Papers by Hythem Sidky
Language & History, 2024
In the early Islamic period, the literary form of Arabic had an astounding amount of variation in... more In the early Islamic period, the literary form of Arabic had an astounding amount of variation in its pronominal morphology. This paper examines the pronominal morphology of especially the third person masculine singular and plural pronouns, as they are described by the early Arabic grammarians, how they appear in the the descriptions of the canonical and non-canonical reading traditions and finally the pronominal systems as they appear in actual early Qurʾānic manuscripts. It is shown that the early grammarians were much more permissive of morphological variation than one would expect from strict norms that appear later. It is
also shown that the pronominal systems of the reading traditions go well beyond the kinds of variation described by these grammarians. The systems of these readers show clear clusters (a Kufan, Basran, Hijazi and a ‘Classical’ cluster), even though in the details reading traditions from a single region still often differ from one another. Finally, it is shown that while some of the pronominal systems known in the reading tradition literature also show up in the Qurʾānic manuscripts, there is a significant number of manuscripts that have pronominal systems unlike any of the described systems in the literary sources.
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2024
An edition and discussion of two Paleo-Arabic inscriptions from Taif dated to the life time of Mu... more An edition and discussion of two Paleo-Arabic inscriptions from Taif dated to the life time of Muhammad, and one possibly by a Companion.
This is not the full article; email to request the full version or download here:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729531
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2023
The oral transmission of the Quran has long been the subject of dispute. Some scholars have asser... more The oral transmission of the Quran has long been the subject of dispute. Some scholars have asserted that the canonical reading traditions are products of attempts at deciphering the ʿUthmānic text without reference to a living oral tradition. Although our understanding of the written Quran in early Islam has advanced considerably in recent years, the same cannot be said for the oral Quran. A careful study of the consonantal dotting patterns between the canonical readings reveals independent Medinan, Meccan-Basran, and Kufan regional traditions. Through additional statistical analysis and corresponding manuscript evidence, I demonstrate the existence of an inherited oral tradition that likely dates to the time of the ʿUthmānic recension and among the first generation of the followers of Muḥammad.
This paper will produce a new edition of the Rīʿ al-Zallālah inscription, discussing in detail it... more This paper will produce a new edition of the Rīʿ al-Zallālah inscription, discussing in detail its paleographic features and content, and the ramifications it has on our understanding of the linguistic and religious milieu of the sixth–early seventh century Ḥigāz.
JIQSA, 2020
The ʿUthmānic codification of the Qurʾān as described by Muslim sources includes the distribution... more The ʿUthmānic codification of the Qurʾān as described by Muslim sources includes the distribution of at least four regional exemplars to Syria, Medina, Basra, and Kufa. Orthographic variants between these codices were identified and collected by Muslim scholars in the rasm literature. This paper explores the subject of qurʾānic regionality through material evidence. Combining philological, literary, and phylogenetic analysis, a stemma of early qurʾānic manuscripts is constructed and compared against idealized representations. This process of reconstruction identifies four ancestral codices from which all examined manuscripts descend. It illuminates the presence of a new regional subgroup I have termed neo-Basran, suggesting a local orthographic reform. Additional evidence is presented for the historicity of the Uthmānic canonization and the distribution of four regional exemplars. Ḥimṣ, as opposed to Damascus, is also identified as the city to which the Syrian exemplar was dispatched. Finally, a comparison of literary reports against the earliest manuscripts reveals that knowledge of the regional variants does not date back to the time of canonization but was accumulated over time through careful scrutiny of regional muṣḥafs.
Book Reviews by Hythem Sidky
Conference Presentations by Hythem Sidky
Stylometry, which is the statistical analysis of literary style, has been successfully applied to... more Stylometry, which is the statistical analysis of literary style, has been successfully applied to literary works as a means of determining authorship attribution, authorship verification, and stylochronometry. A recent study has used stylometric analysis to argue for single authorship of the Quranic corpus, along with a new chronology. At the heart of this argument is the so-called criterion of concurrent smoothness. This principle claims that a concurrent-and-smooth evolution of multiple independent style markers in a corpus is best explained as chronological development by a single author; the Quran is demonstrated to be an example of such a corpus. Numerous objections have been raised towards this criterion, some of which are due to a fundamental misunderstanding of statistical principles. Others, however, are legitimate, and worth pursuing further. Surahs traditionally ascribed to the early Meccan phase, for example, are seen as stylistically distinct and thus the product of a different author – perhaps the only truly Muhammaden-era material.
In this talk, Dr. Sidky will explore the limits of what stylometry, and more broadly statistical analysis, can and cannot tell us about the authorship of the Quranic corpus. He will draw parallels with the Homeric Question, which is a longstanding debate over the authorship of the Illiad and Odyssey. While previous statistical investigations into Quranic authorship have relied on purely lexical markers, He introduces semantic features as well. This improves corpus resolution enables us to quantify the degree of internal dissimilarity in the text. He will also present this semantically-aware model as a tool for identifying possible redactions. Despite my more nuanced approach, definitive answers are frustrated by the brevity of the Quranic corpus which pushes the limits of statistical certainty. Dr. Sidky will conclude with a broader discussion of computational analysis: can they replace a philologist's intuition? Can they quantify the features informing this intuition, and if so, are they actually significant?
