Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften Orientalisches Seminar

CEBHEM - Centre for the Economic and Business History of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East

Orientalisches Seminar, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen

The study of Middle Eastern languages at Tübingen University dates from almost five centuries ago and was initially linked to the Faculties of Divinity. In the era of European enlightenment the first professorship for Oriental Languages (C.F. Schnurrer) was established. During the 19th and earlier 20th centuries such eminent scholars as Albert Socin, Enno Littmann and Rudi Paret filled the position. Josef van Ess's chair for Islamic Theology and Philosophy is now held by Lutz Richter-Bernburg. Alongside the Chair for "Languages and Civilizations of Oriental Christendom" (Stephen Gerö) three more professorships were created at the Institute from the 1960's onwards: Classical Arabic Philology and Sciences (Manfred Ullmann), Islamic Studies (Heinz Halm) and Iranian Studies (Heinz Gaube). The Institute's permanent academic staff serve on the editorial boards of some of Germany's and Europe's leading journals in Islamic and Oriental Studies.

Since the 1980's, joint degree programs have been developed with the Faculties of Economics and Political Sciences. In the past, the Institute has contributed its historical expertise to the interdisciplinary TAVO-project, a historical and scientific atlas of the Middle East (Egypt to Afghanistan) with a 144 volume series of companion monographs, ranging from palaeobotanics and dialect mapping to urban studies and economics. Ever since, the Institute occasionally teaches joint courses with staff from other Faculties, such as Theology, History, Geography. In 1997, 188 students were enrolled at the Institute.

Orientalisches Seminar has established a wide array of contacts, exchange arrangements and joint research programs throughout the Islamic World. The Institute's library comprises only some 40.000 volumes, but the nearby Central University Library has built up one of the country's finest and most comprehensive holdings of publications on Islamic Studies and the Middle East. What is perhaps the world's largest scientific collection of Islamic coins represents a recent addition to the Institute's activities: the Institute's "Research Centre for Islamic Numismatics" publishes the "Sylloge Numorum Arabicorum" (so far 4 vols.). Close cooperation in teaching and research with the State Museum for Anthropology (Linden-Museum) and the Faculty of Architecture in Stuttgart opens up different avenues to explore aspects of the material culture in the Islamic world.

More details on Orientalisches Seminar (in German).