10-12 March 2022

The OIB and the American University of Beirut jointly organized a workshop on “Typologies in the Islamic Ethical Discourse”. Various typologies from pre-modern texts on ethics including ethnic, religious, societal, gendered and historical typologies were extensively discussed across five panels over three days. All panels were livestreamed to an  audience worldwide.

  

In this pioneering endeavor for the first time the wider ethical discourse was reevaluated through the prism of typologies. The workshop was not limited to the sources, which are formally defined as ethics books but extended its scope to include philosophical, literary and mystical sources like Ikhwān al-Safā’, Mathnawī, Gulistān or Dīwān-i Ḥāfiz. The relation between the use of typologies and the understanding of time and history was analyzed through a discussion of how exemplary and stereotypical characters are used, modified and redefined in pre-modern Islamic texts. It became clear that typological characters do not necessarily correspond to real-life people but are rather stereotypes which shape Islamic literature as well as philosophical texts.

For more information on the workshop, please visit the OIB website:
https://www.orient-institut.org/events/event-details/typologies-in-the-islamic-ethical-discourse/