Within the framework of the research program 'Europe in the Middle East – the Middle East in Europe' the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in cooperation with the German 'Orient-Institute Istanbul' invite applications for an international Summer Academy on the theme:

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO THE QUR’AN AND THE BIBLE

The Summer Academy is scheduled for September 2-12, 2007 in Istanbul and will be chaired by Professor Angelika Neuwirth (Freie Universitaet Berlin) and Professor Stefan Wild (Universitaet Bonn). Twenty young scholars will be given the opportunity to present and discuss their current research, a group of leading scholars from the field acting as tutors. The Summer Academy will focus on comparative approaches to the study of sacred scriptures in the Middle East and Europe.

Sacred scriptures are texts which are presumed to be timeless and universally true and relevant to the fundamental concerns of their adherents. Yet insofar as such writings are not only canons but also texts – i.e. linguistic utterances, whether of divine or human origin, that were understood at a particular point in time by a particular audience – they exhibit features that do not as such involve religious premises. While literary approaches identify and analyze the poetic and rhetorical techniques and structures in such texts, historical approaches sound out the way these texts may have been understood by their very first reciters, listeners and readers. The Summer Academy will attempt to locate various methods of historical and literary analysis of the Bible and of the Qur'an within the larger framework of the interpretation of sacred scriptures and relate them comparatively to each other. Participants are encouraged to explore the genesis of historical-critical Bible scholarship and its multiple pre-histories in classical and medieval literature (inside and outside Christianity) as well as contextualist and historical approaches to the Qur'an, both within classical Islamic scholarship and among contemporary Muslim writers.

The Summer Academy is a project of the research field 'Perspectives on the Qur'an: Negotiating Different Views of a Shared History,' that situates the foundational text of Islam within the religious landscape of late antiquity and tries to combine a historicization of its genesis with its reception and perception in Europe and the Middle East. This research field and the Summer Academy are supported within the overall framework of the research program 'Europe in the Middle East – the Middle East in Europe' (funded by the German Fritz Thyssen Foundation), which focuses on the diverse processes of transfer, exchange and interaction between Europe and the Middle East.

CONDITIONS OF APPLICATION

Participants receive a stipend covering travel and accommodations. The program targets doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Judaic, Patristic and Islamic studies as well as theology, philosophy and the history of religions. The researchers' work should be clearly relevant to the themes of the Summer Academy. The working language is English. The application should likewise be in English and consist of a curriculum vitae, a five-page outline of the project the applicant is currently working on, with a brief summary thereof, and the names of two university faculty members who will serve as referees. The application should be sent in hard copy or by Email to:

Europe in the Middle East – the Middle East in Europe
c/o Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
z. Hd. Georges Khalil
Wallotstrasse 19
14193 Berlin, Germany
Fax: +49 - 30 - 89 00 12 00
Email: khalil@wiko-berlin.de

We should receive the application by 6 April 2007.

For further information on the program 'Europe in the Middle East - the Middle East in Europe' and for a more comprehensive description of 'Perspectives on the Qur'an: Negotiating Different Views of a Shared History,' please visit
http://www.eume-berlin.de.