CSI Monday Majlis: Bilal Orfali
Monday, 08 June 2026 at 05:00
Prophets, Tricksters, and theYellow Cow: Qur'anic Echoes in Al-Hamadhani's Al-Maqama Al-Mawsiliyya Monday Majlis Online on the 8th of June, 17:00-18:30 (UK time) Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter Register please on this link: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/VMC2b0OAShOR4mwBrFIXuA
Event details
Abstract: This lecture reads al-Maq¨¡ma al-Maw?iliyya of Bad¨©? al-Zam¨¡n al-Hamadh¨¡n¨© as a sustained meditation on sacred language and its transformation. Drawing on a new critical edition based on forty manuscripts, I examine how the ³¾²¹±ç¨¡³¾²¹ reworks Qur?¨¡nic motifs, biblical resonances, legal norms, and medical discourse into a tightly structured narrative of performance and deception.
In this tale, Ab¨± al-Fat? al-Iskandar¨© appears first as healer-prophet at a funeral and later as savior of a village threatened by flood. Central to both episodes is the allusion to the “yellow cow” (Q 2:67–73), the scriptural narrative in which sacrifice leads to the miraculous revival of the dead. Al-Hamadh¨¡n¨© inverts this promise: divine sign becomes theatrical fraud, and prophetic rhetoric becomes a tool of survival. Qur?¨¡nic diction, rhythms, and commands echo throughout the text, lending authority to a trickster who ultimately exposes the instability of that very authority.
Through close philological reading attentive to intertextuality and textual transmission, I argue that the ³¾²¹±ç¨¡³¾²¹’s dark humor unsettles religious, social, and epistemological certainties without resolving them. Sacred discourse is neither affirmed nor rejected; it is staged, manipulated, and transformed. In this sense, the ³¾²¹±ç¨¡³¾²¹ reveals adab as a site where scripture, performance, and literary artistry converge—and where meaning itself remains deliberately unstable.
Bio: Bilal Orfali is a scholar of Islamic thought and Arabic literature, distinguished by his close engagement with rare manuscripts and the critical editing of early texts. His work reflects a sustained effort to combine rigorous philological scholarship with a nuanced understanding of the conceptual frameworks of early Arabic intellectual heritage. He is the author and editor of more than two dozen books. Most recently, he has been working on a series of volumes on dream manuals in Islam. His recent publications also include Poetry and Spiritual Insights: A Study and Edition of Kit¨¡b al-Shaw¨¡hid wa-l-Amth¨¡l by Ab¨± Na?r al-Qushayr¨© (d. 514/1120), and a critical edition of al-Mu?¨¡sib¨©’s Kit¨¡b al-Shubuh¨¡t (2026).
Organiser
Centre for the Study of Islam
Location
Online only: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/VMC2b0OAShOR4mwBrFIXuA