Contact Information
E-mail:
Office:
Rice 328
(440) 775-8113
Personal Office Hours:
Mon 4:00-5:00 PM, Tues 9:00-10:00 AM & by appointment
Joel Blecher
Educational Background
- Bachelor of Arts, Swarthmore College, 2004
- Master of Arts, Princeton University, 2010
Joel Blecher studied at the University of Damascus in 2006-7 and, since then, has undertaken extensive fieldwork and archival research in Arabic and Urdu in traditional Islamic institutions in Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and India.
His current scholarship investigates the politics, culture, and transformation of an Islamic commentary tradition on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, a compilation of sayings and practices attributed to Muhammad, and a capstone of the Islamic legal curriculum. In his work, he explores themes of orality and literacy; language, ethnicity and contestation over political patronage; and authority and innovation in a conservative textual tradition.
He is concurrently a fellow, in absentia, at the Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies.
Recent and Upcoming courses:
REL 270 Introduction to Islam: Muslims and Muhammad
REL 272 The Qurʾan and Its Interpreters
REL 374 The Authority of Hadith: Criticism and Commentary
