Dr. Barbara Roggema will be presenting results form the ERC-project JewsEast. 

Christian Arabic manuscripts contain a treasure chest of writings by Middle Eastern Christians. A fair amount of texts in these manuscripts have been identified and studied, but many remain as yet unexplored. In the ERC-project "Jews and Christians in the East: Strategies of Interaction between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean" (Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum) I am researching a rich variety of mostly unedited texts which Arab Christians wrote about Judaism and the Jews. In this paper I will share some of my findings and argue that the scholarly claim that after the rise of Islam Christians in the Middle East cared mostly about defining their identity vis-à-vis Muslims and no longer vis-à-vis Jews cannot be supported. 

This talk is a part of the Text and Transmission Joint Research Seminar, hosted by Andy Hilkens (UGent) and Dan Batovici (KU Leuven) in an effort to put together in the same room on-going projects—in Belgium and beyond—on various traditions and historical contexts. For the time being we have switched to online Zoom one-paper meetings, normally at 10am CET on the planned dates. If you’d like to attend, get in touch with the convenors Andy Hilkens or Dan Batovici.