Philip Bockholt | University of Münster (original) (raw)

Conferences by Philip Bockholt

On 15-17 January, the workshop "Empire in Translation: Perso-Arabic Knowledge and the Making of E... more On 15-17 January, the workshop "Empire in Translation: Perso-Arabic Knowledge and the Making of Early Modern Ottoman Civilisation" will be taking place at the University of Münster, which is the first of two workshops organised by the TRANSLAPT research group in 2025. The event will feature contributions by numerous scholars discussing translations between Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish as diverse forms of adaptation, imitation, rewriting, and repurposing texts within early modern Ottoman manuscript culture.

I am pleased to announce the upcoming workshop 'Osmanlıda Tercüme Metinlerin Mülkiyeti ve Dolaşım... more I am pleased to announce the upcoming workshop 'Osmanlıda Tercüme Metinlerin Mülkiyeti ve Dolaşımı / Ownership and Circulation of Translated Works into Ottoman Turkish', taking place at FSMVÜ Ayasofya Yerleşkesi in Istanbul on 1-2 November 2024.

Thanks go to Sami Arslan (Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi) and his team for co-organising this event, which aims to provide new insights into current research by scholars in Turkey and members of the Translapt Emmy Noether Junior Research Group in Münster.

Due to limited space, please contact manuscriptworkshop@fsm.edu.tr if you're interested in attending.

On 5 to 7 September 2024, the German-Japanese bilateral conference "Textual Transmission in the I... more On 5 to 7 September 2024, the German-Japanese bilateral conference "Textual Transmission in the Islamic Manuscript Age: On the Variance, Reception, and Usage of Arabic and Persian Works from the Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent" will take place at the University of Münster. This conference is jointly organised by Yui Kanda from the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Philip Bockholt. The aim of the international cooperation between scholars in Germany and Japan is to make existing approaches and findings relating to the creation, transmission, and reception of texts from the Middle Eastern subjects of Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies, and Iranian Studies, which are strongly represented in both countries, internationally fruitful and visible.

The conference “Texts as Living Objects” at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris from November... more The conference “Texts as Living Objects” at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris from November 14th to 16th, organised by Philip Bockholt and Sacha Alsancakli, aims to examine how texts remained relevant throughout the pre-modern and modern periods in the Islamic world, with a focus on the phenomenon of dhayl (pl. dhuyūl) in Arabic, or ẕayl/ẕeyl in Persian and Turkish. As a prominent feature of Islamic manuscript transmission, the term dhayl refers to the act of continuing the narrative of a given text, typically a historical chronicle, up to the time of the amendment.

Translation processes in the Islamic world of the early modern period, especially in the Ottoman ... more Translation processes in the Islamic world of the early modern period, especially in the Ottoman Empire, have hardly been researched so far. The new Emmy Noether Junior Research Group TRANSLAPT aims to change this and invites you to its inaugural event on 19 October in Münster.

In addition to the presentation of the TRANSLAPT team, the event will also feature a lecture by the renowned scholar Andrew Peacock (St. Andrews) on the topic of "Translation and the Making of Islamic Intellectual Culture", as well as a muscial contribution by Maktub Trio.

All interested are cordially invited!

International Conference in Gotha, 27-29 April 2023 Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persi... more International Conference in Gotha, 27-29 April 2023
Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire

The conference brings together scholars with expertise in Persian and Ottoman Turkish language contacts who are interested in the fields of language, literature, and history, and to explore the role of multilingual practices – especially translation – which are an essential part of knowledge production in the respective traditions. In addition, the conference provides a forum for discussion and collaboration between scholars of Ottoman, Iranian and Arabic studies and beyond who are concerned with the interactions of the three languages in the Ottoman Empire (elsine-i se̱lāse̱) and examine their functions as well as the interrelationships between languages, (literary) genres, and disciplines.

