Dr Stephen Burge, who specialises in the religious works of al-Suyuti in the Institute’s ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Studies Unit, attended the School of Mamluk Studies Conference which was held in Venice on 22-25 June 2014.
Each year the conference devotes one day to focus on a particular figure or theme within Mamluk Studies. This year’s focus was on the life and work of the late-Mamluk polymath JalalÌýal-DinÌýal-Suyuti (d. 911 AH/1505 CE).
Dr Burge presented a conference paper entitledÌýAl-Suyuti’s ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Hermeneutics Revised: AÌýComparison of his Tahbir and Itqan;Ìýillustrating the way al-Suyuti worked as a scholar, specifically how he used and revised his older writings when producing new works.
While exploring al-Suyuti’s seminal work on the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic sciences,ÌýKitab al-Itqan fi ‘ulum al-²Ï³Ü°ù’a²ÔÌý(The Book of Perfection in the Sciences of the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²ÔMuslims believe that the Holy ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More), and its relationship to his earlier contribution to the field,ÌýKitab al-Tahbir fi ‘ilm al-TafsirÌý(The Refined Book on the Knowledge of Exegesis), Dr Burge argued that, contrary to established opinion, theÌýItqanÌýshows significant reliance on theÌýTahbir.
He suggested further that theÌýTahbirÌýappears to have acted as a model or starting point for the much more complexÌýItqan. However, Dr Burge clarified that a comparative study of the two works also suggests that in some areas, al-Suyuti felt the need to completely re-work his ideas. It is for this reason that a few equivalent chapters in theÌýItqanÌýand theÌýTahbirÌýhave little in common.
JalalÌýal-DinÌýal-Suyuti was famed for his extraordinarily large output, with estimates ranging from 500 to 900 works in total. He is one of the most famous scholars of the late Mamluk period. He worked in the dying days of the Circassian MamlukÌýSultanate, with theÌýOttomansÌýtaking control of Cairo within a decade of al-Suyuti’s death. Although a Sunni, working at the end of the Mamluk period, al-Suyuti’s work on the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Sciences (‘ulum al-²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô) provides the most in depth medieval study of ways of interpreting theÌý²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô, benefitting both Sunni and Shi‘i scholarship.
Ìýis an organisation that seeks to promote the study of the Mamluk world in all its aspects: history, culture and its scholarship.
