Arabic literature and Islamic studies Professor Shawkat Toorawa of Cornell University will deliver two talks as part of the Annual York-Noor Lecture Series 2009-2010, one on Sunday, the second on Monday.
The first lecture, “Fathers and Mothers in the Qur’an”, will take place Nov. 29, from 3 to 5pm at the Noor Cultural Centre, 123 Wynford Dr. (Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Avenue).
“A Glimpse into the Education of a Medieval Muslim Polymath 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi's Autobiography” will take place Nov. 30, from 11:30am to 2:30pm, in the Senior Common Room at 010 Vanier College, Keele campus.
Toorawa is a professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell. His interests are classical and medieval Arabic literature, modern Arabic poetry, the Qur’an and the Indian Ocean. He is author of Ibn Abi Tayfur and Arabic Writerly Culture: A Ninth Century Bookman in Baghdad (Routledge, 2005), the translator of A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Syracuse University Press, 2004), co-editor of Law and Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of George Makdisi (David Brown Book Co., 2004) and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Qur’anic Studies.
For more information on the York-Noor Lecture Series, visit the Division of Humanities Web site.