This three-day international conference brought together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān with the aim of exploring how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape.

A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qur’ān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside Arabia, or long after the late antique period. Accordingly, the conference sought to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qur’ān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on “late” Late Antiquity at the dawn of Islam. Themes addressed included, but were not limited to:

-       Religious Identities and Religious Landscape

-       Naming God in pre-Islamic Arabia

-       Ethnicity and literacy

-       Cultic continuity

Bearing in mind the fluidity of identities and traditions during Late Antiquity, we also accommodated papers that did not fall into these exact categories. We believe there is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qur’ān and Arabia more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel was paired with a specialist on the Qur’ān or on the wider history of Arabia.

The conference was organized by Nadja Abuhussein, Ana Davitashvili, and Valentina A. Grasso.