Newsletter June 2025

Summer is always, for scholars, a season both of writing and of intense reading. This year, we immersed ourselves in several works recently published by members of IDEO, and it was with particular enthusiasm that we delved into the critical edition of part of the Kitāb of Sībawayh, the great grammarian of the Arabic language. This edition, the fruit of many years of persistent labor by Jean Druel, OP presents the three recensions preserved in the Milan–Kazan codex, arranged in parallel columns. The stated ambition is to invite scholars to reconsider the shifting history of the Kitāb, its extraordinary plasticity during the early phases of its transmission, the role of its transmitters, and the richness of a tradition of commentary that continually deepened it. A singular mystery remains: that a scholar who lived in obscurity, and who never taught his own work, could nevertheless have engendered such a fertile and sophisticated legacy. Carried out with meticulous care and evident passion, this edition testifies to the ability of our researchers to produce scholarship that makes a significant contribution to both the academic community and the field of Islamic studies. We extend our warmest thanks to Jean Druel, OP for his patience and the quality of his research, and we wish you all a fruitful beginning to the academic year. Anawati Chair Postdoctoral Fellowship in Textual Editing From July 20 to 29, researcher Ahmed Mobarak, carried out a research stay at the British Library. The purpose of this visit was to consult the original manuscript that is the focus of his research, entitled “The Noble Virtues in Human Qualities”. Delegation from al-Azhar Observatory to the European Academy of Religions From July 8 to 12, a delegation from the al-Azhar Observatory—composed of Mrs. Reham Salamah, Mr. Abdullah Abdeen, Mr. Ossama Raslan, and Mr. Ahmed Hamza—accompanied by the director of IDEO, Emmanuel Pisani, OP, traveled to Vienna to participate in the eighth annual conference of the European Academy of Religions, held under the general topic “Religion and Socio-Cultural Transformation: European Perspectives and Beyond”. The delegation moderated two panels entitled: Collaborative Solutions between the al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism and the Dominican Institute of Oriental Studies in Egypt (chaired by Emmanuel Pisani, OP). Cultural and Religious Challenges in Europe: The Case of Muslim Communities (chaired by Mrs. Reham Salamah, Director of the Observatory). Furthermore, each researcher presented a paper: 1. Human Fraternity: A Universal Call for Peace and Coexistence | Mr. Abdullah Abdeen. 2. Cultural and Religious Challenges in Europe: Muslim Communities | Mr. Ahmed Hamza. 3. The Role of the al-Azhar Observatory in Raising Awareness and Promoting Critical Thinking | Mrs. Reham Salamah. 4. Islamic Cultural Identity and the Quest for European Integration | Mr. Ossama Raslan. Summer School “Citizenship and Religious Pluralism” From July 15 to 21, the Summer School brought together nineteen European and Egyptian doctoral researchers and students for a week of exchanges and sharing. Each researcher delivered a keynote lecture, while the students presented their dissertation topics. Among the topics explored were the relationship between citizenship and freedom of belief, legal translation, gender and political transitions, confessionalism, religious pluralism, and family law in Egypt and Tunisia. Certificate Awarding Ceremony On July 21, a closing ceremony was held to mark the end of the Summer School and to present certificates to the participants of the program “Islam and Other Religions.” The event took place against the iconic backdrop of the Pyramids, in the presence of EU representatives Ms. Anne Kofoed and Ms. Ilaria Betti. The ceremony featured speeches by Emmanuel Pisani, OP, Director of IDEO, and Ms. Anne Kofoed. Introductory Course in Arabic Language and Islamic studies From July 14 to August 8, 2025, six Dominican brothers participated in an introductory course in Arabic language and Islamic studies. We were delighted to welcome: 1. Raymond Djaoyang, OP, Cameroonian 2. Arsène Tirmadjingar Adoumbey, OP, Chadian 3. Martin Zenga, OP, Congolese 4. Alphonse Wawey, OP, Congolese 