Ahmed El Shamsy, How Muslims Disposed of Books

"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.