News

The TRANSLAPT team is delighted to introduce the Mercator Fellow of the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group: Andrew Peacock, who is Bishop Wardlaw Professor in the School of History at the University of St Andrews. As a Mercator Fellow, he will regularly attend the group's meetings during the project period and contribute to the group's official events and research publications. Andrew Peacock's expertise will enrich our research perspectives and methods in the study of the history of inner-Islamic translation processes.

On 27 and 28 November, Philip Bockholt will take part in the conference "New Approaches to Mediterranean Studies", organised by the Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform (PTI) MEDhis of the CSIC in Madrid. For two days, numerous researchers with thematically diverse projects on the Mediterranean region will come together to discuss future perspectives for joint approaches. Philip Bockholt is very much looking forward to presenting TRANSLAPT and his research on the (Islamic) Eastern Mediterranean.

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts

The newly published collective volume by Philip Bockholt and Sacha Alsancakli (Cahiers de Studia Iranica, Paris) addresses dynamic and collective authorship by examining how authors and scribes in the Persianate parts of the Islamic world produced, copied, and interpreted texts during the manuscript age within specific cultural contexts, out of political necessity and as a result of professional choices. The changes applied consist of minor corrections and amendments, as well as full-fledged reworkings of a text and modifications to its core ideological components.

The conference “Texts as Living Objects” at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris from November 14th to 16th, organised by Philip Bockholt and Sacha Alsancakli, aims to examine how texts remained relevant throughout the pre-modern and modern periods in the Islamic world, with a focus on the phenomenon of dhayl (pl. dhuyūl) in Arabic, or ẕayl/ẕeyl in Persian and Turkish. As a prominent feature of Islamic manuscript transmission, the term dhayl refers to the act of continuing the narrative of a given text, typically a historical chronicle, up to the time of the amendment.

During last week's kick-off meeting in Münster, all six members of TRANSLAPT had the opportunity to introduce themselves and discuss their approach to translations of various secular and religious genres. We are all deeply motivated to delve into the translation processes of Arabic and Persian into Ottoman Turkish during the early modern period, exploring the actors and intricacies involved. We express our gratitude for the presence of Mercator fellow Andrew Peacock from St Andrews, as well as the numerous guests who attended the event, including representatives from the University of Münster and other universities in the region. We are optimistic that the musical performance and the reception that followed will be cherished by all who were in attendance.

As of October 1st, two new doctoral candidates have become part of the TRANSLAPT team. Hicham Bouhadi, hailing from Morocco, is embarking on a research journey centered around the translation of biographical and hagiographical works. Simultaneously, Muhammed Sofu, who comes from Istanbul and Berlin, will be immersing himself in the realm of translating Hadith works. Both sub-projects are dedicated to exploring the multifaceted translation processes within significant secular and religious literary genres of the early modern Eastern Mediterranean.

Translation processes in the Islamic world of the early modern period, especially in the Ottoman Empire, have hardly been researched so far. The new Emmy Noether Junior Research Group TRANSLAPT aims to change this and invites everyone to its inaugural event on 19 October in Münster. In addition to the presentation of the TRANSLAPT team, the event will also feature a lecture by the renowned scholar Andrew Peacock (St. Andrews) on the topic of "Translation and the Making of Islamic Intellectual Culture", as well as a muscial contribution by Maktub Trio.

This week, Philip Bockholt is in Vienna for the Turkologentag 2023, the fourth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies. The event, held every two years at different universities, is organised in collaboration with the Society for Turkic, Ottoman, and Turkish Studies (GTOT). He is particularly excited about discussing translation processes into Ottoman Turkish during the early modern period.

Last week Philip Bockholt attended the Tenth European Conference on Iranian Studies (ECIS10) in Leiden, the Netherlands (21-25 August). It takes place every four years and is organised by the Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE). Besides giving a lecture on historiography in 16th-century Khurasan, he met with fellow researchers in the field of Iranian and Persianate studies.

Last week, Philip Bockholt presented his research on inner-Islamic translation processes at the last session of the Bayerisches Orientkolloquium in Bamberg, Franconia. This was followed by a lively discussion with members from all areas of the Institute of Oriental Studies (Arabic Studies, Iranian Studies, Islamic Studies, and Turkology).

