Jens Scheiner – författare

The Futūḥ al-Shām (The Conquests of Greater Syria), usually attributed to Abū Ismāʿīl Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Azdī al-Baṣrī, is one of the primary sources used for historians studying the early Muslim expansion into Greater Syria. This study revaluates the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative and the question of its compiler-author, investigating the history of the narrative as text through an analysis of a new manuscript and important parallel texts, and revisiting the evidence and hypotheses previous scholars have put forward on both al-Azdī’s life and the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative’s text. It thus offers an overview of the history of Oriental and Islamic Studies on the basis of one work.

This work focuses on the intellectual and educational history of Baghdad in the early 'Abbasid and Bayid periods (8th-10th centuries). It covers a wide range of disciplines taught in the metropolis before the institutionalization of the madrasa system. Among these fields of knowledge are Arabic poetry and literature, the transmission of prophetic reports, Arabic historiography and astronomical-astrological teaching. Christian learning in the city is highlighted by two contributions, while two more papers focus on Jewish practices of knowledge production. The volume seeks to promote a better understanding of Baghdad's multi-cultural circles of learning, the transmission of knowledge, and common patterns of patronage during this period. With Contributions by E. Abate, A. Borrut, Y. Dehghani Farsani, D. Janos, E. Martin Contreras, L. Ossenbach, C. Ott, H.-P. Pokel, J. Scheiner, N. K. Schmid, N. Schmidt, K. Szilagyi, J. Thomann, I. Toral-Niehoff, J. Watt, C. Wilde, M. Zakeri

The conquest of Damascus is one of the main events of the Islamic conquests in bilād al-Shām. Consequently, it appears with approximately 1000 narratives in the Islamic literature. This book shows the dependencies of these narratives. It therefore exemplifies the historiography from 700-1300 CE using one single event. Using the method of isnād-cum-matn-analysis the oldest forms of Islamic historiography are reconstructed. Among them are not only the version by Ibn Ishāq, but also the narratives in the futūh-work ascribed to al-Waqidī and in al-Azdī's Futūh al-Sham. Finally, the course of the events is described on the basis of the oldest reconstructed versions. Die Eroberung von Damaskus gehört zu den bedeutendsten Ereignissen der futūh im historischen Syrien. Folglich ist sie mit circa 1000 Einzelüberlieferungen ein häufig vorkommendes Element in der islamischen Literatur. Die Zusammenhänge und Abhängigkeiten der Überlieferungen zu analysieren, ist das Hauptanliegen dieser Studie. So können Aussagen über die Historiography von 700-1300 n. Chr. an Hand eines historischen Beispiels getroffen werden. Mit Hilfe der isnād-cum-matn-Analyse gelingt es zudem die frühesten Formen muslimischer Geschichtsschreibung zu rekonstruieren. Zu diesen gehören neben der Version Ibn Ishāqs auch die Erzählungen, die sich in dem Futūḥ-Werk, das al-Waqidī zugeschrieben wird, und dem Futūḥ al-Šhām al-Azdīs finden. Auf Grundlage dieser ältesten rekonstruierten Fassungen zeichnet diese Untersuchung abschließend die Eroberung von Damaskus nach.

This volume contains six articles on Ibn ʿAsākir and his Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq illustrating a variety of perspectives and approaches to the material. It includes a seventh article that discusses the process by which the now standard Dār al-fikr edition was compiled. The contributions address both the geographical and biographical sections of the Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq. Some of the authors examine Ibn ʿAsākir’s sources, while others describe how Ibn ʿAsākir’s works were used by later generations of scholars and how he influenced multiple genres of later writings. The volume also contains analyses of individual biographies and discussions of Ibn ʿAsākir’s treatment of larger classes of people, including the first analysis of his biographies of women. In sum, it illustrates both the wide range of topics that the Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq covers and the latest techniques for analyzing Ibn ʿAsākir and his work.Contributors: Zayde Antrim, Steven Judd, Nancy Khalek, James Lindsay, Suleiman Mourad, Dana Sajdi, Jens Scheiner, Monika Winet.

Baghdād: From its Beginnings to the 14th Century offers an exhaustive handbook that covers all possible themes connected to the history of this urban complex in Iraq, from its origins rooted in late antique Mesopotamia up to the aftermath of the Mongol invasion in 1258.Against the common perception of a city founded 762 in a vacuum, which, after experiencing a heyday in a mythical “golden age” under the early ʿAbbāsids, entered since 900 a long period of decline that ended with a complete collapse by savage people from the East in 1258, the volume emphasizes the continuity of Baghdād’s urban life, and shows how it was marked by its destiny as caliphal seat and cultural hub.ContributorsMehmetcan Akpınar, Nuha Alshaar, Pavel Basharin, David Bennett, Michal Biran, Richard W. Bulliet, Kirill Dmitriev, Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, Hend Gilli-Elewy, Beatrice Gruendler, Sebastian Günther, Olof Heilo, Damien Janos, Christopher Melchert, Michael Morony, Bernard O’Kane, Klaus Oschema, Letizia Osti, Parvaneh Pourshariati, Vanessa van Renterghem, Jens Scheiner, Angela Schottenhammer, Y. Zvi Stampfer, Johannes Thomann, and Isabel Toral.