Master

In this project, M. Riep studies the complexity of historical events related to the Arab conquest of the region along the upper course of the Syr Darya in Central Asia and especially of the micro oases of Shash and Ferghana. This project focusses on mobility, action and dynamics and will place the Arab…

Welcome to the Leiden University Centre for Islamic Thought and History. The initiatives and projects undertaken here are under the auspices of the Leiden University Centre for Intercultural Philosophy. As a centre, we aim to promote the study of Arabic and Islamic thought and history, in all its different…

A selected group of unpublished amulets from various collections in the world will be studied and edited.

This project explores how Muslim authorities and writers use Russian to transmit Islamic contents, and whether this leads to a specific

The Leiden | Islam interview series contains short documentary-style videos including interview flashes with leading scholars in the field of Islam and Muslim societies. With this series, LUCIS aims to show the value of unconventional insights related to Islam and Muslim societies, and to relate them…

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

This study addresses and explains the issue of negative descriptions of the Arab Other in modern Iranian thought.

The project ‘Between the Holy Land and the World’ proposes a connected history of the Christian communities in the Near East (1900-1948) by means of a study of unpublished Franciscan and Dominican photographic collections.

University Lecturer Ahab Bdaiwi:

Arts and culture, A Tale in Two Tongues: The added value of multilingualism

Lecture, Descriptive Linguistics Seminars

A new VICI Project led by Dr. Petra Sijpesteijn. More information on the PhD and postdoc postiions will be published soon

This master’s programme combines advanced levels of philosophical analysis with the study of non-Western sources, in particular Chinese, Indian, and Arabic sources.

To reach a larger audience beyond the academy, a number of activities in the cultural realm have been programmed over the years.

Since 2017, NVIC offers an interdisciplinary semester in Middle East Studies for students of Dutch and Flemish universities, primarily in the fields of International Studies. Half the semester (15 ects) is devoted to Arabic language acquisition, both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial…

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo is an academic centre providing services for scholars and students from the supporting universities.

LUCIS affiliated members are researchers outside Leiden University who are actively involved in the study of Islam and/or Muslim societies and who regularly participate in LUCIS activities. LUCIS affiliate membership offers possibilities to cooperate with LUCIS as well as network opportunities. Contact…

The FOI project has a number of topics it aims to investigate. These are: State, Economy, Culture and Papyri. You will find links to bibliographies on this page.

The Netherlands Institute in Morocco (NIMAR) is a Leiden University institute. It is financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For Arabic and Islamic Studies and Middle East Studies

For Arabic and Islamic Studies and Middle East Studies

The NVIC has published a series of scholarly publications in Arabic and several European languages.

Conference

Knowledge of Muslim societies is essential to function in a globalised world and to fully understand our own Dutch society. Leiden researchers explore the languages, cultures, religions, legal systems and history of Muslim societies and in this way contribute to a centuries-old tradition.

In the following you will find a list of courses that are offered at Leiden University that are relevant to the study of Ancient Arabia.

Leiden’s expertise on the Middle East spans from ancient history to contemporary tensions in the region. By studying languages, cultures, religions, literature, art, and philosophy in in conjunction, we create an indispensable, in-depth understanding.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (the NVIC) was founded in 1971. Nine universities in the Netherlands and Flanders participate in the institute with an aim to stimulating internationalisation of their teaching and research activities in the Middle East.

NIMAR is the Netherlands expertise centre for Moroccan Studies. Starting 2016, NIMAR is a part of the Faculty of Humanities of Leiden University. NIMAR organises lectures, facilitates research and actively adds to the knowledge of Moroccan languages, cultures and society in The Netherlands.

Do you want to discover a language and culture that is completely different from the Netherlands? In the Bachelor's programme Middle Eastern Studies you will study the connections between the different cultures in the Middle-East in the past and present. You will be able to choose from the languages…

You can find an overview of events organized by the Platform for Post-Colonial Readings below.

The NVIC library is a public, academic reference library. Entrance is free—no membership needed—and offers access to our book collection and two reading rooms, which have a WiFi connection. It is not possible to borrow books from our library.

This research studies the authenticity of the texts and tries to find an accurate dating to them using other parallel texts (Sahidic and Arabic), and aims to find out how the people of this age viewed their hero, the founder of orthodoxy, Athanasius.

Alumni event, Lunch webinar

Leiden University is awarding an honorary doctorate to virologist Marc van Ranst. Van Ranst has been one of the main advisers of the Belgian government during the Covid pandemic. German Arabist Beatrice Gründler will also receive an honorary doctorate for her work in the field of Oriental Manuscript…

Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World

Lecture, Applied African Linguistics

An overview of the Middle-East studies research projects at Leiden University where faculty and students cooperate. Coming fall 2024!

During the Autumn semester (September-December), the Netherlands Institute in Morocco (NIMAR) offers a minor that focuses on the study of Morocco from a social sciences and humanities perspective.

An overview of our exhibition catalogues and research monographs on the Middle Eastern collections.

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

'Consider languages in their shared context.' That is the message of Professor and Arabist Beatrice Gründler, who will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University on 8 February. ‘I would like people to learn that Arabic history has a close connection with Europe.’

In this dissertation a large corpus of letter signs and texts gathered during fieldwork in Niger, and to a lesser extent Mali and Burkina Faso is used to show the graphemic diversity of the traditional script of the Tuaregs, tifinagh, and to analyze the orthographic system.

Jews and Christians in the Middle East

At Leiden University you can study Islam and Muslim societies within two Dutch-language BA and various MA programmes and specializations.