Prof. Dr. Philip Bockholt

• History of the eastern Islamic world in the pre-modern period (especially 1400-1800)
• Transregional translation processes and knowledge transfer in the Eastern Mediterranean
• Islamic manuscript culture
• Historiography and advice literature (Arabic/Persian/Turkish)
• Religious groups (Sunna/Shia) in the Islamic world

Academic Education

07.2024

Habilitation (Venia Legendi) in Islamic Studies

10.2014 – 04.2018

PhD, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (BGSMCS), Freie Universität Berlin

10.2005 – 12.2013

Bachelor of Arts / Master of Arts in Islamic Studies, History and Theology (Bochum, Münster, Berlin, Jerusalem, Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran)

Positions

02. – 03.2024

Visiting Research Fellow, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

04. – 05.2023

Karl-Ferdinand-Werner-Fellow, Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris

since 10.2022

Junior Professor (Tenure Track) for the History of the Turco-Persian world / Emmy Noether Junior Research Group Leader (DFG), Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies

10.2018 – 09.2022

Research Associate, Oriental Institut, Universität Leipzig

02. – 03.2022

Feldman-Stipendiat der Max Weber Stiftung, Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris

08. – 09.2021

Feldman-Stipendiat der Max Weber Stiftung, Orient-Institut Istanbul

08. – 09.2018

Visiting Research Fellow, The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

05. – 06.2018

Visiting Research Fellow, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid

01. – 04.2018

Visiting Research Fellow, Staatliche Universität Sankt Petersburg

Honors

2020

2020

Classical Islamic World Book Prize in the category Islamwissenschaft (1st prize) – Gorgias Press

2019

2019

Forschungspreis der Annemarie-Schimmel-Stiftung für Islamkunde in the category Islamwissenschaft (1st prize) – Annemarie-Schimmel-Stiftung für Islamkunde

2019

Honourable Mention des 2019 S.I.E. European Award for Iranian Studies in the category Iranistik (1st prize) – Societas Iranologica Europaea

External Function

since 05.2019

Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (Structural Commission "Africa – Asia – Europe" (AAE), Secretary)

Summer Term 2026

• Seminar: Multilingualism and Translation in the Ottoman Empire [095249]
  • [Tue, 12.00 p. m. – 2.00 p. m. | weekly]

Winter Term 2025/26

Lecture

• Lecture: Einführung in Grundbegriffe des Islams und der Islamwissenschaft [093224]
  (in cooperation with Natalie Kraneiß, Norbert Oberauer, Marco Schöller, Syrinx von Hees and Monika Springberg)

Seminar

• Seminar: Übersetzungsprozesse in der islamischen Welt [093237]

Summer Term 2025

Lecture

• Lecture: Einführung in Religion und Theologie des Islams [091221]
  (in cooperation with Natalie Kraneiß, Norbert Oberauer, Andreas Knöll, Monika Springberg and Syrinx von Hees)

Seminar

• Seminar: Konfessionelle Gruppierungen in der islamischen Welt der Frühen Neuzeit [091228]

Winter Term 2024/25

Lecture

• Lecture: Einführung in die Grundbegriffe des Islams und der Islamwissenschaft [099065]
  (in cooperation with Marco Schöller, Monika Springberg and Syrinx von Hees)

Seminar

• Seminar: Islam in Indien [099082]

Summer Term 2024

Reading course

• Reading course: Translation Processes in the Ottoman Empire [097091]

Other Course

• Conference/Congress: Textual Transmission in the Islamic Manuscript Age: On Variance, Reception and Usage of Arabic and Persian Works in the Near and Middle East.

Winter Term 2023/24

Lecture

• Lecture: Einführung in Grundbegriffe des Islams und der Islamwissenschaft [095069]
  (in cooperation with Norbert Oberauer, Marco Schöller, Barbara Winckler, Monika Springberg and Syrinx von Hees)

Seminar

• Seminar: Der islamische Osten als Terra incognita? [095087]

Other Course

• Special lecture/Special seminar: Auftaktveranstaltung Emmy Noether-Nachwuchsgruppe [099999]

Summer Term 2023

• Short intensive seminar: Islamische Handschriftenkunde [093079]

Winter Term 2022/23

Lecture

• Lecture: Einführung in die Grundbegriffe des Islams und der Islamwissenschaft [091065]
  (in cooperation with Lena-Maria Möller, Thomas Bauer, Marco Schöller, Barbara Winckler, Monika Springberg and Syrinx von Hees)

Seminar

• Short intensive seminar: Jenseits von Arabien: Zur Geschichte der östlichen islamischen Welt [091094]

