The Cairo Genizah and Arabic Literature: Kalila wa-Dimna as an Example
Dr Mohamed A H Ahmed, Al Maktoum Associate Professor in Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin presents “The Cairo Genizah and Arabic Literature: Kalila wa-Dimna as an Example”
Trinity College Dublin joins Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education for another Online Middle Eastern Studies Webinar. Delivered by lecturers from the Al Maktoum Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin, the webinar series is a window into the astonishing variety and interest of themes and questions in research on the Middle East. The webinar will give a flavour of postgraduate-level study of the Middle East, ancient and modern. It serves as a way of learning more about the newly launched masters degree in The Middle East in a Global Context’ at Trinity College Dublin.
The Cairo Genizah is a most fertile resource for historical Jewish studies in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Through its religious materials, the Genizah is invaluable to the study of, for example, the Bible, Talmud and Midrash and, with its wealth of documents, it is the most abundant documentary source for medieval Middle Eastern history.
An area that has hitherto received extremely little attention is the Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew characters) literature, especially poetry, contained in the Genizah. Holding fragmentary works and numerous pieces of otherwise lost Arabic literary texts, the Cairo Genizah should be considered a plentiful source for the study of Arabic literature. This presentation aims to shed light on the importance of the study of Arabic literature in the Cairo Genizah.
Dr Mohamed A H Ahmed– Associate Professor, Al-Maktoum Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin
Mohamed’s research interests lie in the areas of Arabic poetry, Judaeo-Arabic, bilingualism, the typology of written code-switching, code-switching in Modern Hebrew and medieval Judaeo-Arabic texts and sociolinguistic variation between Arabic and Hebrew.
Mohamed is the Principal Investigator for the European Research Council-funded project Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah (2020-25), which will allow him to lead academic teamwork to expand his work on Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah comprehensively.
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