The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Dr Stephen R. Burge

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Biography

Dr Stephen R. Burge is a Research Associate in the Qur’anic Studies Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. After studying Arabic and Hebrew at the University of St. Andrews, Stephen Burge moved to the University of Edinburgh for his Masters’ and doctoral work. He has specialized in the study of angels in Islam, looking at the angelology of the Qur’an and more widely in the Islamic tradition. His doctoral thesis is a translation and commentary of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti’s Al-Haba’ik fi akhbar al-mala’ik (The Arrangement of the Traditions about Angels).

His areas of research are in angelology, Islamic exegesis, Hadith Studies, popular religion and the works of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. He is also interested in comparative Semitic philology and lexicography, Islamic codicology and relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam – especially in popular religion.

Publications

Books

Angels in Islam: Jalal al-Din al-Suyuṭi’s al-Ḥaba’ik fi akhbar al-mala’ik. (London: Routledge, 2012; Culture and Civilization in the Middle East Series).

Edited Volumes

The Meaning of the Word: Lexicology and Tafsir (to be submitted to the Qur’anic Studies Series).

Book Chapters

‘The Meaning of the Word: An Introduction to Lexicology and Tafsir,’ in S. R. Burge (ed.), The Meaning of the Word: Lexicology and Tafsir.

‘Lexicology, Aḥadith, Poetry and Tafsir: Defending Lexicological Readings,’ in S. R. Burge (ed.), The Meaning of the Word: Lexicology and Tafsir.

‘Jalal al-Din al-Suyuṭi, the Mu’awwidhatan and the Modes of Exegesis,’ in Karen Bauer (ed.), The Aims and Methods of Qur’anic Exegesis (8^th – 15^th centuries),(Forthcoming 2012).

‘The Angels’ Roles in Death and Judgement: al-Suyuti’s Approach to Hadith’ in Amanda Phillips and Refqa Abu-Remaileh (eds.), The Meeting Place of British Middle Eastern Studies: Emerging Scholars, Emergent Research and Approaches Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) pp. 40 – 59.

Journal Articles

‘Reading between the Lines: The Compilation of Hadit and the Authorial Voice,’ Arabica 58 (2011) pp. 168 – 197.

‘Impurity / Danger!’ Islamic Law and Society 17:3 (2010) pp. 320 – 349.

‘’ZR’L, The Angel of Death and the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Peter’ Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 19.3 (2010) pp. 217 – 224

‘Angels, Ritual and Sacred Space in Islam,’ Comparative Islamic Studies 5:2 (2009) pp. 221 - 245.

‘The Angels in Surat al-Mala’ika: Exegeses of Q . 35:1’ Journal of Qur’anic Studies 10 (2009) pp. 50 – 70.

‘The Provenance of Suhrawardian Angelology’ Archiv Orientální 76 (2008) pp. 435 – 457

Book Reviews

David S. Powers, Muḥammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 38:1, pp. 277 - 279.

David Jacoby, Latins, Greeks and Muslims: Encounters in the Eastern Mediterranean, 10^th – 15^th Centuries (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009).’ Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 23:1.

Nehemia Levztion, (ed. Michel Abitol and Amos Nadan), Islam in Africa and the Middle East: Studies on Conversion and Renewal (Aldershot: Variorum, 2007).’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 37:3 (2010) pp. 468 – 471.

Jonathan A. C. Brown, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford: One World, 2009).’ Journal of Qur'anic Studies 12 (2010) pp. 214 – 217.

Norman Solomon, Richard Harries and Tim Winter (eds.), Abraham’s Children: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conversation (London: T&T Clark, 2005), British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 36:3 (2009).