• Inner-Islamic Transfer of Knowledge within Arabic-Persian-Ottoman Translation Processes in the Eastern Mediterranean (1400–1750) (2022 – 2028)
  Individual Granted Project: DFG - Emmy Noether-Programm | Project Number: BO 5684/2-1
• EXC 2060 A3-40 - Arabic-Ottoman Translations of Works of Qurʾānic Exegesis (tafsīr) as an Expression of the Inner-Islamic Transfer of Knowledge in the Eastern Mediterranean between 1400–1750 (2023 – 2025)
  Subproject in DFG-Joint Project Hosted at the University of Münster: DFG - Exzellenzcluster | Project Number: EXC 2060/1
• Textüberlieferung im islamischen Handschriftenzeitalter: Zu Varianz, Rezeption und Nutzbarmachung arabischer und persischer Werke im Nahen und Mittleren Osten (2024 – 2025)
  Individual Granted Project: DFG - Internationale Kooperationsanbahnung | Project Number: BO 5684/3-1
• SPP 1981 - Subproject: Inner-Islamic Transfer of Knowledge in the Ottoman Empire: on Translations of Works of Islamic Mysticism within Transregional Sufi Networks in the Anatolian and Arab Provinces (2022 – 2024)
  Subproject in DFG-Joint Project Hosted outside the University of Münster: DFG - Schwerpunktprogramm | Project Number: BO 5684/1-1
• Texts as Living Objects:Reconsidering Dhayls as a Means for the Study of Authorship and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Age, 22.-24. November 2023, Paris (2023)
  Scientific Event: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung - Tagungsförderung, Fondation Max van Berchem | Project Number: 30.23.0.035SL

Books

Books (Monographs)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2026. Empires in Translation: Intersections of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish in the Eastern Mediterranean, Vol. 1, Türkische Übersetzungen aus dem Arabischen und Persischen. Akteure, Adaption und Rezeption in der Frühen Neuzeit Berlin: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783112219751.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2022. Veröffentlichungen der Iranistik, Vol. 88, Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne. Zur Verbreitung von Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar von Anatolien bis auf den indischen Subkontinent Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. doi: 10.1553/978OEAW85178.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2021. Iran Studies, Vol. 20, Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna. Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar im Handschriftenzeitalter Leiden/Boston: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004442238.

Conference Proceedings

• Bockholt, Philip, Çelik, Hülya, Paul, Ludwig, and Sargsyan, Ani, eds. 2025. Transottomanica. Osteuropäisch-osmanisch-persische Mobilitätsdynamiken, Vol. 9, Elsine-i S̱elās̱e: A Cultural Analysis of Transmission and Translation in the Ottoman Empire Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• Alsancakli, Sacha, and Bockholt, Philip, eds. 2023. Cahiers de Studia Iranica, Vol. 64, Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts 400. edt. Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes.

Articles

Articles in Scientific Journals, Newspapers or Magazines

Research Articles (Journals)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2024. “Translating the Controversial: Turkish Translations of Sexual Norms in the Persian Mirror for Princes Qābūsnāma.” Diyâr 5 (2): 163–184. doi: 10.5771/2625-9842-2024-2-163.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2023. “‚Weglassen, wovor man sich eher hüten sollte‘: Zu inhaltlichen Veränderungen in der offiziellen Übersetzung einer safavidischen Weltchronik ins Türkische im Istanbul der ‚Tulpenzeit‘.” Der Islam - Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur des Islamischen Orients 100 (1): 252–301. doi: 10.1515/islam-2023-0002.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2021. “So Close and Yet Often so Far Away: the History of India as Told by Historians in Iran around 1500.” Iran. Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 59 (2): 187–202. doi: 10.1080/05786967.2021.1911733.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2019. “Same But Different? On Copies of the General History Ḥabīb al-siyar in Saint Petersburg Manuscript Collections.” Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies 11 (1): 52–63. doi: 10.21638/spbu13.2019.104.

Review Article (Journal)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2017. “Scott Redford: A New Approach to the Permeability of Political Symbolism in Rum Seljuk Turkey.” Middle East – Topics & Arguments 8: 25–29. doi: 10.17192/meta.2017.8.6213.

Editorial (Journal)

• Bockholt, Philip, and Çelik, Hülya. 2024. “Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire: Introduction.” Diyâr 5 (2): 117–123. doi: 10.5771/2625-9842-2024-2-117.

