Source in the Spotlight
Making Magic, Co-Producing Religion: The Magic Bowls from Nippur
Today, someone who wants a bit of extra luck might knock on wood, look for a four-leaf clover, or purchase a rabbit's foot. In some parts of the ancient world, someone looking for good fortune might purchase what scholars today call a magic bowl.
Event: Open Zoom Seminar
Online Seminar with Ahmed el Shamsy: “A Fourteenth-Century Muslim Theory of Religion”
April 22, 2024, 9–11am EST/3–5pm CET Zoom
Learn moreEvent: Open zoom seminar
Online Seminar with Jan Loop: “Co-production under Duress – Captive Labour in Early Modern Orientalist Scholarship”
May 20, 2024, 9–11 am EST / 3–5 pm CET Zoom
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Who we are
The project is coordinated by Katharina Heyden, Professor for Ancient History of Christianity and Interreligious Encounters at the University of Bern (Switzerland), and David Nirenberg, Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (U.S.), and includes a network of collaborators across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
New Case Study
In Search of a Sinful Pun: The Coproduction of Israelite Sin in the Qurʾan and Early Islamic Exegesis
By Shlomo Zuckier and David Gyllenhaal