#Transottomanica #gotharesearchlibrary

Books by Philip Bockholt

Diyâr, 2024

Scholars from various disciplines have highlighted the widespread use of Persian among scholars a... more Scholars from various disciplines have highlighted the widespread use of Persian among scholars and elites in the Ottoman Empire as part of the larger multilingual region of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond during the early modern to modern periods. Concepts such as the ‘Persophonie’ (Bert G. Fragner) or the ‘Persianate World’ (Nile Green; Abbas Amanat and Assef Ashraf ), which go back to Marshall Hodgson’s term ‘Persianate’ to describe regions influenced by Persian culture, observed the significant
influence of Persian in the fields of literature, education and, to some extent,
administration and diplomacy (e.g. as a lingua franca) in much of the eastern Islamic world from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. This is also true for the Ottoman Empire. However, these discussions still lack adequate contextualisation and a methodological approach that allows for an analytical understanding of the phenomenon of the spread of Persian as a particular mechanism of knowledge transmission and exchange in these contexts. The notion of the distribution and translation of Persian works into Ottoman Turkish as a product of transregional and intercultural entanglements in the broader Transottoman sphere thus poses an ongoing challenge to contemporary scholarship, especially regarding the discussion of the Persian language and its role and significance in various cultural, literary, and political realms.

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, 2023

The newly published collective volume by Sacha Alsancakli and Philip Bockholt (Cahiers de Studia ... more The newly published collective volume by Sacha Alsancakli and Philip Bockholt (Cahiers de Studia Iranica, Paris) addresses dynamic and collective authorship by examining how authors and scribes in the Persianate parts of the Islamic world produced, copied, and interpreted texts during the manuscript age within specific cultural contexts, out of political necessity and as a result of professional choices.

The processes of scribal adaptation faced by scholars studying the Islamic world in the pre-modern period took many different forms, most of which are still unexplored. The changes applied consist of minor corrections and amendments, as well as full-fledged reworkings of a text and modifications to its core ideological components.

Under the label “ideological variations”, this volume intends to discuss any deliberate changes in content, rather than form, made by authors, copyists, and readers intervening at various stages in the processes of textual production and transmission.

VÖAW – OPEN ACCESS via https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/ein-besteller-islamischen-vormoderne, 2022

The Persian world history “Ḥabīb al-siyar” is one of the most copied historiographical works in I... more The Persian world history “Ḥabīb al-siyar” is one of the most copied historiographical works in Islamic intellectual history. Written by the Iranian historian Khvāndamīr in Herat during the rule of the Shiʿi Safavids in the 1520s, the book was subsequently adapted to the religious and political expectations of his later patrons, the Sunni Mughals in India, and circulated through hundreds of copies spread across the entire eastern Islamic world.

In „Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne“ (“An Early Modern Bestseller”), Philip Bockholt analyses copies of the work and offers new insights into their readership at various locations in the premodern Islamic world. Taking cues from reception, provenance, and historical readership studies, he examines ownership and readership notes, endowment seals and illustrations in order to shed light on the owners and readers of the work between the 16th and early 20th centuries. By giving an in-depth analysis of marginal notes found in the extant copies, he situates the “Ḥabīb al-siyar” within the broader framework of Islamic book culture and shows that the chronicle was part of a larger canon of texts. This canon was read within a greater Persianate world including not only the Safavid court in Iran and the Mughal court in India, but also places on the Deccan as well as in Central Asia and the Ottoman Empire. This study thus offers comprehensive insights into the transregional transmission of Persian historiography as well as regionally specific readership practices.

BRILL – Iran Studies, 2021

In Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna, Philip Bockholt addresses the question of h... more In Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna, Philip Bockholt addresses the question of how history was written in the premodern Islamic world, and offers new insights into one of the most important chronicles composed in Persian, Khvāndamīr’s universal history Ḥabīb al-siyar. Taking into account the political events which occurred in Iran and India around 1500, he examines the manuscript tradition of the work, and gives an in-depth analysis of how the author adapted his chronicle to the Shiʿi and Sunni religio-political outlook of his Safavid and Mughal overlords. Making use of new approaches in the fields of history and philology, Philip Bockholt convincingly proves how texts were transmitted and modified for various audiences during premodern times.

Articles (Peer-Reviewed Journals & Book Chapters) by Philip Bockholt

Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World: Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy, 2024

How widespread was authorship among rulers in the premodern Islamic world? The writings of differ... more How widespread was authorship among rulers in the premodern Islamic world? The writings of different types of rulers in different regions and periods are analyzed in this book, from the early centuries in the central lands of Islam to 19th century Sudan. The composition of poetry appears as the most fertile area for authorship among rulers. Prose writings show a wide variety, from astrology to bookmaking, from autobiography to creeds. Some of the rulers made claims to special knowledge, but in all cases authorship played a special role in the construction of the rulers' authority and legitimacy.

