PD Dr. Berenike Metzler

• Qurʾānic studies
• Early Islamic theology and sufism
• Visual culture studies on Islamic Calligraphy
• Conceptual History
• letter semiotics

• 2005-2010      Islamic Studies, Political Science and Intercultural Communication Studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• 2007-2010      Scholarship by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation
• 2010                 M.A., University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• 2012                Scholarship by the Orient-Institut Beirut
• 2013-2017      Research Assistant at the Chair of Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• 2016                PhD, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; title of dissertation thesis: Den Koran verstehen. Das Kitāb Fahm al-Qurʾān des Ḥāriṯ b. Asad al-Muḥāsibī.
• 2016                Max-Weber-Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities for dissertation thesis
• 2017-2021      Research Assistant in the Project „Was Schrift vermittelt. Text-Bild-Verhältnisse in islamischen Kulturen der frühen Neuzeit“ (DFG 344870700), University of Bamberg
• 2018                Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding for dissertation thesis
• 2021-2023      Scholarships by ‚Promotion of Equal Opportunities for Women in Research and Teaching‘ (FFL, University of Erlangen)
• 2023                Habilitation; title of habilitation thesis: Kulturen des Sehens. Begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Visualität im Islam.
  
• 2024-2027      Third Party Funded Research Project at the Orient-Institut Beirut, titled Das ABC des Abū Bakr aš-Šanawānī Buchstabensemiotik an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit.  (DFG 537113604)
  

I. Books

• Den Koran verstehen. Das Kitāb Fahm al-Qur’ān des Ḥāriṯ b. Asad al-Muḥāsibī (781-857), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2016.
• With Lorenz Korn (eds.), Writing as Intermediary. Text-Image Relations in Early Modern Islamic Cultures, Bamberger Orientstudien 16, Bamberg University Press 2022.
• Kulturen des Sehens. Begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Visualität im Islam, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2024.

II. Articles and Bookchapters

• Linseis, Verena/Metzler, Berenike/Saßenscheidt, Christian, „Fromme Männer unterwegs. Religiös motivierte Bewegungen in der mittelalterlichen Welt Europas und des Orients“, in: Borgolte, Michael et al. (eds.), Europa im Geflecht der Welt. Mittelalterliche Migrationen in globalen Bezügen, Berlin: Akademie Verlag 2012, pp. 119-132.

• „Der Buchstabe als heiliges Ding. Ein-Blicke in die Buchstabentheologie islamischer Kalligraphen“, in: Beck, Andrea/Herbers, Klaus/Nehring, Andreas (eds.), Heilige und geheiligte Dinge. Formen und Funktionen, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2017, pp. 201-212.

• „Qurʾānic Exegesis as an Exclusive Art. Diving for the Starting Point of Ṣūfī Tafsīr“, in: Tamer, Georges/Grundmann, Regina/Kattan, Assaad Elias/Pinggéra, Karl (eds.), Exegetical Crossroads. Understanding Scripture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Pre-Modern Orient, Berlin: de Gruyter 2018, pp. 319-328.
• „How to do Things with Calligraphy. Some Considerations on the Performative Aspect of Safavid Calligraphy“, in: Ben Azzouna, Nourane (ed.), Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie 8, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2022, pp. 197-208.
• „Modi des Reisens im Islam: der koranische Befund“, in: Godlewicz-Adamiec, Joanna/ Piszczatowski, Paweł (eds.), Vagabunden – Flüchtlinge – Eroberer Vormoderne Migrationsprozesse zwischen geschichtlichen Metanarrativen und Postkolonialismus, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2022, pp. 83-100.
• “Overcoming the Dichotomy of Text and Image: The Safavid Album Prefaces (1500–1700)”, in: Korn, Lorenz/Metzler, Berenike (eds.), Writing as Intermediary. Text-Image Relations in Early Modern Islamic Cultures, Bamberger Orientstudien 16, Bamberg University Press 2022, pp. 129-148.
• „Qalam as literary motif. The Semantic Field of the Term qalam in a Safavid Album Preface of the 16th Century.”, in: Szántó, Iván (ed.), Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie 9, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2023, pp. 49-60.
• „Muḥāsibī“, in: Tamer, Georges (ed.), Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics, Berlin/Boston (in preparation).
• „Tustarī“, in: Tamer, Georges (ed.), Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics, Berlin/Boston (in preparation).
• „On the Limits of the Sayable and their Overcoming by ʻLanguage Gamesʼ in the Thinking of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Islamic Mystical Philosophers of the 11th and 12th Centuries”, in: Hajatpour, Reza/Tamer, Georges (eds.), Philosophy and Mysticism in the Islamic World, de Gruyter (in preparation).

III. Review

• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein/Dagli, Caner K./Dakake, Maria Massi/ Lumbard, Joseph E. B./Rustom, Mohammed (Hg.): “The Study Quran. A New Translation and Commentary”, New York 2015, in: ZDMG 168.2 (2018), pp. 500-502.

• Koloska, Hannelies, „Offenbarung, Ästhetik und Koranexegese. Zwei Studien zu Sure 18 (al-Kahf)“, in: ThLZ 142.9 (september 2017), pp. 874-876.
• al-Salimi, Abdulrahman, “On the Reception of Early Ibadi Theology. A Commentary on the Book on Monotheism by ‘Abd Allāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (2nd/8th Century)”, in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 117.1 (2022), pp. 55-57.
• O’Meara, Simon, “The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam’s Ancient House”, in: Die Welt des Islams (2023), pp. 1-4.

Podcast episode on the dissertation thesis „Den Koran verstehen“ (host: Naja Danilenko)