Research projects, Transfer of Science or Research

What is the nature and significance of beauty in Islamic intellectual culture and theology? To what extent did theological, philosophical, and mystical ideas inform the production and reception of Islamic material culture? Which approaches can be adopted in order to bridge the gap between theory and art? These and other questions will be the focus of the English interview series "Beauty and Islamic Theology", a series that explores the rich and diverse relationships between theology, art, and aesthetics in the Islamic world.

The interview series concludes the one-year AIWG project workshop "Beauty and Islamic Theology", a joint research program of the Centre for Islamic Theology at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen and the Chair of Islamic Religious Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg.

International scholars discussing aesthetics and theology

For this series of interviews, Dr. Bilal Badat, art historian and archaeologist based at the Centre for Islamic Theology at the University of Tübingen, conversed with distinguished international scholars of Islamic theology, history, philosophy, and anthropology as well as the history of Islamic art. Among them are the art historians Professor Wendy Shaw from the Free University of Berlin, Professor Christiane Gruber from the University of Michigan and Dr. Valerie Gonzales from SOAS University of London.

The official launch date for the video series will be the Day of Architecture on 26 June 2021, 6 p.m. In line with the theme of this day, the opening episode of the interview series will focus on Islamic architecture.

Every two weeks, the interview series covers a range of topics from early Islamic rhetoric and poetics, to aesthetics in architecture and Sufism, to beauty and theology in Andalusia.

Dates:

When:
• Start date: 26 June 2021, 6 p.m., Aesthetics of Islamic Architecture (discussion partner: Prof. Samer Akkach, University of Adelaide, founding member of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture).

• then every fortnight on Thursdays from 6 p.m. onwards

Where:

• on the YouTube channel of the project workshop "Beauty and Islamic Theology". https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClNG6B4ZCjjoZN6rJEikTlw

About the Project Workshop:
With its research project, the project workshop focuses on a "theology of aesthetics" within Islamic theological research in Germany. The aim is to shed light on the nature, value, and theological significance of aesthetics from an interdisciplinary perspective. Dr. Bilal Badat is a research assistant at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen specialising in Islamic art and architecture. His research interests include Iranian and Ottoman art and architecture, Islamic calligraphy, and manuscript culture of the Persianate world.

About the AIWG:
The Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) is a university platform for research and communication on specialist Islamic-theological questions and social issues. It facilitates supra-regional collaborations and interaction amongst researchers in Islamic-Theological Studies and neighbouring subjects as well as with actors in Muslim civil society and other sectors of society. Funding for the AIWG is provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Mercator Foundation.

Press contact
Stefanie Golla
Coordinator of Research Communication
and Public Relations
Tel.: 069-798 22459
E-mail: golla@aiwg.de

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Weitere Informationen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79lsf-xtkU4&t=18s Official series trailer
https://aiwg.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Flyer_EN.pdf (Flyer)