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Islamic Studies is a historically developed discipline that, here in Marburg, is multi-disciplinary thanks to the questions it asks and its methodological diversity. It has links to historical philological research and to religious, cultural and socio-scientific disciplines. We focus primarily on the region of the Near and Middle East and include Islamic societies. This means that we research and teach a time span stretching from the beginnings of Islam in the seventh century up until the present day.

Our team is made up of researchers at various stages of their scientific careers, who are pursuing various research interests. All research projects have an Islamic perspective that is based on the foundations of cultural, historical, and social science. This focus comes from an understanding of exploring Islamic faith and the societies and cultures influenced by it. In this way, Islam is not understood as a definitive thing but rather as a dynamic and changeable practice, culture, idea, and institution. Depending on the context and the question asked, a focus on Islam can be considered from different perspectives, which makes it necessary to systematically cross subject boundaries. Islamic Studies at Marburg, in particular, can be combined with the methods and theories of historical science and social and cultural studies.

Through all of our epoch-spanning research – from the beginning of Islam in the seventh century to the present day – we have a broad foundational education at heart. At the same time, we provide profile-building opportunities at Marburg, where we focus our research and teaching on specific topics and regions that are researched by our team in collaborative projects. Relevant to the present day, we focus on contemporary Islamic popular cultures and movements, especially with regards to dynamics and social transformations. Regionally speaking, we focus on Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. The manifestations of Islam in Europe and in the faith’s historical and present relationship to Europe are another area of specialization in Marburg. Historically speaking, Islamic Studies at Marburg teaches numerous aspects of the history of Islamic societies through its broad social, economic and cultural history. To do this, the material culture and resources of the Mamluk, Safavid, and Ottoman people are compared with each other while at the same time considering the transmission processes of pre-modern family groups and forms of representation of power. This combination of historical and contemporary cultural research in a philological sense allows us to offer comparative and thematic research and teaching in Islamic Studies.

The Department of Islamic Studies is part of the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) at the Philipps-Universität Marburg and of Department 10 - Foreign Language Philology.

You can find us in the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, in the building that was formerly a children’s hospital on Deutschhausstraße 12.