Zishan Ahmad Ghaffar
Zishan Ghaffar is a professor (W3 chair) of Quranic exegesis at the Seminar for Islamic Theology of the University of Paderborn, where he directs the Center for Comparative Theology and Cultural Sciences (ZeKK), succeeding Klaus von Stosch. From 2017 to 2020 he was a researcher for the Corpus Coranicum project of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.
His research focuses on classical (tafsīr) and historical-critical Quranic exegesis, Quranic theology, the biography of the Prophet (sīra) and the historical Muhammad, comparative theology, the genesis and history of Islam, and Syriac Christianity.
He is the author of Der Koran in seinem religions- und weltgeschichtlichen Kontext (Mohr Siebeck, 2020) and co-edited, with Klaus von Stosch, Theology of Prophecy in Dialogue. A Jewish-Christian-Muslim Encounter (2025).
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Theology of Prophecy in Dialogue: A Jewish-Christian-Muslim Encounter
- Klaus von Stosch
- Zishan Ahmad Ghaffar
Edited by Zishan Ghaffar (University of Paderborn) and Klaus von Stosch, professor of systematic theology at the University of Bonn and member of the coordination committee of Pluriel, this collect...
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publication
Normativity of Holy Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- Klaus von Stosch
- Zishan Ahmad Ghaffar
In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the orientation towards “holy texts” is central. While in the past it was undisputed that these texts could be understood as directly given by God an...
Resources related to
Quranic Studies
publication
Islam and Muslims. Doctrines, Schools of Thought, and Current Trends
- Michel Younès
Publication date: April 16, 2026. Islam, as a historical, religious, and civilizational reality, is difficult to define. It can be perceived as a form of political governance, an expression of fait...
publication
The Event of the Qur’an: Islam in its Scripture
- Timo Güzelmansur
Published as Das Ereignis des Koran. Der Islam in seiner Schrift (Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2026), this volume is the first German translation of the classic work by the Anglican Islamic...
publication
A Theology of Violence: An Analysis of Selected Surahs from the Qur’an
- Hamideh Mohagheghi
Published as Theologie der Gewalt. Eine Analyse ausgewählter Suren aus dem Koran (Münster: Waxmann, 2026), this book by Hamideh Mohagheghi is the published version of her doctoral thesis (defended ...
publication
Theology of Prophecy in Dialogue: A Jewish-Christian-Muslim Encounter
- Klaus von Stosch
- Zishan Ahmad Ghaffar
Edited by Zishan Ghaffar (University of Paderborn) and Klaus von Stosch, professor of systematic theology at the University of Bonn and member of the coordination committee of Pluriel, this collect...
article
The Genre of the Mawlid Narrative in the mid-12th h./18th Century as Exemplified by al-Barzanjī
- Antonio Cuciniello
Among the works of Arabic literature concerning the genre of Mawlid, certainly al-Barzanjī’s Mawlid is a text that has achieved great popularity and spread to large parts of the Islamic world. Inde...
videos
The History of the Quran according to Muslim Sources
- Gabriel Said Reynolds
Professors Shady Nasser from Harvard and Gabriel Reynolds from the University of Notre Dame explore the history of the revelation and compilation of the Quran according to traditional Muslim source...
videos
Jesus in Recent Qur’an Translations | The Jesus of the Qur’an vs. the Jesus of the New Testament
- Gabriel Said Reynolds
In this video, Gabriel Said Reynolds discusses the presentation of Jesus in the Qur'an and how it is interpreted and rendered in English by recent translations of the Qur'an. I show that recent tra...
publication
Islam and Scientific Examination: A Renewed Quest
- Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
- Dominique Avon
“How can we establish an objective, rigorous, and detached study of Islam in the face of the excesses generated by its politicization? It is to answer this burning question that the French In...