Poetry and Knowledge: The Production and Transmission of Knowledge in Arabic Verse (1100–1800)

In premodern Islamic societies, poetry was one of the central literary forms for producing, transmitting, and disseminating knowledge. Poetic texts can be found in nearly all fields of knowledge–from Qurʾanic studies and theology to grammar, medicine, astronomy, and even alchemy or cooking. This conference explores how poetry functions as a medium of knowledge: its formal and stylistic strategies, its intellectual and social contexts, and the ways in which it transforms the very knowledge it seeks to convey.

Date: November 20–22, 2025

Participation: On-site and via online stream (Register here for online participation)

Venue:

University of Münster

Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies

Schlaunstraße 2, 2nd floor, room RS 225

48143 Münster

• Conference Poster (PDF)
• Conference Program (PDF)
• List of Abstracts

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025

14:30 CONFERENCE OPENING

Syrinx von Hees, Director of the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Münster, and Natalie Kraneiß

Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies

Schlaunstraße 2, 2nd floor, room RS 225, 48143 Münster

PANEL 1

CHAIR: SYRINX VON HEES

14:45–15:20 Betty Rosen (London): Versifying (ʿilm) al-badīʿ: Al-Suyūṭī’s ʿUqūd al-jumān
15:20–15:55 Enes F. Ömeroğlu (Istanbul): Islamic Legal Theory and Poetic Reconfiguration: A Study on al-Suyūṭī’s al-Kawkab al-Sāṭiʿ

15:55–16:25 COFFEE & TEA BREAK

PANEL 2

CHAIR: NORBERT OBERAUER

16:25–17:00 Andreas Knöll (Münster): Techniques of Jadal as Techniques of Poetry
17:00–17:35 Serkan Ince (Tübingen): Poetry as Argument: The Kalāmī Method in al-Nābulusī’s al-ʿIqd al-naẓīm

17:35–18:00 BREAK

KEYNOTE

18:00 Stefan Reichmuth (Bochum): Arabic Didactic Poetry between Knowledge Transmission and Socio-Cultural Initiation—Cases from Muslim Communities of Learning in Egypt, North and West Africa in the Early Modern Period (16th-19th Centuries)

19:00 RECEPTION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025

PANEL 3

CHAIR: ASMAA ESSAKOUTI

09:30–10:05 Claire Gallien (Cambridge): The Epistemic Function of Literature in the Genre of Tartīb al-ʿUlūm

10:05–10:40 Nefeli Papoutsakis (Münster): ʿAlī an-Naḥlah’s (fl. late 10th/16th cent.) encyclopaedic zajal: Didactic poetry in an early-Ottoman Arabic shadow play

10:40–11:10 COFFEE & TEA BREAK

PANEL 4

CHAIR: JENS FISCHER

11:10–11:45 Montse Díaz Fajardo (Barcelona): Ibn al-Ḫayyāṭ’s “Lāmiyya on the Warrior Saturn” (No livestream)

11:45–12:20 Isabel Toral (Berlin): Edible Eloquence: Gastronomic Poetry and Culinary Knowledge in Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq’s Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh (10th century CE)

12:20–12:55 Leonie Böttiger (Berlin): Rhyming Recipes: Poetic Transmissions of Practical Knowledge

12:55–14:30 LUNCH BREAK

PANEL 5

CHAIR: MARCO SCHÖLLER

14:30–15:05 Rabia Egici (Istanbul): Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī’s al-Qaṣīda al-Nūniyya: A Poetic Rendering of the Concept of Taḥqīq

15:05–15:40 Navid Chizari (Istanbul): Theological Unity through Poetry: al-Qaṣīda al-Nūniyya by Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī

15:40–16:10 COFFEE & TEA BREAK

PANEL 6

CHAIR: KRISTOF D'HULSTER

16:10–16:45 Tobias Sick (Münster): “So That They Need Neither Skilled Swimmers nor Shell Divers to Reach its Pearls”: Tracing Knowledge Transfer in a Didactic Arabic Verse Translation

16:45–17:20 Dahir Lawan Mu’az (Kano): From Cairo to Sokoto: Abdullahi Dan Fodio’s Didactic Renditions of al-Suyuti’s al-Itqān and al-Nuqāya in 19th-Century West Africa

17:20–17:55 Natalie Kraneiß (Münster): Versifying a Scholarly Discourse, Seeking the Love of the Ahl al-Bayt: A Poem on ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166) from the 18th-Century Maghrib

20:00 CONFERENCE DINNER (PRESENTERS)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2025

