20.12.2025 Al-Ḥalaqa al-ʿArabiyya within the Ta’ziz Project: Scientific Cooperation between Cairo and Marburg

Scientific Cooperation within the Ta’ziz Project between Cairo and Marburg: Perspectives and the Position of Egyptian Universities

Within the framework of the Ta’ziz Science Cooperation Project (2023–2025), scholars from Egyptian universities took part in academic activities held at Philipps-University Marburg one day prior to the closing program of the Ta’ziz Final Conference, entitled
“Dealing with Material Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean: Between Excavation and Digitization,”
which took place from 17 to 20 December 2025. These activities provided an important opportunity to reflect on the trajectories of academic cooperation between Cairo and Marburg and to discuss the position of Egyptian universities within this international research framework.

The event was organized in the context of Al-Ḥalaqa al-ʿArabiyya, which focused on scholarly experiences related to the Gotha Workshop on Islamic Manuscripts, one of the core components of the Ta’ziz project. The workshop offered participants hands-on access to the Islamic manuscript collection of the Gotha Library, enabling approaches that combine textual analysis with material study, alongside perspectives from digitization and digital humanities.

Prof. Dr. Hassan Ebeid, Prof. Dr. Ahmed al-Shoky, and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim (Ayn Shams University) presented contributions based on their work in the Gotha workshop, highlighting the depth of research collaboration between the institutions in Cairo and Marburg. Prof. Dr. Hassan Ebeid examined paper-cut techniques in a rare late Mamluk manuscript, shedding light on technical and artistic aspects of Islamic manuscript production. Prof. Dr. Ahmed al-Shoky focused on furūsīya literature and horse care, analyzing a manuscript preserved in the Gotha Library as an important source for Islamic scientific and cultural history. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim discussed Mamluk military and chivalric manuscripts, emphasizing the relationship between manuscript texts and martial culture.

These contributions underlined the active role of Egyptian universities in international research collaborations, particularly in the fields of Islamic studies, manuscript studies, and material culture research. The Ta’ziz project thus demonstrates the importance of balanced academic partnerships between Egyptian and German institutions, based on knowledge exchange, collaborative research, and the development of sustainable scholarly networks.

Overall, the Ta’ziz initiative represents a successful model of scientific cooperation between Cairo and Marburg, strengthening the international visibility of Egyptian scholarship and opening new perspectives for joint research on the cultural heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean, situated between traditional approaches and digital methodologies.