Episode Fifteen: The Craft of Speech in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, with Dr Hasan al-Khoee

What is the nature and significance of beauty in Islamic theology and intellectual thought? To what extent did theological, philosophical, and mystical ideas inform the production and reception of Islamic material culture? These and other questions will be the focus of the English interview series "Beauty and Islamic Theology", a series that explores the rich and diverse relationships between theology, art, and aesthetics in the Islamic world.
In this episode, Dr. Bilal Badat talks to Dr Hasan al-Khoee about the craft of speech. Dr al-Khoee describes some of the oratory traditions Late Antiquity and early Islam, explores the paradigmatic importance of the Friday sermon, and discusses what makes a good speech.
Dr. Hasan al-Khoee is currently a research associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He completed his doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), where he focussed on political oratory in the first century of the hijra and the early Arabic historiographical tradition. Today we hope to discuss some of the ideas that emerge in Dr. al-Khoee’s fascinating research on oratory in early Islam.
The interview series concludes the one-year AIWG project workshop "Beauty and Islamic Theology", a joint research program of the Centre for Islamic Theology at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen and the Chair of Islamic Religious Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg.