Near Eastern Studies Lecture

Date: February 10, 2021 @ 12:00 PM in Eastern Time

Venue: Online (via Zoom)

Presenter: Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (CSIC, Madrid), Roberto Tottoli (University of Naples “L’Orientale), John Tolan (University of Nantes), and Jan Loop (University of Copenhagen), hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School for Historical Studies, IAS)

“The European Qur’ān” (EuQu) is an ongoing project funded by a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), dedicated to the important place of the Muslim holy book in European cultural and religious history. From the 12^th century to the 19^th, European Christians read the Qur’ān in Arabic, translated it into Latin, Greek and various vernacular languages, refuted it in polemical treatises, and mined it for information about Islam and Arab history. The “European Qur’ān”, in its various manifestations (Arabic editions, Latin and vernacular translations) should be conceived as scholarly efforts to understand Islam; as weapons in polemical exchanges between divergent versions of Christianity; as financial ventures on the part of printers and publishers; and as tools for the understanding of Semitic languages, Arab history and culture, and the history of monotheism.

The research leading to these results has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, grant agreement no. 810141, Project EuQu: “The European Qu’ran. Islamic Scripture in European Culture and religion 115-1850.”

More information on: EuQu.eu