Der computergestützte Sprachvergleich (Wu et al. 2020) hat zum Ziel, Sprachvielfalt und Sprachgeschichte mit Hilfe einer Mischung aus computerbasierten und nicht-automatischen aber formalen Methoden zu untersuchen und dadurch grundlegende Fragen zur Entwicklung spezifischer Sprachfamilien (Sagart et al. 2019) oder zur Typologie von Sprachvielfalt…[Read more]

Graduate seminar syllabus: In this seminar, we will explore the contemporary comic, considering literary and cultural works across a range of platforms and markets. Comics are still frequently (and historically) associated with popular culture, and linked to children’s literature and mass media, even as they loom large through big and small screen…[Read more]

This paper explores the challenges associated with the publication of public and publicly engaged humanities scholarship. It is the product of a working group convened in February 2020 by Routledge, Taylor & Francis and the National Humanities Alliance to identify and discuss model practices for publishing on public and publicly engaged humanities…[Read more]

Pakistan’s religious leaders, ulama, have been put under significant strain in relation to how to deal with questions about the political tensions and violence over the past decade flowing from the Taliban’s role in the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The effects of this fraught environment on religious authority can be seen through the way…[Read more]

Pakistan’s religious leaders, ulama, have been put under significant strain in relation to how to deal with questions about the political tensions and violence over the past decade flowing from the Taliban’s role in the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The effects of this fraught environment on religious authority can be seen through the way…[Read more]

This paper discusses the issue of the relationship between theology and religious studies, drawing on certain principles of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical theory. Leaving aside differences between Gadamer and his critics, it is argued that his rehabilitation of prejudice, authority, and tradition as well as his notions of the fusion of…[Read more]

This paper discusses the issue of the relationship between theology and religious studies, drawing on certain principles of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical theory. Leaving aside differences between Gadamer and his critics, it is argued that his rehabilitation of prejudice, authority, and tradition as well as his notions of the fusion of…[Read more]

Though the ritual of fasting is common to most of the known religious traditions, its practice and symbolic value may vary considerably. This paper aims at a comparative study into the meaning and significance of this ritual with special reference to the three Semitic religions namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some interesting similarities…[Read more]

Though the ritual of fasting is common to most of the known religious traditions, its practice and symbolic value may vary considerably. This paper aims at a comparative study into the meaning and significance of this ritual with special reference to the three Semitic religions namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some interesting similarities…[Read more]

I will mainly focus on a collection of films made between 1972 and 1985 by the Staatliche Filmdokumentation (SFD)—the State Film
Documentation unit—which survived as part of the collection of the Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR (SFA), the former national film archive
of the GDR.

This chapter surveys the current state of knowledge relating to the Web history of religion, and suggests some ways forward.
Its first half attends to some debates of particular historical and methodological note with which the emerging history of religions on the Web may fruitfully be brought into conversation. These include debates concerning…[Read more]

A comparative study of Liana Badr’s The Eye of the Mirror and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India shows that these two novels present intriguingly similar feminist frameworks through which the traumas of war and communal violence may be addressed. They do so by erasing the distinction between literary work and critical social history, producing what we…[Read more]

This paper deals with the Sufi shaykh Haji Imdad Allah Muhajir Makki’s (1817-1899) efforts for conciliation of different strands of Muslim religious thought in the late nineteenth century with particular reference to his main work on this theme-a short treatise titled Faisalah-i Haft Mas’alah (literally: A Resolution of the Seven Controversies).…[Read more]

This paper deals with the Sufi shaykh Haji Imdad Allah Muhajir Makki’s (1817-1899) efforts for conciliation of different strands of Muslim religious thought in the late nineteenth century with particular reference to his main work on this theme-a short treatise titled Faisalah-i Haft Mas’alah (literally: A Resolution of the Seven Controversies).…[Read more]

Religion, language, and race have been among the most crucial factors behind the formation of various national and communal identities in modern South Asian history. Just like the political division of British India, the complex interplay of these factors also culminated in a bifurcation of linguistic boundaries along the religious lines according…[Read more]

Religion, language, and race have been among the most crucial factors behind the formation of various national and communal identities in modern South Asian history. Just like the political division of British India, the complex interplay of these factors also culminated in a bifurcation of linguistic boundaries along the religious lines according…[Read more]

Medieval Hebrew and Syriac scribes both indicated vowels by placing dots above or below their consonantal writing. These vowel points were created in the Late Antique and early Islamic periods to disambiguate the vocalization of important texts, especially the Bible. The earliest step in this process was the implementation of the Syriac ‘diacritic…[Read more]

Dawid bar Pawlos’ Letter on Dots is an eighth-century text that purportedly describes the introduction of some of the dots used in Syriac writing. It also sheds light on the life of a certain Rāmišoʿ of Beṯ Rabban, apparently the same man as the master of pointing named in MS BL Add. 12138. However, most studies of Syriac dots either neglec…[Read more]

The Arabic-script Qurʾān fragments of the Cairo genizah collections have not yet drawn much interest among Arabic and genizah scholars. This paper aims to bring them to the attention of a broader audience by presenting the palaeographic features (§3) and vocalisation systems (§4) of eleven Arabic-script Qurʾān fragments from the Cambridge Unive…[Read more]