Join us in welcoming Mushegh Asatryan, a Professor of Arabic Language and Muslim Cultures at the University of Calgary, as he presents his lecture, The Abbasid Culture of Debate: Competition, Piety, and Knowledge, on Tuesday, September 30 at 3:30pm in 317 DeBartolo Hall.
Abstract:
One who reads enough medieval Arabic prose inevitably gets the impression that people in the Abbasid empire loved a good loud argument. They argued about theology, history, grammar, the nature of knowledge, the structure of atoms, legal niceties, and much else. Debates took place in rulers’ courts, to the delight of monarchs who often partook in this pastime, in urban squares, in mosques, and in private homes. Debate was an expression of a multi-religious and a highly learned culture, which involved Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others, and was a way to “perform” class, to curry favor with the powerful, and to woo converts. The talk will explore the history of the Abbasid culture of debate, exploring the reasons for its rise and importance, and the cultural meanings attached to debating. The talk is based on Mushegh Asatryan's book in progress by the same title and his newly published Debating the Freethinker: A Study and Translation of Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Khayyāṭ’s Kitāb al-intiṣār.