Alchemy was a widespread practice in the Islamicate world that was taught from early on to the 19th/20th century. In spite of its popularity attested to by historical references as well as the wealth of alchemical manuscripts that have come down to us, the study of Arabo-Islamic alchemy has been neglected for the last decades. Only recently have we seen a renewed interest in the field, giving rise to a number of publications.

Among its extensive collection of Oriental manuscripts, Gotha Research Library also houses a significant number of alchemical manuscripts (for the Gotha alchemical manuscripts in Arabic see Siggel, Katalog der arabischen alchemistischen Handschriften Deutschlands, vol. 2, Berlin 1950). The workshop aims at bringing together established and younger scholars working on alchemy and providing them with the opportunity to engage directly with the alchemical manuscripts of the Gotha collection. The exploratory character of the workshop refers not only to the direct engagement with the Gotha collection, but also extends to the field of Arabo-Islamic alchemy more generally. Possible questions to be discussed are: Which aspects of alchemy have received significant attention, what aspects deserve to be addressed more in the future? Which theoretical assumptions and methods have guided the research on alchemy, what theories and methods are relevant for future research? What are the current challenges in studying the alchemy of the Islamicate world and how could they be overcome?

We invite papers from a variety of disciplines (for ex. philology, philosophy, history of science, history of religion, art history, paleography), on all aspects of alchemy, for example on

the transmission of alchemical knowledge in different parts of the Islamicate world as well as between the Islamicate world and other regions
the role of manuscripts for the transmission of alchemical knowledge
codicological aspects of alchemical manuscripts
questions of authorship and dating
literary aspects of alchemical texts

To allow for a significant number of hands-on-sessions, preference will be given to papers dealing with Gotha manuscripts.

Please send a 400-word abstract to monika.hasenmueller@uni-erfurt.de not later than August 31, 2017.

The selected participants will be notified by October 30, 2017.

Costs for travel and accommodation will be covered, provided that external funding is granted.

The workshop is organized by the Gotha Research Library in collaboration with the project “Between Religion and Alchemy. The scholar Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (d. 1197) as a model for an integrative Arabic literary and cultural history”, University of Zurich.

هزار سال مکتب شیعه

تاریخ اعتبار: ۱۳۹۶/۰۷/۱۴
محل برگزاری: برلین

The Thousand Year School of Shīa: Kūfa, Ḥilla, Najaf, Al-Aḥsā, Baḥrain, Jabal āmil , Aleppo, Esfahan and Qum

“Shīa studies” nowadays is in the focus of interdisciplinary studies of many academic centers, research institutes and scholars. For this reason, and considering the importance of the exchange of ideas and approaches in Shi’a Studies, the Iran-House in Germany is calling for a two-day seminar on Shia studies entitled “The Thousand Year School of Shīa: Kūfa, Ḥilla, Najaf, Al-Aḥsā, Baḥrain, Jabal āmil , Aleppo, Esfahan and Qum.” With the aim of fostering the exchange between researchers and experts, the organizer would like to present the latest discussions and research outcomes on the following topics by experts:
۱. Historical Shia studies: • From Shaykh Tūsī to Allāma ḥillī • From Allāma ḥillī to Ākhund Khurāsānī (Author of Al-Kifaya From Ākhund Khurāsānī up to date.
۲. Development of Shī’ite jurisprudence (Fiqh) by the founding of the Uṣūlī School by Allāma Waḥīd Bihbihānī in Karbala.
۳. The Science of Uṣūl of the Shiites
۴. Ethics (اخلاق) in the thinking and the spiritual attitude of the Shia
۵. The Shi’ite Seminaries (حوزه) and their teaching methods; Developments and diversities.
۶. Shi’ite Quran interpretation
۷. Permanent legacy of the Shia (manuscripts and their reach)
۸. Societal and political developments of Shia from the Tobacco boycott (Mīrzā Shīrāzī and Seyed Jamāl al-Dīn) to this day.
The conference will take place from October 6 – 8, 2017 in Berlin, after that you would have the opportunity to visit Frankfurt Book Fair. The conference languages are English, Arabic, and Persian.

کنفرانس بررسی ایده ها و منابع خوارج‎

محل برگزاری: آلمان
تاریخ اعتبار: ۱۲-۰۱-۲۰۱۶

خوارج در فرهنگ مسلمانان لقب گروههای افراطی و خشونت طلب در صدر اسلام است. این کنفرانس به بررسی اندیشه های آنان و منابع موجود در بارۀ آنان می پردازد.

Reconsidering Kharijism – CfP for panel at DOT 2017 (Jena/Germany)

Teresa Bernheimer and I are planning to put together a panel on “Reconsidering Kharijism in Early Islamic History” for the Deutscher Orientalistentag conference, to take place in Jena/Germany on 18-22 September 2017 (http://www.dot2017.de/en/). We’re looking for participants who are interested in contributing papers that seek to re-examine the established depiction of early Kharijism as sectarian, heretic, and excessively violent. We’d be very grateful if you circulated this CfP among colleagues and especially (MA/PhD) students. The deadline for panel submissions is end of March, so we’d kindly ask you to get in touch as soon as possible at hannah-lena.hagemann@uni-hamburg.de and/or tb31@soas.ac.uk. The panel description is as follows:

“Scholarship on the early period of Islam has concentrated on the political history of the Arab conquests and the development of Sunnism and Shiism as the major branches of the emerging religion. The history and role of what is commonly considered the third major branch, the ‘Kharijites’ (Arabic: khawarij, ‘those who go out’), a blanket term to describe groups of early Muslim rebels who apparently were neither supporters of the Alids nor of proto-Sunnism, has been largely neglected. The main reason for this neglect has been the reliance of scholarship on the mainstream literary sources. While this material is rich and varied, and includes many different kinds of writings (historical chronicles, theological manuals, biographical and legal works, and the like), the extant material mostly dates to the ninth and tenth centuries CE at the earliest— about two to three hundred years after the events it describes. It has been shown to be full of inconsistencies on minor and major issues, reflecting the concerns and debates of a very different period and context.

Particularly problematic with regard to the Kharijites is that reliance on these sources favours the centralizing narratives of later Sunnis and Shiʿites. Few Kharijite works have survived to tell a different story, and thus the Kharijites are depicted as violent rebels and quintessential heretics: the first ‘sect’ of Islam. Modern scholarship has broadly accepted the perspective of the mainstream tradition. There have been shorter studies on Kharijite sub-groups as well as heightened interest in the Ibadiyya in recent years; however, a proper (re-)examination of early Kharijism is not available, with the most detailed introductions written over 100 years ago (Brünnow 1884, and Wellhausen 1901).

This panel aims to bring together new considerations concerning the history and historiography of early Kharijite movements. By broadening the source base and conceptual perspective, the papers call into question the hitherto almost unchallenged connection between ‘political’ and ‘religious’ Kharijism and examine the extent to which the various Kharijite movements may be seen as anything other than (at most) loosely connected groups of insurgents, thus shedding new light on the intriguing phenomenon of ‘Kharijism’ in early Islam.”