Newsletter ‒ December 2016
Dear friends, Sirte, Mosul, Homs, Madagali, Aden, Istanbul, Mogadishu, Cairo, Kamuya, Berlin, al-Bab… Each time blind violence hits an innocent crowd, the whole of humanity is hit. And when this violence pretends to act in the name of God, whole believers are humiliated in turn. What is there that lies in humans that generates all […]
Archeology and water in medieval Morocco
Thomas Soubira Archeologist, PhD student in Toulouse University icon-calendar Monday December 19ᵗʰ, 2016 The archeological site of Sijilmasa is being excavated by a French Moroccan team. This “harbour” of transsaharian trade between the 8th and the 15th centuries has remarkable hydrolic archeological remnants that can be observed on the entire excavation zone: water harvesting, transportation, […]
Reflection on the argument from cannibalism in Islamic theology
Eric van Lit PhD in Islamic studies Tuesday December 13ᵗʰ, 2016 A little problem keeps popping up century after century, in the writings of all kinds of Muslim theologians (80 to 90 authors have been identified so far); what happens if one person were to eat another person, can they both have bodily resurrection? The […]
Newsletter — November 2016
Dear friends, Some have reacted to our previous newsletter, finding it very elitist and not very down-to-earth. November was full of all kinds of down-to-earth activities, which are always beautiful and instructive, activities which sent us back to our books and our scholarly studies. Our life here is like a round-trip! Thank you for following […]
Religionsfreiheit und islamische Staaten
Emmanuel Pisani, « Religionsfreiheit und islamische Staaten. Die Verquickung von Theologie und Politik » in Concilium, Oktober 2016, pages 436‒447.
Cooperation with the University of al-Azhar
On November 27, 2016, we had the pleasure to finally sign a cooperation agreement with al-Azhar University, with their two French sections, one in the Faculty of Language and Translation (for men) and one in the Faculty of Human Sciences (for women). Negotiations had been ongoing since March 2015. The friendship and perseverance of the […]
What happened to the grammar of numerals after Sībawayhi?
Jean Druel, What happened to the grammar of numerals after Sībawayhi? Amal E. Marogy and Kees Versteegh (Editors). The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics II. Brill: Leiden, Boston, 2015. 81‒99.
Ethics and spirituality in Islam
Francesco Chiabotti, Eve Feuillebois-Pierunek, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen et Luca Patrizi (éd.), Ethics and spirituality in Islam: Sufi adab, Brill, Leyde, 2016, 792 pages. The notion of adab is at the heart of Arab-Islamic culture. Born in the crucible of the Arabic and Persian civilization, nourished by Greek and Indian influences, this polysemic notion could cover a variegated […]
A Persian Gospel manuscript
Dennis Halft, “A Persian Gospel manuscript and the London Polyglot”, in M. Pehlivanian, Ch. Rauch, and R. Vollandt, eds, Oriental Bible manuscripts from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK: An illustrated history, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2016, 155‒157.
The ‘Book of books’ in Persian
Dennis Halft, “The ‘Book of books’ in Persian”, in M. Pehlivanian, Ch. Rauch, and R. Vollandt, eds, Oriental Bible manuscripts from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK: An illustrated history, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2016, 150‒154.