Connolly, Magdalen

My research centres on pre-modern “non-standard” Arabic writing. The focus of my work is primarily linguistic; I am interested in diachronic developments in the orthography, morphology, and syntax of Middle Arabic texts, the styles and registers associated with this type of written language, and the extent to which these were (unofficially) standardized. The study of Middle Arabic is organised along confessional lines, with Muslim Middle Arabic, Christian Middle Arabic, and Jewish (Judeo-)Arabic forming independent sub-disciplines. As such, the social questions that arise from examining examples of texts from all three religious communities are also of interest to me. What role did religious affiliation play in language use and attitudes to language in the premodern era in different regions of the Arabic-speaking world? Does the organisation of Middle Arabic studies into confessional varieties reflect linguistic and social realities during the pre-modern era (and how might these have changed over time and place) or is it perhaps indicative of contemporary attitudes towards religion as a dominant identity marker?

I work with a variety of sources but focus predominantly on the Arabic and Judeo-Arabic material in the Cairo Genizah collections. In addition to my work on historical linguistic variation, I have also worked collaboratively with Nick Posegay on Arabic-script Qur’an fragments in the Cairo Genizah collections, the results of which have been published in the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts and the Journal of Qur’an Studies.

m.connolly@lmu.de

lmu-munich.academia.edu/MagdalenConnolly

Areas of Interest

Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, historical linguistics, Cairo Genizah collections, codicology and palaeography of manuscripts

Historical Periods of Interest

11th through 19th centuries CE

Positions

2022

Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich

2020 – 2022

Fellow and Tutor, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK

2019 – 2020

Research Fellow, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK

2018 – 2022

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (full-time), Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

2018 – 2022

Research Associate (part-time), Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library, University of Cambridge, UK

2018

Research Assistant (part-time), Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library, University of Cambridge, UK

Education

2018

PhD in Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge (Emmanuel College), UK

2014

MPhil in Hebrew Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

2013

BA in Arabic & Theology, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK

Awards and distinctions

2014 – 2018

Le Bas Award, a Cambridge Home and European Scholarship Scheme (CHESS) Award (full PhD funding)

2017

Fieldwork Expenses Grant, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK

2014

Martin Hinds Travel Fund Grant, FAMES, University of Cambridge, UK

2013

Dean’s Award for Excellence, University of Exeter, UK

Functions

2019 – 2022

Member of Governing Body, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK

2019 – 2021

Member of Research Committee, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

2019 – 2020

Member of Fellows’ Stewards Committee, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK

2020

Member of Athena SWAN Bronze Award Application Committee, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

Publications

Books

Articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and conference proceedings

Connolly, Magdalen M., and Nick Posegay. “A Survey of Personal-Use Qur’an Manuscripts Based on Fragments from the Cairo Genizah.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 23, no. 2 (2021): 1–40. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0465.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “Splitting Definitives: The Separation of the Definite Article in Medieval and Pre-Modern Written Judeo-Arabic.” Journal of Jewish Languages 9, no. 1 (2021): 32–76. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134638-BJA10010.

Wagner, Esther-Miriam, and Magdalen M. Connolly. “Code-Switching in Judaeo-Arabic Documents From the Cairo Geniza.” Multilingua 37, no. 1 (2018): 1–23. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0050.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “Adverbial Subordination in Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic and Muslim Middle Arabic Versions of ‘Qiṣṣat al-Ğumğuma’ from the Ottoman Period.” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 9, no. 1–2 (2020): 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-20201004.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “A Nineteenth-Century Judaeo-Arabic Folk Narrative.” In A Handbook and Reader of Ottoman Arabic, edited by Esther-Miriam Wagner, 333–47. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2021. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0208.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “A Nineteenth-Century Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic Folk Narrative: Text, Translation and Grammatical Notes.” In Studies in Semitic Linguistics and Manuscripts: A Liber Discipulorum in Honour of Professor Geoffrey Khan, edited by Nadia Vidro, Ronny Vollandt, Esther-Miriam Wagner, and Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, 392–420. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-347037.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “‘The Tale of the Cairene and the Countryman’: A Late Judaeo-Arabic Narrative Revisited.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 20 (2020): 91–104. https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.7948.

Connolly, Magdalen M. “Revisiting the Question of Ğīm from the Perspective of Judaeo-Arabic.” Journal of Semitic Studies 64, no. 1 (2019): 155–83. https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgy033.

Connolly, Magdalen M., and Nick Posegay. “An Arabic Qurʾān, That You Might Understand: Qurʾān Fragments in the T-S Arabic Cairo Genizah Collection.” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 11, no. 3 (2020): 292–351. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878464X-01103002.