Hieke, Sebastian

I am a Student Assistant in the DFG-funded project “Independence and Diversity: Unknown Qaraite Bible Commentaries in Judeo-Arabic from the Early Classical Age”. Therein, I am assisting in the translation and editing of a biblical commentary of the 10th-century polemicist Sahl ben Maṣliaḥ. I am currently enrolled in the MA program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, having completed a BA in the same subject with a focus on Arabic papyrology and the economic history of medieval Egypt.

Through my studies, I am developing a strong interest in Christian Arabic philology as mirrored in manuscript witnesses from the 9th century onwards. Early Arabic biblical texts serve as comprehensive yet under-researched desiderata of the use of Arabic within the medieval Christian and Jewish communities in the Middle East. I am especially interested in the question of how those communities transmitted written knowledge during the time at which Arabic was becoming the lingua franca of learned discourse. This is important, because with it came the need to translate technical terms and ideas of science and religion into the context of a new idiom. Prospectively, my master’s thesis will focus on such translation techniques used in Arabic Bible manuscripts, which stem from versions in Classical Syriac and are held in the archives of St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai.

Areas of Interest

manuscripts, codicology, Arabic Bible, Arabic documents, Syriac, Judeo-Arabic, history of grammar

Historical Periods of Interest

8th through 13th centuries CE

Positions

Education