EUME
2013/ 2014

S. Ali Aghaei

Polemical Usage of the Term Isra'iliyyat in Medieval and Modern Muslim Exegeses of the Qur’an

S. Ali Aghaei is Assistant Professor of Qur’an and Hadith Studies at Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation in Tehran, Iran, where he has worked as a researcher and director of the “Early Shi’a Figures and Concepts” branch of the Qur’an and Hadith department since 2005. In the Foundation he contributes to writing entries in Daneshname-ye Jahan-e Eslam (Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam). He received his BA in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran (1998), his MA and PhD in Qur’an and Hadith Studies, from Usul al-Din College, Qom (2002) and Islamic Azad University, Tehran (2012), respectively. In his dissertation, entitled “Dating Muslim Traditions Based on Isnad and Matn: An Analysis of Premises and Methods”, he examines the methodological premises of dating methods based on isnad and matn (genealogy and content of the prophetic tradition) and then evaluates the possibilities and limitations of these methods for the purpose of dating Ḥadīths (sayings or acts of the prophet Mohamad). Aghaei’s research interests include both traditional and modern aspects of Hadith studies, on which he has published in Persian widely.

Polemical Usage of the Term Isra'iliyyat in Medieval and Modern Muslim Exegeses of the Qur’an

As a EUME Fellow in Berlin, he will investigate “The Polemical Usage of the Term Isra'iliyyat in Medieval and Modern Muslim Exegeses of the Qur’an”.