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Film: Waiting for Abu Zayd
by Mohamed Ali Atassi
Egypt/Syria 2010
Documentary, 80 min

Discussants:
Islam Dayeh (Freie Universität Berlin)
Umar Ryad (University of Utrecht) and two of his students

In memory of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd who died this day on July 5, 2010.

This event is part of the Arabic film series “Beyond Spring”, organized by Mayadin Al-Tahrir e.V., EUME and the Werkstatt der Kulturen.

Synopsis:
This in-depth documentary focuses on the Egyptian liberation Theologian Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (July 10, 1943 – July 5, 2010), known and remembered for his intellectual curiosity, courage, and humor, and his commitment to a humanistic interpretation of religion and sacred scriptures. His approaches to the Qur’an have challenged mainstream approaches, reactions to his critique of the politization of religious discourse   have forced him into exile. Film director M.A. Atassi joins him on some lecture tours and engages him in some moving debates.

Islam Dayeh is Assistant Professor for Arabic studies at Freie Universität Berlin. He studied at the University of Jordan (BA in Islamic studies), with Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid at the University of Leiden (MA in Religious Studies) and University of Oxford (MSt in Jewish studies) and obtained his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin. He is director of the research program "Zukunftsphilologie: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship" and Executive Editor of the journal Philological Encounters (Brill). His research focuses on the history of Arabic-Islamic scholarship and intellectual history in the early modern period.

Umar Ryad is associate professor of Islamic Studies at Utrecht University - The Netherlands. He finished his BA at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and got his MA and PhD from Leiden University - The Netherlands where he encountered Nasr Abu Zaid. His research interests include trends of modern Muslim thought, Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt in the colonial age and transnational Muslim movements in the interwar era. He is currently leading an ERC Starting Grant research project on the history of Muslims in interwar Europe.

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