early Avicennized Tradition.”
Travis Zadeh (Yale University). “Strange Matters in Arabic Natural Philosophy: The Lasting Legacy of Ibn Sīnā’s Ishārāt.”
3:30–4:00pm: Coffee
4:00–5:30pm: The Reception of al-Ghazālī ∣ Chair: Michael Lessman
Mehdi Ali (University of Chicago). “ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s Solution to Divine Knowledge of Particulars.”
Aseel Alfataftah (Yale University). “Between Ḥikma and Kalām: Interrogating the Genre of Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī’s al-Ṣaḥāʾif al-ilāhiyya.”
6:30pm: Dinner
Saturday, April 29, 9:00am–6:00pm
Address: Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT), Room 203.
9:00–10:30am: Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī ∣ Chair: Dominique Sirgy
Michael Lessman (Yale University). “A Case for Angels: Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī’s Alternative to Avicenna’s Rationalism.”
Mariam Shehata (Université Catholique de Louvain). “Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī on Theodicy.”
10:30–11:00am: Coffee Break
11:00am–12:30pm: The Safavid Reception of Avicenna and al-Ghazālī ∣ Chair: Ahmed T. Nur
Sayeh Meisami (University of Dayton, Ohio). “Avicenna and al-Ghazālī and the Making of Mullā Ṣadrā’s Metaphysics.”
Yusuf Ünal (Yale Law School). “Converting al-Ghazālī to Shīʿī Islam: The Reception and Legacy of the Sunni Theologian in Safavid Iran.”
12:30–2:00pm: Lunch Break
2:00–3:30pm: The Ottoman and the Modern Reception of Avicenna and al-Ghazālī ∣ Chair: Sana Jamal
Ahmed Nur (Yale University). “Aḥmad Tashköprizāde (1495–1561) and the Reception of Avicenna and al-Ghazālī in the Ottoman Empire.”
Abdul Rahim Afaki (University of Karachi, Pakistan). “The Ghazalian Brand Phenomenological-Hermeneutic Binary and its Impact on Postclassical Muslim Indian Mind: the Deoband (Mis)Interpretation of Islam-qua-Tradition Blending fiqh with taṣawwuf.”
3:30–4:00pm: Coffee Break
4:00–6:00pm Panel Discussion on Richard M. Frank and His Contributions to Our Fields of Study:
Thérèse-Anne Druart (Catholic University of America, Washington)
Frank Griffel (Yale University)
Jon McGinnis (University of Missouri, St. Louis)
Toby Mayer (Institute of Ismaili Studies, London)
Jan Thiele (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid).