Orient-Institut Beirut
July, 02 to July 04, 2015
Angels appear in Near Eastern and Islamic traditions as transcendental messengers in different contexts. While there are a number of studies about angels in different religious traditions, the entanglement of Islamic developments with regard to earlier religious substrates has been studied only rudimentarily.
The conference seeks to investigate the multiple concepts and the evolution of Near Eastern and especially Islamic conceptions of nature, role and function of angelic beings by focusing on theological, literary, visual and material representations from pre-Islamic to contemporary times.
A point of focus of the conference will be to trace the persistence and inspiring features of religious, literary and artistic expressions in Near Eastern and Islamic traditions. The aim of this conference is to provide, and promote, an interdisciplinary forum for scholars investigating issues that may include questions of the physiology of heavenly beings, the topography and the hierarchical scheme of the heavenly host but also the mission and agency of angels, their nomenclature and iconographic representation in Islamic and Near Eastern sources.
Convenors:
Prof. Dr. Stefan Leder
Dr. Hans-Peter Pökel
Dr. Sara Kuehn
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