5. Jaynnoã Fernando Silva Lopes, OP, Brazilian 6. Aloysius Luis Kung, OP Indonesian The course was organized with the support of the Church in Need (AED) and the Network of Centers for Christian-Muslim Relations (NCCMR). Lecture On July 24, Jean Jacques Pérennès, OP gave a lecture at the Temple of Perros-Guirec on the topic of “Israel-Palestine: The Urgency of a Different Reading of the Bible”. Scholarships | Calls for Applications Scholarships to Participate in the 5ᵗʰ PLURIEL Congress in Córdoba PLURIEL is offering students a scholarship to enable them to participate in the 5ᵗʰ International Congress “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islamic Heritage”, which will be held in Cordoba from February 10 to 14, 2026. All details as well as the eligibility requirements are available in the call for applications (in French). Scholarship from the Chair “Mediterranean, Religions, and Societies” A second phase of applications is open for the first year of activity (2025–2026) of the Chair “Mediterranean, Religions, and Societies”. This call is addressed to doctoral and postdoctoral researchers interested in Mediterranean issues in the social sciences and humanities. The application deadline is September 20, 2025. Call for Applications – University Certificate in Islamic Studies In partnership with the French Institut for Islamic studies (IFI), IDEO is offering a one-year program for French-speaking students enrolled in a Master’s or PhD program at an academic institution in Egypt, aimed at acquiring methods applied to Islamic studies.  Applications are open until September 30: secretariat@ideo-cairo.org. The program will be led and directed by Adrien Candiard, OP. Research Seminar On July 5, Mr. Dominique Avon co-organized the seminar “Identifying and Deconstructing Intransigent Discourses: Contributions of the Human and Social Sciences in Relation to Religious Issues”, held at Campus Condorcet (Paris–Aubervilliers). The aim of this seminar was to strengthen the capacity of Muslim actors to analyze intransigent religious discourses by situating them within their historical context. Publication of MIDEO 40 The full volume 40 of MIDEO is now available online on the OpenEdition platform. This issue, devoted to The Religious Other in Quranic Tafsīr, brings together the work of several international

We are always delighted to announce the release of our Institute’ journal, MIDÉO. This year’s volume is devoted to a topic as fascinating as it is urgent, particularly given its profound relevance to the current Middle Eastern landscape, where war wounds and kills innocent people with horror and savagery. The fruit of the study days held at IDEO in May 2023, this volume brings together contributions from international scholars exploring how the Qurʾān and its commentaries have perceived the “Religious Other”. Jews, Christians, and polytheists—figures who appear at times as partners, witnesses to an earlier revelation, or doctrinal opponents. Through historical, linguistic, literary, and artistic approaches, these studies offer new insights into tafsīr, where faith, scholarship, and political context intersect. As July begins, we wish you all a wonderful summer filled with rest, discovery… and reading! For us in Cairo, summer will be a time of study: in a few days, we will have the joy of welcoming six young Dominican Brothers for a language internship, and we will launch our summer school on the topic “Citizenship and Religious Pluralism” as part of the Anawati Chair. A beautiful intellectual and fraternal adventure awaits us—one that is also, for us, a sign of hope. Lecture On June 9, Jean Jacques Pérennès, OP gave a lecture in Noirmoutier on the topic “Tibhirine: A Monastic Presence in the Land of Islam”. Call for Applications | Chair “Mediterranean, Religions and Societies” The Chair “Mediterranean, Religions and Societies” is launching a call for applications for its first year of activity. This call is open to PhD students whose research focuses on the Chair’s topics (interreligious dialogue, social and religious dynamics in the Mediterranean, etc.). The application deadline is July 25, 2025. Click here for more details in French… Thesis Defense On July 7, Mr. Pierre Courtain defended, at the University of Louvain, the