Research Articles in Edited Proceedings (Conferences)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2026. “Footnotes in Premodern Times? On the Phenomenon of Minhiyyāt in Persian Texts.” in Marginal Matters: Explorations into Commenting and Glossing Techniques in Arabic Manuscript Cultures, Vol. 1 of Bibliotheca Arabica, edited by Stefanie Brinkmann. Leiden/Boston: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004720695.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2025. “Mirrors for Princes and Imperial Expansion: On the Production of Hümāyūnnāme Manuscript Copies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” in Elsine-i S̱elās̱e: A Cultural Analysis of Transmission and Translation in the Ottoman Empire, Vol. 9 of Transottomanica. Osteuropäisch-osmanisch-persische Mobilitätsdynamiken, edited by Philip Bockholt, Hülya Çelik, Ludwig Paul and Ani Sargsyan. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2024. “Shah Ṭahmāsp and the Taẕkira: A Sixteenth-Century Ruler’s Justification of his Policies.” in Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World: Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy, Vol. 213 of Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts, edited by Maribel Fierro, Sonja Brentjes and Tilman Seidensticker. Leiden/Boston: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004690615_021.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2023. “One Text in Many Versions: The Persian World History Ḥabīb al-Siyar and its Textual Transmission during the Manuscript Age.” in Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, Vol. 64 of Cahiers de Studia Iranica, edited by Philip Bockholt and Sacha Alsancakli. Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes.
• Bockholt, and Philip. 2021. “Lost Somewhere in Between? On the Transmission of History from Islamic West to East in Premodern Times: The Case of the Almohad Caliph Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb and the Battle of Alarcos.” in The Maghrib in the Mashriq: Knowledge, Travel and Identity, Vol. 40 of Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East, edited by Maribel Fierro and Mayte Penelas. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110713305-005.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2020. “Writing History is a Difficult Task: On Khvāndamīr’s General History Ḥabīb al-Siyar and the Origins of Safavid Historiographical Writing.” in Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference of Iranian Studies, Held on 14–19 September 2015 at the State Hermitage Museum and Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2: Studies on Iran and the Persianate World after Islam, edited by Olga M. Yastrebova. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum.

Book Contributions

Review Article (Book Contribution)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2022. “Muhammad Qasim Firishta.” in Traditions of History Writing in India, Vol. 144 of BHIE, edited by Singh Abha. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Entries in Encyclopediae (Book Contributions)

• Bockholt, Philip. 2021. “Khvāndamīr.” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, edited by Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Devin J. Stewart. Leiden/Boston: Brill. doi: 10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_35589.
• Bockholt, Philip. 2021. “Mīrkhvānd.” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, edited by Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Devin J. Stewart. Leiden/Boston: Brill. doi: 10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_40284.

Editorials (Book Contributions)

• Bockholt, Philip, Çelik, Hülya, Paul, Ludwig, and Sargsyan, Ani. 2025. “Introduction.” in Elsine-i S̱elās̱e: A Cultural Analysis of Transmission and Translation in the Ottoman Empire, Vol. 9 of Transottomanica. Osteuropäisch-osmanisch-persische Mobilitätsdynamiken, edited by Philip Bockholt, Hülya Çelik, Ludwig Paul and Ani Sargsyan. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• Alsancakli, Sacha, and Bockholt, Philip. 2023. “Introduction.” in Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, Vol. 64 of Cahiers de Studia Iranica, edited by Sacha Alsancakli and Philip Bockholt. Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes.

Special Issue of a Journal

• Bockholt, Philip, and Çelik, Hülya, eds. 2024.“Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire.” Special Issue Diyâr 2. doi: 10.5771/2625-9842-2024-2.

• Bouhadi, Hicham (2027): Inner-Islamic Transmission of Knowledge in the Eastern Mediterranean: On Arabic-Ottoman Translations of Biographical and Hagiographical Dictionaries between 1400 and 1750

  Supervisor

  Bockholt, Philip

• Sofu, Muhammed Huseyin (2027): Inner-Islamic Knowledge Transfer in the Context of Arabic-Ottoman Translations of Works of the Science of Hadith (1400–1750) [working title]

  Supervisor

  Bockholt, Philip

• Aytep, Ahmet (2026): Arabisch-osmanische Übersetzungen von Werken der Koranexegese (Tafsīr) als Ausdruck des innerislamischen Wissenstransfers im östlichen Mittelmeerraum zwischen 1400–1750 [working title]
• Sick, Tobias Michael (2025): Innerislamischer Wissenstransfer im Osmanischen Reich: Zu Übersetzungen islamischer Mystik im Rahmen transregionaler Sufinetzwerke in den anatolischen und arabischen Provinzen [working title]

  Supervisor

  Bockholt, Philip