Goethe-Fellows

Ömer Özsoy

Professor of Qur’anic exegesis, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

2021–2025 (Goethe Fellow)

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Reconstructing the Dynamics of the Emergence and Formation of Islam«

Project outline:

The beginnings of Islam have been intensively researched in orientalist Islamic studies, especially in connection with local traditions and intertexts. In this context, valuable contributions have already been made through the evaluation of sources that are not entirely attributable to Islamic scripture. On the other hand, there has been no systematic and comprehensive analysis of early Islamic traditions. As a result, references in this material to the lived reality in the context of the origin of the Qur'an and Islam remain unconsidered. To fill this gap, the AIWG-funded project »Linked Open Tafsīr« has been taking place in Frankfurt since 2018 under my leadership. Within the framework of the Goethe Fellowship, the data collected in the project »Linked Open Tafsīr« will be related to the previous results of critical research on the Qur'an and Islam and reflected upon together with the relevant international scientific community in order to make them fruitful for a more precise reconstruction of the dynamics of the emergence and formation of Islam. (Ömer Özsoy)

Scholarly profile of Ömer Özsoy

Ömer Özsoy has been a professor of Qur’anic exegesis at the Department of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main since 2009, and is also the director of the University’s Institute for Studies in the Culture and Religion of Islam. After studying theology, he received his doctorate from Ankara University in 1991 and taught there as a professor of Qur’anic exegesis at the Faculty of Theology from 2004 to 2006. In his historical-critical research that considers all historical sources from the time of Islam's origin, he explores the questions of how Islam came into being in the 7th century and how it has been perpetuated in subsequent centuries.

Website:
Please find more information about Ömer Özsoy here.

Main areas of research:

Genesis, exegesis and hermeneutics of the Qur’an and Qur’anic interpretation; revelation and history, historicity of the Qur’an; contemporary Muslim thought (Islam and modernity)

Selected publications:

(ed. with F. Körner and S. Kurnaz) Identitäten und Kulturen – Kontexte im Konflikt. Jerusalemer Religionsgespräche, Herder: Freiburg im Breisgau 2021.
»Islamische Theologie als Wissenschaft. Funktionen, Methoden, Argumentationen – eine Frankfurter Perspektive«, in: Zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft. Theologie in Christentum und Islam, ed. by M. Gharaibeh, E. Begic, H. Schmid, C. Ströbele, Friedrich Pustet: Regensburg 2015, p. 56-68.
»Pioniere der historischen Koranhermeneutik«, in: Historizität und Transzendenz im Islam. Geschichte, Recht und Offenbarung, ed. by J. Benabdeljelil, EB Verlag: Berlin 2017, p. 23-45.
»Das Unbehagen der Koranexegese: Den Koran in anderen Zeiten zum Sprechen bringen«, in: Frankfurter Zeitschrift für islamisch-theologische Studien, No. 1 (2014), p. 29-68.
(ed. with Ayse Basol) Geschichtsschreibung zum Frühislam – Quellenkritik und Rekonstruktion der Anfänge, EB Verlag: Berlin 2014.
(ed. with M. Rohe, H. Engin, M. Khorchide and H. Schmid) Handbuch Christentum und Islam in Deutschland – Grundlagen, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven des Zusammenlebens, 2 volumes, Herder: Freiburg, Basel, Wien 2014.
(ed. with S. Heine, C. Schwöbel and A. Takim) Christen und Muslime im Gespräch – Eine Verständigung über Kernthemen der Theologie. Gütersloher: München 2014.

Ömer Özsoy

Scholarly profile of Ömer Özsoy

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