Reading the Rasm - Quranic Text, Reading Traditions and The ʿArabiyya, 2018
Edited Journals by Hythem Sidky
by Antoine Borrut, Pamela Klasova, Rachel N Schine, Marie Legendre, Marijn van Putten, Austin O'Malley, Zara Pogossian, Hythem Sidky, Ignacio Sánchez, Coleman Connelly, Robert Haug, and Noah Gardiner
Other Papers by Hythem Sidky
Molecular Physics, Mar 3, 2020
Chemical Science
Latent space simulators learn kinetic models for atomistic simulations and generate novel traject... more Latent space simulators learn kinetic models for atomistic simulations and generate novel trajectories at six orders of magnitude lower cost.
Molecular Systems Design & Engineering
Correction for ‘Automated determination of n-cyanobiphenyl and n-cyanobiphenyl binary mixtures el... more Correction for ‘Automated determination of n-cyanobiphenyl and n-cyanobiphenyl binary mixtures elastic constants in the nematic phase from molecular simulation’ by Jiale Shi et al., Mol. Syst. Des. Eng., 2020, 5, 1131–1136, DOI: 10.1039/C9ME00065H.
Molecular Systems Design & Engineering
This work explores new techniques in molecular simulation which can be used to precisely determin... more This work explores new techniques in molecular simulation which can be used to precisely determine and engineer elastic properties of liquid crystals for new applications.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
Soft Matter
Bent-shaped liquid crystals have attracted significant attention recently due to their novel meso... more Bent-shaped liquid crystals have attracted significant attention recently due to their novel mesostructure and the intriguing behavior of their elastic constants, which are strongly anisotropic and have an unusual temperature...
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B
The Journal of Chemical Physics
The Journal of Chemical Physics
Polymers
The titration behavior of weak polyelectrolytes is of high importance, due to their uses in new t... more The titration behavior of weak polyelectrolytes is of high importance, due to their uses in new technologies including nanofiltration and drug delivery applications. A comprehensive picture of polyelectrolyte titration under relevant conditions is currently lacking, due to the complexity of systems involved in the process. One must contend with the inherent structural and solvation properties of the polymer, the presence of counterions, and local chemical equilibria enforced by background salt concentration and solution acidity. Moreover, for these cases, the systems of interest have locally high concentrations of monomers, induced by polymer connectivity or confinement, and thus deviate from ideal titration behavior. This work furthers knowledge in this limit utilizing hybrid Monte Carlo–Molecular Dynamics simulations to investigate the influence of salt concentration, pK a , pH, and counterion valence in determining the coil-to-globule transition of poorly solvated weak polyelectr...
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Papers by Hythem Sidky
also shown that the pronominal systems of the reading traditions go well beyond the kinds of variation described by these grammarians. The systems of these readers show clear clusters (a Kufan, Basran, Hijazi and a ‘Classical’ cluster), even though in the details reading traditions from a single region still often differ from one another. Finally, it is shown that while some of the pronominal systems known in the reading tradition literature also show up in the Qurʾānic manuscripts, there is a significant number of manuscripts that have pronominal systems unlike any of the described systems in the literary sources.
This is not the full article; email to request the full version or download here:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729531
Book Reviews by Hythem Sidky
Conference Presentations by Hythem Sidky
In this talk, Dr. Sidky will explore the limits of what stylometry, and more broadly statistical analysis, can and cannot tell us about the authorship of the Quranic corpus. He will draw parallels with the Homeric Question, which is a longstanding debate over the authorship of the Illiad and Odyssey. While previous statistical investigations into Quranic authorship have relied on purely lexical markers, He introduces semantic features as well. This improves corpus resolution enables us to quantify the degree of internal dissimilarity in the text. He will also present this semantically-aware model as a tool for identifying possible redactions. Despite my more nuanced approach, definitive answers are frustrated by the brevity of the Quranic corpus which pushes the limits of statistical certainty. Dr. Sidky will conclude with a broader discussion of computational analysis: can they replace a philologist's intuition? Can they quantify the features informing this intuition, and if so, are they actually significant?
Edited Journals by Hythem Sidky
Other Papers by Hythem Sidky
also shown that the pronominal systems of the reading traditions go well beyond the kinds of variation described by these grammarians. The systems of these readers show clear clusters (a Kufan, Basran, Hijazi and a ‘Classical’ cluster), even though in the details reading traditions from a single region still often differ from one another. Finally, it is shown that while some of the pronominal systems known in the reading tradition literature also show up in the Qurʾānic manuscripts, there is a significant number of manuscripts that have pronominal systems unlike any of the described systems in the literary sources.
This is not the full article; email to request the full version or download here:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729531
In this talk, Dr. Sidky will explore the limits of what stylometry, and more broadly statistical analysis, can and cannot tell us about the authorship of the Quranic corpus. He will draw parallels with the Homeric Question, which is a longstanding debate over the authorship of the Illiad and Odyssey. While previous statistical investigations into Quranic authorship have relied on purely lexical markers, He introduces semantic features as well. This improves corpus resolution enables us to quantify the degree of internal dissimilarity in the text. He will also present this semantically-aware model as a tool for identifying possible redactions. Despite my more nuanced approach, definitive answers are frustrated by the brevity of the Quranic corpus which pushes the limits of statistical certainty. Dr. Sidky will conclude with a broader discussion of computational analysis: can they replace a philologist's intuition? Can they quantify the features informing this intuition, and if so, are they actually significant?