Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Berliner Institut für Islamische Theologie

Dr. Dženita Karić

nimmt ihre Forschungsarbeit am Lehrstuhl für Islamische Ideengeschichte auf.

Welcome, Dr. Dženita! We are very glad to have you at the BIT. Allow us to ask you some questions concerning your scientific qualifications and interests.

You will work as a researcher at the chair for Intellectual history of the post-classical period 1200-1800. How is your personal research interest connected to this denomination?

I am excited to join the project that aims to contribute to the ongoing research of the premodern Islamic intellectual history. My own research interests focus on situating the intellectual production of the early modern Ottoman period into the wider socio-cultural context and observing the mechanisms underlying the shifts in that production over time. In my work on Bosnian Hajj, I looked how the experience of the pilgrimage ritual was mediated through a variety of genres and languages (Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Bosnian), and how it was affected by changes in literacy and religious authority. This also requires keeping in mind the continuities in intellectual and religious production until our own times.

From which of your skills and competencies we will profit furthermore at the BIT?

I have worked intensively with Arabic and Ottoman Turkish manuscripts for over a decade, as part of my doctoral research at SOAS (University of London) and my research projects at the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo. My research and teaching experience at different institutions in the UK, Germany, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina has given me a broader perspective on a range of academic discourses pertaining to the Islamic intellectual history. As I affirm the importance of classical methods of researching the intellectual history such as close reading of the sources, I am also highly invested in exploring the conceptual frameworks (for example, mobility or gender) that can help us in understanding the premodern Islamic past in a more comparative way.

Could you name some of your objectives during the coming years at the BIT?

I want to further explore some of the facets of the premodern intellectual production and exchange and to study more closely the role of Hadith in the early modern Ottoman context. This requires me to conduct research in different archives and manuscript libraries. I am joining a team of dedicated researchers, with whom I am hoping to organize a number of workshops and conferences, apart from the less visible but equally rewarding reading groups. Finally, one of my objectives is to contribute to the ongoing debates in the Islamic intellectual history through academic exchanges with the broader community.

More about Dr. Dženita Karić.