private defense of his doctoral dissertation entitled “The Dominican Quran in Latin Europe in the 13ᵗʰ Century”, under the joint supervision of Mr. John Tolan (Nantes Université) and Mr. Paul Bertrand (UCLouvain, secretary of the jury). The jury was made up of Mr. Mehdi Azaiez (UCLouvain, president of the jury), Ms. Cándida Ferrero Hernández (Autonomous University of Barcelona, external reader), and Emmanuel Pisani, OP (IDEO/ICP). General Assembly of the Association “Friends of IDEO” On June 30ᵗʰ, Emmanuel Pisani, OP took part in the board meeting and the general assembly of the “Friends of IDEO” association, without whose support the Institute’s activities and operating costs could not be covered. Visit On June 12ᵗʰ, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ms. Magdalena Cruz Yábar, Counselor for Cultural and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of Spain in Egypt. Scholars’ House During the month of June, we had the pleasure of welcoming the following researchers to the Scholars’ House: Anna Giaconia, a PhD student in the Department of History at Ghent University, working on political thought in Late Antiquity. Charlotte Courreye, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Languages, Lyon III University, researching educational cooperation between the Mashreq and the Maghreb during the Arabization period, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Publications Emmanuel Pisani, « Les chrétiens et les religions dans le Laṭāʾif al-išārāt d’Abū al-Qāsim al-Qušayrī (m. 465/1073) », MIDÉO 40, 2025, p. 113-144. Emmanuel Pisani, « Louis Massignon ou le verbe s’est fait chair », in Piotr Sękowski, Chrześcijańska teologia islamu Louisa Massignona (Louis Massignon’s Christian Theology of Islam), Gliwice-Rome, SEKO, 2024, p. 67‑71. Dominique Avon, « Dialogue entre catholiques et musulmans : une mise en perspective historique », En Dialogue, mars-juin 2025. Walid Saleh, “The Quran and the Mountains: A Reading of Q. al-Raʿd 13:31 in the Tafsīr Tradition”, MIDÉO 40, 2025, p. 87-112.

The conference organized by IDEO, The Authority of Silence: Constructing the Figure of the salafs (7ᵗʰ–15ᵗʰ centuries), held in the prestigious Oriental Hall at the American University in Cairo, offered an original and unprecedented perspective on the figure of the salafs through the prism of silence—not as absence, but as a source of authority. Far from being merely God’s friends or simple transmitters, the salafs emerge, in the presentations by Jawad Qureshi, Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Mushtak, Christopher Melchert, Abdullah Ridvan Gökbel, Shahanaz Begum, and Rana Mikati, as figures whose silence is alternately interpreted, mobilized, or strategically reconstructed. The conference highlighted the complexity of an authority based as much on what is said as on what is left unsaid. The silence of the salafs contributes to a hermeneutics that goes beyond simple transmission, reaching toward an implicit normativity that shapes a distinct Sunnism, yet one marked by internal tensions. From Rodrigo Adem’s critique of a “bad Salafism” in Ibn Taymiyya, to Adrien Candiard’s analysis of the salafs as a distinct school in al-Shahrastānī’s doxography, the very conditions of normative production were explored. The authority of the salafs appeared far from univocal, marked by hierarchies, peripheral dynamics, and differentiated uses—whether legal, political, or theological contexts. The conference allowed for a deeper understanding of how authority was constructed within the ambiguity of silence, between idealization, critique, and appropriation. Anawati Chair Seminar at the al-Azhar French Teaching Center (CEF) On April 15, 90 students from the Faculty of Humanities at al-Azhar University attended the seminar “Islam and Human Rights”, led by Professor Chérif Ferjani, Tunisian scholar of Islam and politics, Professor Emeritus at Université Lumière-Lyon II, and member of the steering committee of the higher Institute for the study of religion and secularism in France. This seminar, organized in collaboration with our partner the al-Azhar French Teaching Center, provided an opportunity to deepen understanding of the history and foundations of human rights and their Islamic appropriation. Creation