Position:

Shaikh Zayed University Lecturer in Islamic Studies; Fellow of Pembroke College

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / Pembroke College

Email:

nicolai.sinai@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

• The Qur’an in its historical context
• Islamic exegesis of the Qur’an and scriptural hermeneutics in general
• Philosophy and theology in the Islamic world

Current Projects:

After having completed a commentary on the early Meccan surahs of the Qur’an, which will be published online as part of the Corpus Coranicum project of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, I will continue to contribute to and edit the second part of this commentary on the middle Meccan texts; excerpts of this may be published as English-language articles. I will also be working on a short introduction to the Qur’an in German and on an article-length survey of scriptural hermeneutics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Courses Taught:

• Qur’anic studies
• Arabic theology and philosophy
• Sufism

Recent Publications:

Books:

• Göttliche oder menschliche Weisheit? Zum Gegensatz von philosophischem und religiösem Lebensideal bei al-Ghazali und Yehuda ha-Levi, Würzburg 2003 (114 pp.).
• Fortschreibung und Auslegung: Studien zur frühen Koraninterpretation, Wiesbaden 2009 (324 pp.).
• Shihāb ad-Dīn as-Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq: Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung (introduction, commentary, and German translation), Berlin 2011 (469 pp.).

Articles:

• “Qurʾānic Self-Referentiality as a Strategy of Self-Authorization”, in: Self-Referentiality in the Qurʾān, edited by Stefan Wild, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 103–134.
• “Orientalism, Authorship, and the Onset of Revelation: Abraham Geiger and Theodor Nöldeke on Muhammad and the Qurʾān”, in: “Im vollen Licht der Geschichte”. Die Wissenschaft des Judentums und die Anfänge der kritischen Koranforschung, edited by Dirk Hartwig et al., Würzburg 2008, pp. 145–155.
• Islamic sections of the articles „Allegorie“, „Apokalyptik“, „Apokalyptische Literatur“, „Gottesdienst“, „Literarische Formen“, „Predigt“, „Kanonizität“, and „Koran“ in Lexikon der Bibelhermeneutik, edited by Oda Wischmeyer, Berlin 2009.
• “The Qurʾan as Process”, in: The Qurʾān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu, edited by Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, and Michael Marx, Leiden 2010, pp. 407–439.
• “Introduction” (together with Angelika Neuwirth), in: The Qurʾān in Context (see previous entry), pp. 1–24.
• “Spinoza and Beyond: Some Reflections on Historical-Critical Methodology”, in: Kritische Religionsphilosophie: Eine Gedenkschrift für Friedrich Niewöhner, edited by Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann and Georges Tamer, Berlin / New York 2010, pp. 193–214.
• "Die klassische islamische Koranexegese: Eine Annäherung", Theologische Literaturzeitung 136/2 (2011), pp. 123–134.
• “An Interpretation of Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53)”, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 13/2 (2011), pp. 1–28.
• "Religious poetry from the Quranic milieu: Umayya b. Abī l-Ṣalt on the fate of the Thamūd", Bulletin of SOAS 2011 (online edition)
  http://journals.cambridge.org/repo_A83rLFiO.
• "Hisham Dajit über die 'Geschichtlichkeit der Verkündigung Muḥammads'", Der Islam 86 (2011), pp. 30–43.