At Princeton since 2018, Tehseen Thaver is Assistant Professor of Religion/Islam. Tehseen holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches courses on the Qur’an and its interpretation, Sufism and Muslim Ethics, Muslim humanities, Shi‘ism, and religion and culture of Iran. Her research focuses on multiple forms of Muslims’ engagement with scripture – pre-modern and modern, oral and textual, interpretive and performative. In her current book project, Beyond Sectarianism: Text, Hermeneutics, and the Formations of Religious Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Islam (in preparation), she explores the interplay of politics, religious identity, and Qur’an exegesis in early Islam, focusing on the Arabic Qur’an commentary of renowned Shi‘i theologian, poet, and historian of Baghdad, al-Sharif al-Radi (d.1015CE). Her second book monograph engages the Persian Qur’an commentary of the prominent twelfth century scholar, Abu’l-Futuh Razi (d. 1144CE), and interrogates the interaction of orality, exegesis and affect in Muslim intellectual thought.
Representative publications include “Encountering Ambiguity: Mu‘tazili and Twelver Shi‘i Approaches to the Qur’an’s Ambiguous Verses,” Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 18.3 (2016): 91–115; “Language as Power: Literary Interpretations of the Qur’an in Early Islam,” Journal of The Royal Asiatic Society, 28.2 (2018): 207-230; Beauty and Light: Mystical Discourses by a Contemporary Female Sufi Master (editor), (Fons Vitae, 2017).
Courses – Fall 2019
REL 239 /NES 239 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Sufism
Professor(s): Tehseen Thaver
1:30 pm-2:50 T Th
Department Area Requirement: Islam
REL 511
Special Topics in the Study of Religion
Transcript Topic Title: Trends and Approaches in Qur’anic Studies */aud
Tehseen Thaver
4:30 pm – 7:20 pm T
Courses – Spring 2019
REL 239 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Sufism
Tehseen Thaver
03:00:00 pm – 04:20:00 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Islam
REL 333 / NES 333 (EC) No Audit
Interpreting the Qur’an: Text, Context, and Materiality
Tehseen Thaver
11:00:00 am – 12:20:00 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Islam