of an Audiobook Library at al-Azhar University In partnership with the al-Azhar French Teaching Center, IDEO acquired and donated 33 audiobooks to the al-Azhar University Library. This audiobook library aims to promote equal opportunity by improving access to educational resources in European languages for visually impaired students. Access to Scientific Works in Arabic As part of its partnership with the Hindawi Foundation, the Anawati Chair is making 19 scientific works available in audio format, representing a total of 807,074 words, currently accessible online on the Hindawi Foundation website. This initiative aims to expand access to scientific literature in Arabic, with the goal of reaching 7,000,000 recorded words, particularly for the benefit of visually impaired or audiences with reading difficulties. Lectures and Conferences On April 6, Jean Jacques Pérennès, O.P. gave a lecture in Valence entitled “Christians in a Middle East in Crisis: Situation and Perspectives”. On April 11, Jean Jacques Pérennès, O.P. gave a lecture in Lyon for the Friends of IDEO association on the theme “A Shared Holy Place: The Islamic-Christian Pilgrimage of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Vieux-Marché”. On April 22, Mr. Guillaume de Vaulx spoke at the seminar “Spiritualities and Nature”, organized by Georgetown University – Doha, with a lecture entitled “Muslim Animals in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity”. On April 23, Mr. Guillaume de Vaulx participated in the panel “Nature and Religious Values” at the Earthna Summit with a talk entitled “From the Current Ecological Mobilization of Religion to the Classical Religious Mobilization of the Environment”. Teaching From April 22 to 25, Emmanuel Pisani, O.P. taught a 24-hour course entitled “Introduction to the Major Religious Traditions” at the IERP of the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. PhD Defense Committee On April 28, Emmanuel Pisani, O.P. participated in the thesis defense committee of Florence Javel at the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Lyon. The thesis was entitled “Maurice Borrmans and the Crisis of Islamic-Christian Dialogue: Is Islamic Studies at Stake?”, directed by Prof. Michel Younès (UCLy, Lyon). Committee members included Mr. Dominique Avon (EPHE, Paris), Guy Sarkis (Saint-Joseph University, Beirut), and Mr. Rémi Caucanas (Saint-Paul University, Ottawa). Study Day on Ali Abd al-Raziq On April 11, a study day dedicated to Ali Abd al-Raziq was held with the support of the IFI and IISMM. Speakers included: Mohammad Afifi, Head of the History Department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Arts, who presented “History and Legend: Political Islam and the Caliphate”; Abdelilah Belkeziz(Hassan II University, Casablanca) who discussed “The Stakes of an Ijtihad Attempt: Religion and Politics in the Thesis of Ali Abd al-Raziq”; Aziz Hilal, philosophy teacher and member of IDEO, who reflected on “Islam and the Foundations of Power: Between Condemnation and Legitimation”; Issam al-Zuheiri, who addressed the theme of renewing political thought. The day was chaired and moderated by Mr. Abd al-Jawad Yassin. Visits On April 25, we welcomed a group of teachers and students from the Institut Chrétiens d’Orient. Accompanied by its director Antoine Fleyfel, they attended a lecture at IDEO by Mr. Ishak Ibrahim from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Jean Druel, OP accompanied the group to a Sufi prayer session of the Qādiriyya brotherhood. Scholars’ House During the month of April, we were pleased to host at the Scholars’ House: Gheorghe Pașcalău, researcher specialized in the Muslim reception of Greek philosophy, recipient of the IDEO-Ifao-IFI postdoctoral fellowship Edward Shawe-Taylor, PhD student (DPhil) in Islamic art and architecture, specialized in Fatimid-era calligraphy and Islamic medieval art and culture, studying at the University of Oxford’s Khalili Research Center. Review Emmanuel Pisani, « Houari Touati, L’arrivée de l’homme en Islam et sa disparition : d’Athènes à Bagdad, Paris, Vrin, 2024 », Chrétiens de la Méditerranée, published online March 15, 2025. Publication Emmanuel Pisani, “Les mots autour de l’islam en débat”, Un pas en avant 11, February 2025, p. 19-21.