Dr. Mohamed Ahmed
Al Maktoum Associate Professor, Near & Middle Eastern Studies

Projects

• Title
  • Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah
• Summary
  • Poetry enjoys a special place in Arabic culture and literature. For centuries, Arabs of all faiths have considered poetry a key source for knowledge, intellectuality and wisdom. In the pre-Islamic era, poetry was considered as `the Arab knowledge" and `the Arab cultural archive", in which the social and cultural history, language, arts, music, religious and Arab"s human experience were stored and preserved. Being a part of Arabic culture, Jews of Arab lands equally enjoyed writing and reading poetry. APCG will investigate for the first time a hitherto neglected collection of Arabic poetry fragments written in Hebrew script (in Judaeo-Arabic), which has been preserved in arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The fragments, numbered in the hundreds, constitute a unique source for understanding medieval and Early Modern Egypt from three main perspectives: Arabic studies, Jewish social and cultural studies, and anthropological studies. The core aims of the project are: " to make the entirety of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah accessible to both academic scholars and to the public in a comprehensive database and in critical editions; " to reveal, through the study of poetry, hitherto hidden aspects of social and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East with regard to literacy, education and intercommunal relations; " to explore hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and the social function of poetry in medieval and early modern Egypt through the study of Genizah poetry. To achieve the planned main objectives, APCG carries out a thorough interdisciplinary study of Genizah"s Arabic poetry. This approach involves research from philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.
• Funding Agency
  • ERC
• Date From
  • 01-JUL-2020
• Date To
  • 30-JUN-2026

• Title
  • From Tuscany to Alexandria: Arabic and Hebrew letters in the Prize Paper Collections, hoated by Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge/ UK.
• Summary
  • From Tuscany to Alexandria: Arabic and Hebrew mercantile letters in the Prize Paper collections The Prize Paper Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain a sack full of business letters in Arabic and Hebrew script, which were seized in 1759 by British seafarers as part of the loot on a Venetian ship bound for Alexandria. Virtually untouched since that time " most of the letters are still unopened and have been since they were archived in the 18th-century " they present a most exciting opportunity to investigate the interaction between Christian, Jewish, and Muslim merchants across borders in the 18th-century Mediterranean. The letters, numbering in the dozens, are particularly valuable as very little comparative material in Arabic script from that period is known and virtually nothing has been edited and published on the topic. Traders make an extremely important subject for studies on historical interfaith relations for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is usually business activity that creates the only opportunity for people of different faiths to meet in a neutral place and work for a common benefit. Commerce therefore really establishes an arena in which people deal with each other regardless of their respective religious background. Secondly, being part of a community of merchants also provides a facet of identity to people that may become as important as their religious identity. Merchants therefore often feel as much part of a perceived community of traders as they see themselves as Jews, Muslims or Christians.
• Funding Agency
  • DFG, Germany (€ 147600)
• Date From
  • 01-FEB-2017
• Date To
  • January 2020

• Title
  • "Code-switching in Religious, Secular and Philosophic Judaeo-Arabic Texts". Hosted by Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
• Funding Agency
  • Thyssen Stiftung Fellowship (€ 24000)

• Title
  • Arabic Use of the Iraqi Jewish Novelists, hosted by Leipzig University/ Germany.
• Funding Agency
  • DAAD PhD Scholarship (€ 81800)
• Date From
  • 01-OCT-2011
• Date To
  • 01-SEP-2015

• Title
  • DAAD (GERSS) Scholarship
• Funding Agency
  • DAAD (€ 6000)
• Date From
  • 11/2009
• Date To
  • 04/2010

• Title
  • The Three Algerian Jewish Merchants and the Venus Ship
• Summary
  • This ground-breaking research project will bring to light previous unexplored and invaluable Jewish documents from the late 18th century, which have been kept for more than 200 years unstudied. The Prize Papers Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain more than 280 Jewish letters and documents in Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew script) taken from the British cartel ship, the Venus, in 1800. The documents are valuable as very little comparative material in Algerian Judaeo-Arabic from that period is known. Thus, they present a most exciting opportunity to investigate the Jewish business network across borders in the late 18th-century Mediterranean. The project seeks funding in order to make the collection accessible to both academic scholars and to the public and to disseminate the results of the project nationally and internationally. This new project will lead the research into the field of Algerian Jewish language and history. The unexplored Algerian Judaeo-Arabic documents in the Prize Papers Collections constitute a unique chance to study the history, language, anthropology and culture of Jewish trades in the Mediterranean and North African countries during the late 18th century. It is hoped that the resulting investigation of these invaluable documents and letters will open up the time period to linguists, social and economic historians as an emerging source for research and knowledge. Therefore, the project importance is the knowledge that it proposes to generate to the Academic field and to the public.
• Funding Agency
  • NA
• Date From
  • 2020