"How Muslims Disposed of Books"
University of Chicago
October 15, 2022
Ahmed El Shamsy, Professor of Islamic Thought, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Destroying books has a very strong symbolic power. However, sometimes an individual just has to dispose of a text—even a sacred one—so what is one to do in that situation? This presentation provides a window into Muslim practices and debates on the question of what the acceptable ways are by which to retire, recycle, or destroy a sacred text, and trace these practices from the beginning of Islam to today and compare them to similar ones among Jews.