Contributors: Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Sean W. Anthony, María Luisa Ávila†, Teresa Bernheimer, Philip Bockholt, Sonja Brentjes, Christiane Czygan, David Durand-Guédy, Anne-Marie Eddé, Sinem Eryılmaz, Maribel Fierro, Adam Gaiser, Angelika Hartmann†, Livnat Holtzman, Maher Jarrar, Robert S. Kramer, Christian Mauder, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Letizia Osti, Jürgen Paul, Petra Schmidl, Tilman Seidensticker.

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, 2023

Khvāndamīr’s (d. 942/1535–36) Ḥabīb al-Siyar is one of the major historiographical narratives of ... more Khvāndamīr’s (d. 942/1535–36) Ḥabīb al-Siyar is one of the major historiographical narratives of the Persianate world. Originally a court chronicle written for the founder of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, Shah Ismāʿīl, this text was ideologically reshaped by its author at Bābur’s Timurid-Mughal court in India some years later. Then, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the book was repeatedly copied across the eastern Islamic lands and, judging by the sheer number of extant manuscripts, the Ḥabīb al-Siyar might be called a premodern bestseller. There was little awareness of the different versions of the work until modern times, partly because of the shift from manuscripts to “standard” printed editions. Using manuscript analysis techniques, this article explores how Khvāndamīr changed and integrated additional information about various Islamic dynasties in the main narrative in order to provide a Shia narrative for the Safavids in Iran and a Sunni view of history for the Mughals in India. Moreover, it addresses issues related to textual transmission and translation as well as the transformation of the work into print.

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, 2023

This special issue of Cahiers de Studia Iranica gathers contributions from the conference “Author... more This special issue of Cahiers de Studia Iranica gathers contributions from the conference “Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts from the 11th to 19th Centuries”. Originally planned to take place at the University of Leipzig in Autumn 2020, and eventually held online in Autumn 2021 because of the pandemic, the conference endeavoured to study how authors and scribes produced, copied, and interpreted texts within certain cultural contexts, out of political necessity, and based on professional choice in the Persianate parts of the Islamic world during the manuscript age, i.e., until the early 20th century. The processes of scribal adaptation faced by researchers studying the Islamic world in the pre-modern period took many different forms, most of which remain unexplored. The changes applied consist of minor corrections and amendments, as well as full-fledged reworkings of a text and modifications to its core ideological components. Such alterations impacted the text as a whole, which led us to question the legitimacy of a strict separation between “authors” and “copyists”. Subject to changing approaches, reappropriations and shifts in focus, texts were creatively altered, manipulated, and transformed by new actors in various ways including through the extraction of particular sections that were then presented as stand-alone publications, the production of appendices for specific chapters, and the translation of a work.

Der Islam, 2023

In the 1720s, the Ottoman grand vizier Dāmād İbrāhīm Pasha ordered a translation of the Persian ... more In the 1720s, the Ottoman grand vizier Dāmād İbrāhīm Pasha ordered a
translation of the Persian world history Ḥabīb al-Siyar into Turkish. The chronicle
deals with the history of the Islamic world until the 1520s and was penned 200
years earlier by the historian Khvāndamīr in Iran for the ruling dynasty of the
Safavids. As its author composed it for the archenemies of the Ottomans and gave
it a Shiʿi outlook, the committee of eight translators assigned by the grand vizier
faced the challenge of translating explicitly anti-Ottoman and pro-Shiʿi sections
within the text. By contextualizing the Turkish version of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar, the
article sheds light on the question of how texts were translated during the so-called
Tulip Age. Specifically, it analyzes the approach taken by the translators concerning
historical events of utmost importance to the Ottomans, such as Sultan Bāyezīd I’s
defeat by Timur at Ankara in 804/1402 and Sultan Selīm’s victory over Shah Ismāʿīl
at Chāldirān in 920/1514. Another point of interest is the depiction of the Sayyid
lineage of the Safavids as given in both texts, which was a controversial issue
between the two dynasties for centuries.

