Natalie

I am excited to share my very first published article, which explores the thoughts of the 17th-century Moroccan scholar al-Ḥasan al-Yūsī on the acquisition of knowledge from books.

In it, I discuss the importance of books for rural Sufi scholars in the Western Maghrib, the conditions they set for acquiring knowledge directly from books (and not just from their teachers!), and the laborious process of collating and correcting manuscripts.

If you're curious about how pre-modern scholars ensured the accuracy of the knowledge in their handwritten books - and why this was so important to them - please take a look! If you don't have access, feel free to contact me.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/24519197-bja10059

Some of you may remember the little writing crisis I had about a year ago. Thanks to your valuable advice, this piece finally came together! 🙏 It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

#writing #bookhistory

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe @phdlife@a.gup.pe @phdstudents@a.gup.pe
@islamicstudies@a.gup.pe

Ein toller Vortrag zu den Handschriften des Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi von Peter von Poitiers (12. Jh.). Mein bisheriges Highlight auf der #DHd2025!

Link zum Projekt: https://compendium-historiae.uni-graz.at/de/

Does anyone feel like sitting down in front of the computer and playing around with their notes a bit?

I just wrote down how I set up and try to maintain my (academic) reading list in #Obsidian using the #Projects plugin by @marcusolsson@pkm.social and #Zotero. Might post it again after the holidays, but for now, here's the description of my approach for those who asked. Thus, fulfilling my promise from this thread: https://hcommons.social/@natalie/109557676423033978

https://nataliekraneiss.com/your-academic-reading-list-in-obsidian/

@obsidianmd@a.gup.pe @phdlife@a.gup.pe @phdstudents@a.gup.pe #phd #literaturereview #studying #readinglist #organization #planning #tracking

"Das sind echt ganz wilde, unterschiedliche Menschen."

Urteil der Passauer Studierendenschaft über die #dhd2024 Kolonne, die gerade von #hs5 Richtung #itz strömt. 🤣

I'm currently playing a bit with #Gramps, an open source program for recording genealogical relationships. Now that I have finally collected a critical mass and have become familiar with how the source information is recorded in Gramps, I am quite impressed. I think I can work with this!

My #PhD project is about the ancestors and descendants of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, a scholar from 12th century Baghdad, who is situated in the center of the chart. He himself is said to be descended from the Prophet Muḥammad, with whose grandfather the chart begins. The chart currently covers the period from around 650 to 1400.

For my dissertation, I am looking at texts in which these lineages are followed up to the 18th century. So there is still a lot to do: add lots of people and compare the information in the various sources I have in front of me!

Back from a 10 days long excursion with 13 students and two colleagues to #Morocco.

Wow, what a trip.

From Fes in the North via Volubilis to Rabat at the Atlantic coast, then on to Marrakesh in the South and to Tinmal in the Atlas mountains.

Very hard to be back in cold cloudy Germany ...

Going to share some insights from our trip over the next few weeks!

I am currently organizing an excursion for students to #Morocco, which will take place in March 2023. Here, I have started to put together a playlist to tune in the participants and to make diverse soundscapes accessible to them.

I can't decide what I like best ... my all-time favorite is probably #Gnawa music, but Mohamed Rouicha follows right after. Be sure that I also groove to Rap, Pop, Rai, Chaabi, Atlassi and Saharan tunes!

I hope it's a good mix!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoZXPP-2Hur2B-5hH_JOARy5KvJRq7RhU

#oneabstractaday #justpublished

The diversity of #modernities that can be observed in our world is linked to the claim of living in a global #modernity, in a world society. The book underpins this claim with numerous excursions into Islamic history. It criticises the view that #modernisation can be equated with westernisation and considers different projects of specifically Islamic modernities as integral parts of world society.

From this perspective, the study contributes to the "provincialisation" of European history in contemporary social scientific thought. Contrary to the theories of #postcolonialism associated with the call for the provincialisation of Europe, however, this book adheres to essential traditions of classical sociology. It thus aims to make a contribution to the social theoretical discussion on modernity.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-39954-2

@islamicstudies@a.gup.pe @sociology@a.gup.pe #globalhistory #islamicstudies #sociology

#oneabstractaday

This book considers an important and largely neglected area of Islamic law by exploring how medieval Muslim jurists resolved criminal cases that could not be proven beyond a doubt, calling into question a controversial popular notion about Islamic law today, which is that Islamic law is a divine legal tradition that has little room for discretion or doubt, particularly in Islamic criminal law.