The Emmy Noether Meeting from 7 to 9 July 2023 in Potsdam, which Philip Bockholt attended, was again characterised by exchange and discussion. In addition to workshops, lectures and office hours, this year's science policy evening on the topic "Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Science: Opportunity or Risk?" was a particular highlight. In addition, the actress Anita Zieher took the guests on "Mathematical Walks with Emmy Noether".

Starting from July 2023, Ahmet Aytep will begin his research within Philip Bockholt's new project focussing on Arabic-Ottoman translations of works of Qurʾānic exegesis (tafsīr), which is part of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics. Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation” at the University of Münster. As one of the most significant religious genres in Islamic culture, Arabic and Persian tafsīr works were translated into Ottoman Turkish several times and circulated widely in the Islamic lands.

Last week, Philip Bockholt and Tobias Sick gave a joint lecture on translations of Persian advice literature at the interdisciplinary conference "Vernetzte Sprachen und Religionen entlang der Seidenstraße – von der Antike bis in die Frühe Neuzeit", which was organised by the Structural Commission "Africa – Asia – Europe" (AAE) at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig.

Last week, Philip Bockholt and Tobias Sick participated in the "Sufi Manuscript Cultures II" workshop at the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Nafi Baba Tasavvuf, Tarih ve Kültürel Miras Araştırma Merkezi and gave a lecture at the İstanbul Araştırma ve Eğitim Merkezi (İSAR) at the Özbekler Tekkesi in Üsküdar. Further meetings at various universities and research centres gave them the opportunity to discuss possibilities for future cooperation.

This week Philip Bockholt is attending the Ninth Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies in Yerevan, Armenia. During his stay, he will meet with colleagues from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences and the Matenadaran / Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the latter being one of the most important centres for manuscripts in the region.

The conference “Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire”, held at the Gotha Research Centre from 27 to 29 April 2023, provided the platform for an in-depth discussion on the role of Persian in the Ottoman Empire. A keynote lecture by Andrew Peacock and thirteen presentations explored the importance and spread of Persian in the Ottoman Empire as part of the wider Persianate world and in relation to other languages of the region such as Arabic and Ottoman Turkish. The organisers intend to publish the results in a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal in 2024 – stay tuned!

Philip Bockholt is currently a Karl Ferdinand Werner Fellow at the Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris, which will enable him to research Oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In addition, his stay will give him the opportunity to deepen his existing academic contacts for Franco-German academic cooperation, including for the upcoming conference "Texts as Living Objects" in Paris this November.

The conference will provide a forum for discussion and collaboration between scholars of Ottoman, Iranian and Arabic studies and beyond, who are concerned with the interactions of the three languages in the Ottoman Empire (elsine-i s̱elās̱e) and examine their functions as well as the interrelationships between languages, (literary) genres and disciplines. The conference is organised by Philip Bockholt, Hülya Çelik (Bochum), Ludwig Paul (Hamburg) and Ani Sargsyan (Hamburg). It is generously funded by the DFG Priority Programme 1981: Transottomanica and Gotha Research Library. For more information, please see the programme and the brochure.

Philip Bockholt and Tobias Sick are taking part in the Spring School 2023: Ottoman Siyakat Script led by renowned Ottomanists Hedda Reindl-Kiel and Claudia Römer, organised by the Institute of Islamic Studies at Heidelberg University and the DFG Priority Programme 1981: Transottomanica. As the system of Siyakat writing is a highly multilingual practice containing Turkish, Arabic and Persian elements, among others, it is of great importance for the study of multilingualism and knowledge transfer in this region during the early modern period.

Philip Bockholt is currently a guest lecturer at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan, where he lectures in Tokyo and Kyoto on the Persian world history Ḥabīb al-Siyar and the Turkish translations of Kalīla and Dimna. By examining details of the works' production, distribution and readership, he sheds light on the reception of Persian and Turkish pre-modern texts. He is also establishing contacts with Japanese colleagues in the field and planning future collaboration.