Tahera Qutbuddin
University of Chicago · Middle Eastern Studies
Active 2003–2024
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About
Tahera Qutbuddin is a Professor Emerita of Arabic Literature who taught at the University of Chicago from 2002 to 2023. She holds a PhD from Harvard University, a Tamhidi Magister and BA from Ain Shams University in Cairo, and a high school diploma from Sophia College in Mumbai. Her research focuses on classical Arabic literature and Islamic studies, particularly on the intersections of the literary, religious, and political in poetry and prose. Her interests include classical Arabic poetry, orations, epistles, aphorisms, narrative, poetics, philology, and the sayings of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib and Prophet Muhammad, as well as Fatimid and Tayyibi Bohra poetry, history, theology, and law. She has contributed to the understanding of literary features and symbolic exegesis of the Quran, classical Arabic women’s literature, and the history and functions of Arabic in India. Her notable publications include a critical edition and translation of Sharīf Raḍī’s Nahj al-Balāghah, and monographs such as Arabic Oration: Art and Function, which presents a comprehensive theory of Arabic oration, and Al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī and Fatimid Daʿwa Poetry, analyzing a unique religio-political poetic tradition. She is currently working on a book analyzing Ali’s ethical preaching and religio-political biography, supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship. Throughout her career, she has taught a wide range of courses on Arabic literature, Islamic thought, and related topics, and has advised numerous PhD…
Research topics
- Computer science
- Art
- History
- Philosophy
- Literature
Selected publications
2024-04-09 · 1 citations
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorrespondingJournal of Arabic Literature · 2023-05-23 · 1 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The 177-verse Arabic Poem of the Intellect ( Qaṣīdat al-ʿAql ) composed by the Indian Fatimid-Ṭayyibī Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq Sayyidna Taher Saifuddin (d. 1385/1965) breaks new ground in substance and form. In form, the poem creatively amalgamates the genres of qaṣīdah (poem), risālah (treatise), and waṣiyyah (testament) to produce an eloquent and innovative hybrid text. In content, it uniquely combines a philosophical exposition on Islamic theology and ethics with a road map to living a Pure Li…
2021-08-11 · 1 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAppendix of Sources for the Texts of Nahj al-Balāghah
2024-04-09
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThis chronological list enumerates all primary medieval sources I was able to locate for each of the texts of Nahj al-Balāghah, before and after the time of Raḍī's compilation in 400/1010.The list not only provides evidence for the early spread of these texts, but it also offers a guide to a better understanding of their historical context.A large number of texts are found in the earliest extant works of the Arabic-Islamic corpus: books from the early 3rd/9th century by well-known authors, such…
Note on the Edition and Translation: Manuscripts and Methodology
2024-04-09
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThe manuscripts and methodology used to prepare the present volume are described in the following pages.My hope is to have produced a highly accurate critical edition and translation of Nahj al-Balāghah, based on the earliest and most important extant manuscripts, and on a carefully constructed stemma.
Frequent coauthors
- 3166 shared
Shawkat M. Toorawa
- 3164 shared
Joseph Lowry
- 3164 shared
James E. Montgomery
Covenant Medical Center
- 3164 shared
Julia Bray
University of Cambridge
- 2952 shared
Sean W. Anthony
Yale University
- 2917 shared
Philip Kennedy
Neural Signals (United States)
- 2777 shared
Maurice Pomerantz
University of Cambridge
- 2689 shared
Devin J. Stewart
Emory University
Labs
Tahera QutbuddinPI
Awards & honors
- Sheikh Zayed Book Award
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