PANEL 7

CHAIR: NAZLI VATANSEVER

09:30–10:05 Tuba Nur Saraçoğlu (Mardin): From Riwāya to Poetry: How Has Sīra Narration Changed? The Case of al-ʿIrāqī’s Alfiyya

10:05–10:40 Sahal Varwani (Berkeley): With Rhyme and Reason: Imām ʿUmar al-Kharbūtī’s Logical, Rhetorical, and Dialectical Reading of Imām al-Būṣīrī’s Burdah

10:40–11:00 COFFEE & TEA BREAK

PANEL 8

CHAIR: PHILIP BOCKHOLT

11:00–11:35 Nadine El-Hussein (Berlin): Political Poetry in al-Andalus and the Maghreb during the Almohad Period

11:35–12:10 Paula Manstetten (Bonn): From Biographical Dictionary to Didactic Poem in the Mamluk period: Al-Ṣafadī’s (d. 1363) Urjūza on the Rulers and Governors of Damascus

12:10–12:30 COFFEE & TEA BREAK

CONCLUDING REMARKS

CHAIR: NATALIE KRANEISS

12:30–12:50 Maysoon Shibi (Berlin)

12:50–13:10 Syrinx von Hees (Münster)

13:15 FAREWELL & LUNCH (PRESENTERS)

Poetry and Knowledge: The Production and Transmission of Knowledge in Arabic Verse (1100–1800)

In premodern Islamic societies, poetry was one of the central literary forms for transmitting and disseminating knowledge. Poetry can be found in almost all fields of knowledge, from Qurʾanic sciences, jurisprudence, grammar, rhetoric, and theology to algebra, alchemy, astronomy, astrology, agriculture, cooking, history, geography, logic, and many other fields of knowledge. Thousands of copies of famous poems in Arabic that served or were used to impart knowledge can be found in libraries around the world. Only a few of these poems have been studied in detail; many more are completely unknown to us today.

Despite the very limited research, a number of general assumptions have been made about the poems regularly referred to today as “didactic poems”: They are often written in rajaz meter, have a clear purpose of imparting a fixed body of knowledge, are aimed at facilitating memorization, and have little to no literary merit. Some scholars suggest that a reduced literary quality may have been deliberately chosen in order to focus on content. Some include a wide thematic range of poetry (Khulūṣī 1990), while others advocate a narrow definition and strive to distinguish between “didactic” and “true” poetry (van Gelder 1995, 2007, 2011). Previous research has therefore focused primarily on the formal and genre-related aspects of poetry, which conveys primarily non-literary knowledge. Less attention has been paid to the processes by which knowledge is produced, transmitted, and disseminated in poetry.

This is the starting point of our conference: We aim to explore the diverse strategies used to produce, convey, and disseminate knowledge through poetry. This may include, for example, the composition and structure of the poem, the choice of meter, stylistic devices, sonic and performative aspects, and the use of a specific technical lexicon. We hope this shift in perspective will allow us to move beyond viewing such poems as “poetry without literary pretensions” and instead enable a comprehensive analysis of their stylistic, structural, and functional features.

Hence, we would like to discuss the following topics and questions:

• Knowledge transmission: What kinds of knowledge are transmitted in poetic form, and what strategies do authors use to structure and convey this knowledge?
• Bodies of knowledge: How, if at all, does the knowledge to be conveyed change through its transformation into poetry? What is the relationship between the transformation of prose into poetry and the body of knowledge?
• Authors and contexts: Who writes these poems, for whom are they intended, and in what contexts are they written, read, recited, or commented upon?
• Formal and stylistic aspects: How are these poems structured, what meters, stylistic devices, and sonic elements are used? What is the role of performance and reception? How do emotions relate to the rationality of knowledge?
• Function and purpose: What are the functions of these poems? How do we know that their purpose is to impart knowledge, and what other purposes might they serve?
• Theoretical reflection: What ideas about the function and effect of poetry in the transmission of knowledge can be derived from the texts themselves or from accompanying sources?

We invite contributions that deal with any kind of poetry that serves to impart knowledge or has been used as a source for the extraction of knowledge, and we understand knowledge in its broadest sense.

Date: 
November 20-22, 2025

Submission deadline:
June 1, 2025 (Closed)

Venue:
University of Münster
Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Schlaunstraße 2
48143 Münster, Germany

Organization:
Natalie Kraneiß (n.kraneiss@uni-muenster.de) 
Prof. Dr. Syrinx von Hees (syrinx.hees@uni-muenster.de) 

• Call for Papers (PDF)