Marginal Matters: Explorations into Commenting and Glossing Techniques in Arabic Manuscript Cultures, 2024

Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2021

Khvandamir's general history Habib al-Siyar (Beloved of Careers), one of the major historiographi... more Khvandamir's general history Habib al-Siyar (Beloved of Careers), one of the major historiographical narratives of the Persianate world, was composed for the founder of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, Shah Ismaʿil, in the 1520s. Some years later, the author ideologically reshaped his work at Babur's Timurid-Mughal court in Agra. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the book was widely copied across the Islamic lands and, judging by the number of extant manuscripts (c. 600), the Habib al-Siyar might be called a premodern bestseller. Interestingly, several chapters dealing with the history of India (Hindustan) were apparently added by the author later on and have not been included in the printed editions. Based on the examination of widely scattered manuscripts, this article examines the textual transmission of these chapters. Furthermore, it explores the question of how Khvandamir integrated information about India into the main narrative and which sources he relied on in order to situate the region within an overarching narrative of Islamic history. This approach gives further insights into the precise quality and quantity of knowledge about the Indian subcontinent available in Iran around 1500, as well as into copying processes of texts in premodern times.

The Maghrib in the Mashriq: Knowledge, Travel and Identity, 2021

In his universal history Ḥabīb al-siyar fī akhbār afrād al-bashar (Beloved of Careers: On the Acc... more In his universal history Ḥabīb al-siyar fī akhbār afrād al-bashar (Beloved of Careers: On the Accounts of People), early 16th-century Iran and Mughal India's leading historian Ghiyās al-Dīn Muḥammad Khvāndamīr (d. 942 H/1535-6 CE) 1 writes: [S]ince the names and incidents related to the dynasty that ruled the Maghrib after the Banū ʿAbd al-Muʾmin [i.e. the Almohads] are not contained in the books which are available [to me] when writing these lines, I will continue with the accounts of the rulers of Egypt and the sultans of the Ayyūbid dynasty. 2

Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum. Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference of Iranian Studies

which were focused on Iran and the Persianate world during the epoch after the spread and dominat... more which were focused on Iran and the Persianate world during the epoch after the spread and domination of Islam. The articles cover the extensive span of time, from the pre-Mongol era to modernity, and follow a very wide range of research directions, including history, historiography, art history, contemporary politics and society, religious thought, literary studies and linguistics. The volume is addressed to Iranologists and specialists in neighbouring fields.

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2019

Middle East – Topics & Arguments (META), 2017

Due to limited space, please contact manuscriptworkshop@fsm.edu.tr if you're interested in attending.

All interested are cordially invited!

#Transottomanica #gotharesearchlibrary

Diyâr, 2024

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, 2023

VÖAW – OPEN ACCESS via https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/ein-besteller-islamischen-vormoderne, 2022

BRILL – Iran Studies, 2021

Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World: Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy, 2024

Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age: Contextualising Ideological Variants in Persian Texts, 2023

Der Islam, 2023

Marginal Matters: Explorations into Commenting and Glossing Techniques in Arabic Manuscript Cultures, 2024

Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2021

The Maghrib in the Mashriq: Knowledge, Travel and Identity, 2021

Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum. Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference of Iranian Studies

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2019

Middle East – Topics & Arguments (META), 2017

Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, 2021

Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

Der Islam, 2024

Mana Kia’s book, Persianate Selves: Memories of Place and Origin Before Nationalism, was publishe... more Mana Kia’s book, Persianate Selves: Memories of Place and Origin Before Nationalism, was published by Stanford University Press in 2020. The work discusses issues related to identity, memory, and a sense of belonging in 18th-century Iran and (Mughal) India.

Midéo, 2022

Mélanges de l'Institut dominicain d'études orientales 37 | 2022 La récitation dans les premiers s... more Mélanges de l'Institut dominicain d'études orientales 37 | 2022 La récitation dans les premiers siècles de l'islam Recensions

https://tellmeahistory.net/tmah022-khondamir-schreibt-geschichte-um/

The conquests of Chinggis Khan in the thirteenth century mark the beginning of the establishment ... more The conquests of Chinggis Khan in the thirteenth century mark the beginning of the establishment of the Mongol Empire in Eurasia. As rulers, the Mongols became known for their adaptability and openness to the customs and practices of most of the people they governed, which played a pivotal role in shaping the linguistic and cultural landscapes of Eurasia. The empire's administration and communication systems required the translation of texts and the use of multiple languages, which became essential tools for governance, diplomacy, trade, and cultural exchange. Additionally, intellectual elites in the empire were multilingual, with scholars, secretaries, and traders using a variety of languages and linguistic registers depending on the social and political context in which they communicated. The need to manage a multilingual empire with varied traditions and knowledge systems led to the development and institutionalization of translation practices that were not only practical but also transformative, shaping the very fabric of Eurasian societies during and after the Mongol period.

