IQSA 2019

I am back from San Diego, IQSA 2019. The events weren't as enlightening as the events in Atlanta 2015 nor as groundbreaking as those here in Denver 2018. It went more like San Antonio in 2016 or, so I gather because I skipped it, Boston 2017.

A serious worry this year - and why I usually go by car - was the weather. I was warned in advance that the Denver aeroport was likely to be impassable on this day. Indeed, as a result, the flight previous got #canceled and my midday flight got delayed. Fortunately not by as much as I missed the bus... barely.

This year I passed the sillier sessions writing a silly story, set in Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. Here's a hint: during the conference, those nice black shoes I'd bought for $150 or so in 2000ish, finally, gave out. Tisaina's curse. . .

I didn't trouble myself writing the summaries of events this time. Also, the AAR schedule neglected to include most IQSA events and, as a result, I plain missed the first two-and-half talks (again, I only caught half of Reynolds'). Further, I skipped the session on "the European Quran" - here, just because that's not my field. I was told that Hythem Sidky had a standout on stylometry which I really needed to attend; and I'm sure the talks on the "European Qur'an" were fine. So I'll just summarise the best of what I did hear.

Marijn van Putten sketched out a qiraat tradition prevalent in many early Quran MSS but not incorporated in Ibn Mujahid's canon. Emran el Badawi proposed that sura 97 might hark back to the pagan traditions of Inanna and Persephone entering the Sheol and creating seasons here on Earth. Shari Lowin spoke about the if-seas-were-ink motif across Judaism.

Only one talk, this time, I would rate as Academia Nuts. That would be Ghazala Anwar's talk on Quranic gender-fluidity. The crowd weren't buying that either.