Verflechtung, Vermittlung, Vernetzung: Jüdisch-Arabische Verflechtungsgeschichte in gesellschaftlicher Anwendung und institutioneller Vernetzung (Entanglement, Outreach, and Networking: Advancing Jewish–Arab Entangled History through Public Engageme)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Teresa Bernheimer
Funded by: Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR)
Timeframe: 2026-2027
For many centuries, most Jews lived under Muslim rule and spoke Arabic. Yet modern scholarship has often framed Jewish–Arab relations through the opposing lenses of conflict and harmonious coexistence. The BMBF-funded collaborative project Jenseits von Konflikt und Koexistenz. Eine Verflechtungsgeschichte der jüdisch-arabischen Beziehungen (Beyond Conflict and Coexistence: An Entangled History of Jewish–Arab Relations, 2022–2026) moved beyond these polarized narratives by exploring the historical entanglements that shaped Jewish and Arab societies. In six postdoctoral projects based at the Universities of Munich, Heidelberg, and Halle, researchers examined the shared religious, intellectual, linguistic, social, and cultural worlds inhabited by Jews and Muslims. These projects ranged chronologically from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century to the contemporary period.
The insights generated by this research are now being transferred into both society and academia through the next project phase, Verflechtung, Vermittlung, Vernetzung: Jüdisch-Arabische Verflechtungsgeschichte in gesellschaftlicher Anwendung und institutioneller Vernetzung (Entanglement, Outreach, and Networking: Advancing Jewish–Arab Entangled History through Public Engagement and Institutional Collaboration). The project aims to strengthen Jewish Studies and Islamic/Middle Eastern Studies by translating research on Jewish–Arab entanglements into educational resources and sustainable scholarly networks.