Research at the GKM

Funding commitments and news

The list of research projects of the scientists networked at the GKM is long and diverse: There is a large number of third-party funded research projects, some of which are carried out individually, some in working groups and some in close cooperation with domestic and foreign university and research institutions. Among them are DFG long-term projects and a Leibniz Prize research position. You can get an impression of the research activities of our staff here:

Overview of research projects at the GKM

The Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics in Pre-modern and Modern Cultures", located at the University of Münster, involves many researchers who have been working together at the GKM for years. As the "Center for Ancient Culture and Religion", the GKM forms the basis of research in the field of antiquity in the Cluster of Excellence and is represented with a seat on the board.

Two million for an Arab classic

For the second time, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is supporting the DFG long-term project to edit the complete works of Ibn Nubatah al-Misri (1287-1366). A large and diverse team of outstanding Arabists is thus being honored, who have been working together for some time under the direction of Leibniz Prize winner Prof. Thomas Bauer together with Prof. Syrinx von Hees at the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster.

The Egyptian Ibn Nubatah (1287-1366) was considered a classic in the Arab world until the 19th century. He was one of the most influential poets and prose writers. However, most of his so famous work is so far only available in manuscripts or highly deficient prints.

The aim of the project is therefore to bring the literary prince Ibn Nubatah back to prominence via a digital edition of his works that is accessible worldwide. In addition to the collection of his poems (Dīwān), twelve other works will be presented in first editions or first reliable editions. This will provide a reliable basis for the study of Arabic literature of a period that was no less "golden" than previous eras in which Ibn Nubatah was considered a role model.

• Website of the DFG long-term project "Complete edition of the work of Ibn Nubatah al-Misri".
• Homepage of the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies

New Research Group "Xenocracy on the Ground ”

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a new research group from the humanities. The aim of the group "Xenocracy on the Ground. Administration and Cultural Interdependence in Pre-Modern Times" is to provide a perspective on the much-discussed phenomenon of foreign rule that is tailored to pre-modern times.

"Phenomena of foreign rule, for example in the ancient Mediterranean, in pre-modern Europe or in colonial contexts, have been predominantly considered epochally and spatially separated in the historical sciences," explains Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ludwig, holder of the Chair of Early Modern History at the University of Münster.

The DFG is funding the project for the next four years with around 2.5 million euros.

From the GKM, Prof. Dr. Hans Beck, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Drews, Prof. Dr. Patrick Sänger and Prof. Dr. Gesa Schenke are involved.

The NFDI4Culture Music Award 2022 goes to the musicologist Prof. Dr. Ralf Martin Jäger and his colleagues Michael Kaiser, Sven Gronemeyer (both Max Weber Foundation, Bonn) in connection with the DFG long-term project 'Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae'.
The prize was awarded in March 31, 2023 at the Academy of Sciences and Literature (Mainz).

Translation processes played a central role in the formation of the Ottoman Empire. Against the background of confessional-political polarization in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, a multitude of works were increasingly received, translated, and commented upon. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the junior research group is investigating this transregional transfer of knowledge between 1400 and 1750 in a holistic manner for the first time. The aim is to reveal the central role of Ottoman-Turkish translations from Arabic and Persian as part of cultural and literary ambiguity between Sunni and Shiite Islam, without which intellectual-historical developments in the region cannot be understood.

Four GKM members with new projects in the Cluster of Excellence

The Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" has expanded its research program with new projects. Four professors of the GKM were accepted in the context of an ideas competition to establish new research projects:

The Old Testament scholar Prof. Dr. Christophe Nihan is working on the emergence and transformations of concepts of purity in Judaism of the Persian and Hellenistic periods in the ancient Mediterranean region.

Under the title Cosmocracy and Pantocracy in Early Christianity (KoPaC), the New Testament scholar Prof. Dr. Eve-Marie Becker is devoted to the roots, functions and effects of early Christian governance.

The Coptologist Prof. Dr. Gesa Schenke researches under the title "Abraham in Everyday Life" the lived and handed down religiosity in the Coptic tradition of the Testament of Abraham according to original codices of the 4th and 10th century.

The Arabist Prof. Dr. Syrinx von Hees deals with political dimensions of a controversial literary-religious discourse around the transformations of the Burda in the 13th-15th centuries.

InterLINK project extended for another three years

The project "Interregional Linkage Investigations in Northern Kordofan (InterLINK)" was extended by the DFG for another three years.

InterLINK is part of the DFG priority program "Entangled Africa" and is headed by Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser and Jana Eger-Karberg as excavation leader. The project investigates the role of North Kordofan as a cultural-historical contact zone. The region stretches from the subtropical hills of the Nuba Mountains in the south to the savannahs in the center and the arid semi-desert in the northern part of Kordofan.

• Homepage of the project "Interregional Linkage Investigations in Northern Kordofan (InterLINK)"
• DFG Focus Program "Entangled Africa

Two million euros for research on music manuscripts

Since 2015, scientists have been studying music manuscripts from the Near East as part of the "Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae" project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The DFG has now approved the third funding phase and is supporting the basic research with a good two million euros until 2024. The project is headed by the Institute for Musicology at the WWU. The experts conducting research in the project are publishing Ottoman music manuscripts and creating an online catalog of the sources of this diverse musical culture. "For music research as well as for Oriental studies, these sources are of first-rate importance," emphasizes project leader Prof. Dr. Martin Jäger.

• Press release of the University of Münster
• Homepage of the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae

Within the framework of the DAAD-funded program "University Partnership Greece", the project "Cultural History of Western Greece from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity" was successfully applied for (funding amount approx. 800,000 euros). The Institute of Byzantine and Neo-Greek Studies at the University of Münster, together with the Department of Byzantine History and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina, maintains an intensive teaching exchange program that introduces students to the scientific treatment of written and material evidence from the Western Greek region. The program is accompanied by language courses, block seminars and museum didactic programs.

The project "Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae" (CMO), successfully funded by Prof. Dr. Ralf Martin Jäger (Musicology) at the DFG, started on October 30, 2015 with a ceremony in the castle. In the twelve-year project, the expert in ethnomusicology is cooperating with the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster (Prof. Thomas Bauer) and the Orient Institute. The music manuscripts from the times of the Ottoman Empire are of primary importance for music research as well as for Oriental studies. The edition of the CMO is published by "perspectiva.net", the editorial office of the Max Weber Foundation.

 

Fingerprints on oil lamps and terracottas have now shown researchers for the first time how potters worked in a late antique ceramic workshop around 1700 years ago. Prof. Dr. Achim Lichtenberger, head of the Institute of Classical Archaeology and Christian Archaeology at the university of Münster, examined fingerprints on the inside of clay material debris at Beit Nattif in present-day Israel. The archaeologist collaborated with U.S. forensic anthropologist Prof. Kimberlee S. Moran of Rutgers University-Camden.
The potters pressed clay into molds for the production of the ceramic products, whereby plastic fingerprints were always preserved in the clay. Achim Lichtenberger and his colleague recognized identical imprints on different objects and thus found out that one person made both oil lamps and figurative terracotta statuettes - until now, this could not be proven with such unambiguity.