The Rediscovery and Remake of Classical Islamic Texts

In his latest book, ‘Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition’, Ahmed El Shamsy unveils the transformation of Islamic scholarship through printing and publishing industries and the effects such mechanisms had on Islamic intellectual heritage. 

We learn of editors and intellectuals who helped form today's Islamic canon by putting forgotten texts through print. In an impressively wide range of research, El Shamsy demonstrates the toil, erudition, and subjectivity that went into rediscovering many of these nearly lost works. 

Moderator: 
Ameen Omar, 
President of CIS Student Council

Discussants: 
Dr. Alexandre Caeiro, 
Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, CIS

Dr. Frank Peter, 
Assistant Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, CIS

Speaker: 
Dr. Ahmed El Shamsy, Associate Professor,
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,
University of Chicago