Coordination Proposal - Romanization and Islamication in Late Antiquity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Heidemann, since 4/2022
• Subject Area: Ancient History ; Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432021395

The proposed Humanities Center convenes the disciplines of comparative empire studies. Our approach aims to compare transcultural assimilation processes in the historical region of the western Mediterranean with focus on the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa during the first millennium CE, or the so-called "Long Late Antiquity", including the Early Islamic Period. The economically significant Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb were peripheral regions, both in the pagan, later Christianized Roman, and in the Islamic Empire. At the beginning of the millennium both regions were characterized by cultures, Celt-Iberian and Berber, that were influenced by Hellenistic civilization, but maintained their own, distinct characteristics. Both the Roman and the Islamic empires shaped the formation of societies, cities, administration, and landscapes. Both introduced a salvation religion, originating from the Middle East, as the state religion, but took a different approach to their social implementation (forced religious homogenization / religious albeit not equal plurality). After the end of each of the two empires, the Roman culture flourished under the Germanic leaders, as did the Islamic culture under the autonomous Umayyads and Aghlabids. While in the Iberian Peninsula the Roman-Christian element remained in evidence for centuries, despite Islamication, the previously Roman-Christian culture of North Africa (Augustine) disappeared almost entirely after two or three centuries after the Arab conquest. Here, the cultural Islamication merged with a religious Islamization. This historical situation permits the construction of theoretical models of transcultural adaptation processes in a space that, although geographically distant from the imperial centers, nonetheless continued to be of importance.The Humanities Center will connect debates about fundamental research issues, methodology, and positions in the field of Romanization and Islamication, that have for long been conducted parallel to one another, in separate disciplines. The Humanities Center will also generate new empirical information for the two research fields. From its thematic departure point of the western Mediterranean, it will also contribute new models and theories to the field of transcultural and comparative empire studies. It is precisely this combination of approaches that has the potential to break up contemporary associations of Romanization and Islamication as 'pre-modern forms of colonization'. In turn, current theories and models on Transculturality and Empires can be tested for their relevance to the historical and geographical focus of this project. The discourse-oriented format of the Humanities Center, with its interplay between the individual research of the core group of researchers on the one hand, and an international fellowship program on the other, is extraordinarily suited to dynamize and restructure global discourse in this field.

• DFG Programme: Advanced Studies Centres in SSH
• Subproject of: FOR 2924: Romanization and Islamication in Late Antiquity – Transcultural Processes on the Iberian Peninsula and in North Africa
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Sabine Panzram, until 4/2022