Through examination of legal, historical, and theological sources, and a range of illustrative case studies, this book shows that Muslim jurists developed a highly sophisticated and regulated system for dealing with Islam's unique concept of doubt, which evolved from the seventh to the sixteenth century.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/doubt-in-islamic-law/3F33884C01782919E73DC857A504D434#fndtn-information

@islamicstudies@a.gup.pe #islamicstudies #islamiclaw #evidence #doubt #truth

Tonight I was fascinated to see the whole Manger Square in Bethlehem full of people, especially women and children, from Ethiopia. I have never witnessed Orthodox Christmas before; the sounds around the Church of Nativity this evening were just wonderful. Reminded me of rituals and chants from West Africa, with which I am somewhat familiar. Absolutely fascinating.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my cell phone, but professional photographers (here Nasser Nasser, AFP) may capture the impressions better anyway.

#bethlehem #christmas #orthodoxchristmas #genna

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/01/06/why-do-some-orthodox-christians-celebrate-christmas-in-january

Did I really enjoy this first week of a very gentle introduction to #Python? Yes, I did. It was fun!

Programming 101: An Introduction to Python for Educators

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/programming-101

#oneabstractaday

As far too many intellectual histories and theoretical contributions from the ‘global South’ remain under-explored, this volume works towards redressing such imbalance. Experienced authors, from the regions concerned, along different disciplinary lines, and with a focus on different historical timeframes, sketch out their perspectives of envisaged transformations. This includes specific case studies and reflexive accounts from African, South Asian, and Middle Eastern contexts. Taking a critical stance on the ongoing dominance of Eurocentrism in academia, the authors present their contributions in relation to current decolonial challenges.

(...)

From their particular vantage points of (trans)disciplinary and transregional engagement, they sketch out potential pathways for addressing the unfinished business of conceptual #decolonization

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110733198/html#overview

#academicchatter @academicchatter@a.gup.pe @academicsunite@a.gup.pe #justpublished

Im April habe ich in der Katholischen Akademie in Berlin über die Ergebnisse meiner Masterarbeit (2022) zur Bibliothek der Nāṣiriyya in Tamgrūt gesprochen. Der Mitschnitt ist jetzt online.

Das "Forum Junge Wissenschaft" war eine schöne Gelegenheit mit einem allgemeinen Publikum ins Gespräch zu kommen - und ich war ehrlich überrascht über das große Interesse und die vielen Fragen des fachfremden Publikums. Eine schöne (und etwas aufregende) Erfahrung!

#bibliotheksgeschichte #bookhistory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPgeICg-aY

#oneabstractaday

This book is the first in English to survey indigenous #knowledge of seasonal, astronomical, and agricultural information in Arab Gulf almanacs. It provides an extensive analysis of the traditional information available, based on local almanacs, #Arabic texts and poetry by #Gulf individuals, ethnographic interviews, and online forums. A major feature of the book is tracing the history of terms and concepts in the local seasonal knowledge of the Gulf, including an important genre about weather stars, stemming back to the ninth century CE. Also covered are pearl diving, fishing, #seafaring, and pastoral activities. This book will be of interest to scholars who study the entire #Arab region, since much of the lore was shared and continues through the present. It will also be of value to scholars who work on the #IndianOcean and Red Sea Trade Network, as well as the history of folk #astronomy in the Arab World.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-95771-1#about-this-book

@islamicstudies@a.gup.pe #islamicstudies

Deadline approaching: We are accepting submissions for our conference "Poetry and Knowledge" until June 1, 2025.

We welcome abstracts on all fields and forms of knowledge. Papers on core areas of Islamic knowledge—such as Qur'anic studies, Hadith studies, and Islamic law—are especially encouraged.

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CALL FOR PAPERS | Conference Announcement

Poetry and Knowledge: The Production and Transmission of Knowledge in Arabic Verse (1100–1800)

We invite papers for our upcoming conference in #Münster, Germany (November 20–22, 2025), focusing on Arabic poetry as a medium of knowledge. Check out the full CfP and feel free to share!

Deadline: June 1, 2025
Location: Münster, Germany

We look forward to your submissions!

Call for Papers:
https://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/Forschen/Tagungen/poetry-and-knowledge.html

#arabicliterature #arabicpoetry #didacticpoetry #knowledge