Events

The international colloquium "From Jāhiliyya To Islam" was initiated by Prof. M. J. Kister.

Meir J. Kister (1914-2010), Professor of Arabic language and literature made a major contribution to the study of the spiritual, religious, economic and social aspects of pre- and early Islamic periods. Thanks to his meticulous studies we now know a lot more about the history of Islam’s sacred cities, al-Ḥīra’s relations with the tribes of eastern Arabia, Mecca's rise to prominence, the tribes of Quraysh, Tamīm and Quḍāʿa, early Islamic institutions and many other topics that caught his interest.

For several years Kister led the Arabic Poetry Concordance project. He founded the periodicals Israel Oriental Studies and Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. He also initiated the colloquium "From Jāhiliyya to Islam" . In 1971 he published an edition of Balādhurī's Ansāb al-Ashrāf the work on which had begun by Max Schloessinger in the 1940s.

List of sessions and speakers

12th "From Jahiliyya to Islam" Colloquium, July 2016

From Jahiliyya to Islam (FJTI)

The international symposia "From Jahiliyya to Islam" are dedicated to the discussion of the various aspects of the period of transition from the pre-Islamic Near East to early Islam, as well as to the emergence of the political, social and cultural institutions of Islam in the formative centuries of Islamic history. They are held every three years at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and are attended by leading scholars of Islam from Israel and other countries. Part of the papers presented at the symposia are published in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. The 14th symposium will be held in July 2019.