Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge, International Workshop, 2-4 June 2026, Ghent University
The workshop Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge brings together scholars working on the history of Islamic knowledge, with a particular focus on how scholars engaged with concrete intellectual problems across disciplinary boundaries. Rather than approaching disciplines as fixed and isolated domains, the workshop explores the dynamic ways in which scholarly practices, methods, and concepts travelled across different fields of knowledge. Through a series of pre-circulated papers and discussion-based sessions, participants will reflect on polymathy, problem-solving, and the practical organisation of knowledge in Islamic intellectual history. Read more about the aims and the guiding questions for the workshop in our call for papers.
The workshop is organised within the framework of the ERC project KNOW: Polymathy and Interdisciplinarity in Premodern Islamic Epistemic Cultures (1200–1800 CE) at Ghent University.
This is an in-person event. Registration is required.
If you are interested in attending, please register through this link.
https://event.ugent.be/registration/Polymathy
Program:
Tuesday 2 June
Moderator: Islam Dayeh
| Start | End | Session / Title |
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Islam Dayeh (Ghent University) Introduction |
| 10:30 | 11:30 | Samer Rashwani (Hamad bin Khalifa University) Al-Ṭūfī and the Systematization of Qurʾānic Disputation: Jadal, Exegesis, and Interdisciplinarity Discussant: Islam Dayeh |
| 11:30 | 12:00 | Coffee break |
| 12:00 | 13:00 | Yousef Aly Wahb (University of Chicago) Redrawing Disciplinary Boundaries: al-Subkī’s Critique of Legal Hermeneutics in Waqf Interpretation Discussant: Zakaria al-Houbba |
| 13:00 | 14:30 | Lunch break |
| 14:30 | 15:30 | Mohammed Tayssir Safi (Northwestern University) Debating Formalization/Axiomatization in Ḥadīth Studies in Light of the Knowledge-That vs. Knowledge-How Distinction Discussant: Yousef Aly Wahb |
| 15:30 | 16:30 | Natalie Kraneiß (University of Münster) Making Doubt Impossible: Genealogy as Certain Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Fez. Discussant: Mohammed Tayssir Safi |
| 16:30 | 17:00 | Coffee break |
| 17:00 | 18:00 | Carina Dreyer (Harvard University) What makes a scholastic discipline? Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s muqaddima to his Miftāḥ al-Miftāḥ Discussant: Samer Rashwani |
| 18:00 | 19:00 | Claire Gallien (Cambridge University) Theology in Grammar, Theology through Grammar? Discussant: Ali Yahya (Ghent University) |
Wednesday 3 June
Moderator: Siham Chaieb (Ghent University)
| Start | End | Session / Title |
| 15:00 | 16:00 | Shireen Hamza (Northwestern University) Are Talismans Medicine? Discussant: Elmozfar (Kotoz) Ahmed |
| 16:00 | 17:00 | Julia Tomasson (Rice University) Taḥqīq in Post-Classical Mathematics: Shifting Discursive and Epistemic Practices in Arabic Geometric Manuscripts Discussant: Hassan Amini |
| 17:00 | 17:30 | Coffee break |
| 17:30 | 18:30 | Hassan Amini (IMT School of Advanced Studies) & Hanif Ghalandari (University of Tehran) Cosmology Across Boundaries: Al-Samarqandī’s Laṭāʾif al-ḥikma Discussant: Shireen Hamza |
Thursday 4 June
Moderator: Samer Rashwani
| Start | End | Session / Title |
| 10:00 | 11:00 | Zakaria El Houbba (KU Leuven) Ordering the Sciences: Aḥmad Zarrūq’s Integrative Project in Qawāʿid al-Taṣawwuf Discussant: Natalie Kraneiß |
| 11:00 | 11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30 | 12:30 | Youssef Madrari (Mohammed I University) Interdisciplinary Practices in Ashʿarite Kalām Literature in the Maghreb Discussant: Efe Murat Balıkçıoğlu |
| 12:30 | 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 | 15:00 | Jeroen Vlug (University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam) Navigating Disciplinary Boundaries in Ottoman Encyclopaedism: Epistemic Tensions in Taşköprüzade’s Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda Discussant: Carina Dreyer |
| 15:00 | 15:30 | Coffee break |
| 15:30 | 16:30 | Efe Murat Balıkçıoğlu (Ca’ Foscari University) Configuring Scientia and the Limits of Natural Philosophy: Ḫocazāde’s Prolegomenon on the Subject-Matter of Natural Philosophy in His Gloss on Mullāzāde’s Hidāyat al-ḥikma Commentary Discussant: Julia Tomasson |