These linguistic and cultural dynamics did not disappear with the decline of the Mongol Empire but rather continued to flourish and evolve in successor states such as the Ottoman Empire, Timurid Central Asia, and Mughal India. In the Ottoman Empire, multilingualism was vital for administering a diverse population and for maintaining diplomatic relations across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Timurid Central Asia emerged as a vibrant hub of cultural and intellectual exchange, where Persian, Turkish, and Arabic coexisted and were utilised in the production of texts reflecting the region's rich linguistic heritage. Likewise, in Mughal India, the interaction among Persian, Sanskrit, and various regional languages fostered the creation of a sophisticated cultural environment, where translation served as a bridge connecting disparate traditions and promoting a relatively cohesive imperial identity. Throughout these and other regions influenced by the Mongols, including China and Korea, for instance, the legacy of Mongolian-era multilingualism and translation practices persisted, profoundly impacting the cultural and intellectual topography of Eurasia.

This workshop aims to investigate the intricacies of translation and multilingualism in Mongol and post-Mongol Eurasia from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries, analysing how texts, concepts, and knowledge traversed linguistic and cultural divides. Focusing on the period's extensive and diversified manuscript traditions, we seek to elucidate the mechanisms enabling effective communication and comprehension within a multilingual sphere extending from Eastern Asia to the Middle East. Viewing translation as an embodiment of knowledge transmission, the conference will delve deeper into the subject of translation as a notion, procedure, and outcome, debating who transferred knowledge, when, and in what settings. Regarding this inquiry, special consideration will be given to the methodology of material philology, where manuscripts serve as conduits conveying data concerning multilingual authors and audiences, ancient reading

Empire in Translation: Perso-Arabic Knowledge and the Making of Early Modern Ottoman Civilisation... more Empire in Translation: Perso-Arabic Knowledge and the Making of Early Modern Ottoman Civilisation
University of Münster, 15–17 January 2025

TRANSLAPT is inviting contributions for a conference titled
‘Empire in Translation: Perso-Arabic Knowledge and the Making of Early
Modern Ottoman Literature and Scholarship’, to be held at the University of
Münster (Germany) on 15–17 January 2025. This conference is organised by the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group TRANSLAPT, Inner-Islamic Transfer of Knowledge within Arabic-Persian-Ottoman Translation Processes in the Eastern Mediterranean (1400–1750), which aims to investigate the transregional transfer of knowledge holistically by focusing on translation as a concept, process, and product in a large portion of the Islamic world.

https://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/translapt/call_for_papers/index.html

The past two decades have seen an unprecedented revival in the study of manuscripts in Oriental l... more The past two decades have seen an unprecedented revival in the study of manuscripts in Oriental languages like Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. With the steady progress of cataloguing and digitising collections in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, manuscript copies of works which had been previously either unknown or inaccessible to scholars have come to light. As discussed at the conference Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age (Leipzig 2021), which focused on the contextualisation of ideological variants in Persian texts from the 11th to 19th centuries, the processes of textual transmission in extant copies and the variants found therein lead us to reconsider our understanding of the production, circulation, and reception of texts, and furthermore, the notion of knowledge transfer in the pre-modern Islamic context as a whole. This reassessment has the potential to significantly enrich our view of authorship and copying practices in the "manuscript age", which in the Middle East only ended in the early nineteenth century with the broader accessibility of the printing press.

The conference “Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire” is located... more The conference “Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire” is located within the research framework of the DFG Priority Programme 1981: “Transottomanica: Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian Mobility Dynamics” and will take place at the Gotha Research Library in Thuringia (Germany) from 27 to 29 April 2023.

Public job adver/sement 45,000 students and 8,000 employees in teaching, research and administra8... more Public job adver/sement 45,000 students and 8,000 employees in teaching, research and administra8on, all working together to shape perspec8ves for the future-that is the University of Münster (WWU). Embedded in the vibrant atmosphere of Münster with its high standard of living, the University's diverse research profile and aIrac8ve study programmes draw students and researchers throughout Germany and from around the world. The Ins8tute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Münster, Germany, is seeking to fill the posi8on of a

Call for Applications: PhD Position "Arabic/Persian-Ottoman Turkish Translations of Works of Biog... more Call for Applications: PhD Position "Arabic/Persian-Ottoman Turkish Translations of Works of Biography/Hagiography" (4 years)