The history of “Oriental studies” especially during in the late
modern period is still a largely neglected field. This gap is
astonishing, given the vibrant scholarship on the “Science of
Judaism” (“Wissenschaft des Judentums”) during the same...
The claim is absurd: everybody knows that the order of value
goes the other way. By many commonly-cited criteria, physics is
better than sociology. On their side, the natural sciences have
Method, experiment, and quantification; they progress and...
This presentation will explore the nature of the Elijah
traditions in rabbinic literature and their connection to the
wisdom tradition. By examining the diverse Elijah traditions in
connection to the wisdom and apocalyptic traditions, I aim to
shed...
For a political scientist, the contradictory themes surrounding
the Arabs and their region before the coming of Islam often seem
strange and incomprehensible. Although there are no major barriers
posed by rivers or mountain ranges, numerous...
In the year AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted with devastating
force, burying the nearby town of Pompeii under more than thirty
feet of volcanic debris. Pompeii was wiped off the map, yet below
the surface the material remains of the town were preserved...
The Study of Pre-modern Hebrew Philosophical and Scientific
Terminology as a new Chapter in the Intellectual History of Europe
and the Islamicate World: PESHAT
in Context.
Speakers: Giuseppe Veltri (University
of Hamburg), Reimund
Leicht (Hebrew...
Ethiopia is unique in the world for the incomparable prominence
of the cross in the life of its Orthodox Christian population.
Crosses of unparalleled intricacy and sophistication are
extensively used in religious and magic rituals, as well as
in...
This talk deals tells the story of one of the leading
achromatic-lens makers of the 19th century who revolutionized
astronomy, the German optician Joseph von Fraunhofer, whose name is
associated with the dark lines that transect the solar
spectrum...
When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw
al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an
apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a
progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of...
