Bibliotheca Arabica News & Activities

The academy project Bibliotheca Arabica invites Prof. em. Avihai Shivtiel to give a guest lecture at the academy on 17 June. The lecture will be held in English. Interested visitors are very welcome.

17.06.2025, 18:00 - 20:00 

Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig

Karl-Tauchnitz-Straße 1, 04107 Leipzig

Prof Avihai Shivtiel was born in Palestine (Israel). He studied Arabic language and literature, Islamic studies and Hebrew language and linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a B.A. and M.A. (1971). He also taught Arabic at the Hebrew University and the Bar-Ilan University. From 1972 to 1978, he taught Hebrew and Arabic at the University of Cambridge, where he also obtained his doctorate in Arabic linguistics. In 1979 he moved to the University of Leeds, where he taught Semitic languages, literatures and cultures and was Head of the Department of Semitic Studies and later Arabic Studies. At the same time, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at the University of Cambridge until his full retirement in 2007.

His publications include several books as well as numerous articles, reviews and entries for the three encyclopaedias of Islam, Language and Linguistics and Arabic Language and Linguistics (Source).

Jews and Muslims relations as reflected in the Cairo Genizah documents

The encounter between Jews and Arabs began from time immemorial and continues to this very day. However, the relations between the two communities have known ups and downs. This state of affairs has continued, especially when Jews lived under Muslim rule across the Muslim empire. The Cairo Genizah, that hoard of documents, which surfaced in the second half of the 19th century and which has been researched for the last 125 years, reflects almost a century of the ups and downs of the relations between Jews and Muslims, mainly during the Middle Ages.

Full title: Data-driven intellectual history? The challenges of building a research platform for Arabic manuscript cultures

What do we know about the premodern intellectual history of the Arab-Islamic world, and where do gaps in our understanding persist? Which technologies can enhance accessibility and support research? What challenges arise in data-driven approaches to historical scholarship? The lecture explores these questions through the long-term research project 'Bibliotheca Arabica,' which offers fresh insights into Arab literary traditions by setting up an extensive database on Arabic manuscripts and manuscript studies.

Lecture at the Franco-German Summer School: "Open(ing) Science? Digital Humanities in Area Studies", Leipzig University, 8 July 2025
https://recentglobe.uni-leipzig.de/en/zentrum/details/event/opening-science-digital-humanities-in-area-studies