Center for Islamic Theology

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lejla Demiri

Chair of Islamic Doctrine

Executive Director of the Center

Head of the Center Board

Member of the Academic Council

Internationalisation Officer

Equality Officer

Office
Center for Islamic Theology
Rümelinstr. 27, 72070 Tübingen
1st floor, room 106
 +49 7071 29-75367 (secretariat)
lejla.demirispam prevention@zith.uni-tuebingen.de
sekretariat-glaubenslehrespam prevention@zith.uni-tuebingen.de

Office Hours
Thursday, 14:00 - 15:00 (by appoinment)


Research

Main Research Areas

  • Systematic Theology (Kalām)
  • Islam and religious pluralism
  • Christian-Muslim relations and theological interactions
  • Christian-Muslim textual sources in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish
  • Ottoman intellectual history
  • Islamic Manuscripts

Short Vita

since November 2023
Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Theology

University of Tübingen

2019
TDhc – Honorary doctorate in Theology (Doctor Honoris Causa)

Uppsala University, Sweden

since August 2012
Professor of Islamic Doctrine at the Center for Islamic Theology

University of Tübingen

2011 - 2012
Research Fellow of "Zukunftsphilologie: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship"

at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin

2010 - 2011
Research Fellow of EUME (Europe in the Middle East & The Middle East in Europe)

at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, in affiliation with the Institute for Semitic and Arabic Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin

2007 - 2010
Junior Research Fellow

Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge

2004 - 2008
PhD

Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

2003 - 2004
Licentiate in Interreligious Studies

Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

2002 - 2003
Post-graduate Diploma in Interreligious Studies

Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

2002 - 2003
Visiting Student, Faculty of Theology

Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome

2000 - 2001
Completed course-work for the PhD programme in Islamic Theology (Kalām)

Marmara University, Istanbul

1998 - 2000
MA in Islamic Theology (Kalām)

Marmara University, Istanbul

1994 - 1998
BA in Theology

Marmara University, Istanbul


Selected Publications

Books (Monographs and Edited Volumes)

  • ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī: A Bilingual Reader, with Samuela Pagani, and Astrid Meier (eds.), Sapientia Islamica: Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism series, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck (work-in-progress)
  • Green Theology: Emerging 21st Century Muslim and Christian Discourses on Ecology, with Mujadad Zaman and Tim Winter (eds.), Sapientia Islamica: Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism series, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck (forthcoming)
  • ʿUbayd Allāh al-Samarqandī (d. 701/1301) on Servanthood and Repentance: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation, Cambridge: Cambridge Muslim College Press (forthcoming)
  • Theological Anthropology in Interreligious Perspective, with Mujadad Zaman, Tim Winter, Christoph Schwöbel and Alexei Bodrov (eds.), Sapientia Islamica: Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism series vol. 5, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022 (xiii, 267 pp.)
  • Māturīdī Theology: A Bilingual Reader, with Philip Dorroll and Dale J. Correa (eds.), Sapientia Islamica: Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism series vol. 4, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022 (xi, 246 pp.)
    • Review by Martin Nguyen, American Journal of Islam and Society, 40/1-2 (2023), pp. 138-142
       
  • Early Modern Trends in Islamic Theology: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī and His Network of Scholarship (Studies and Texts), with Samuela Pagani (eds.), Sapientia Islamica: Studies in Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism series vol. 1, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019 (ix, 469 pp.)
       Reviews by
    • Rüdiger Lohlker, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (WZKM), 110 (2020), pp. 353-354
    • Jason Welle, Islamochristiana, 48 (2022), pp. 507-509
       
  • The Future of Interfaith Dialogue: Muslim–Christian Encounters through A Common Word, with Yazid Said (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018 (xv, 334 pp.)
        Reviews by
    • Iuliu-Marius Morariu, ASTRA Salvensis, 7/13 (2019), pp. 554-556
    • Nicholas Taylor, Scottish Episcopal Institute Journal, 3/3 (2019), pp. 41-43
    • Rémi Caucanas, Islamochristiana, 45 (2019), pp. 470-471
       
  • Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī, Ḥallāl al-ʿuqad fī bayān aḥkām al-muʿtaqad or Qudwat al-muhtadīn ilā maqāṣid al-dīn, with Islam Dayeh (eds.), Bibliotheka Islamica series vol. 58, Beirut: Orient-Institut Beirut, 2016 (172 pp.)
    • Review by Jibreel A. Delgado, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 77/1 (2018), pp. 149-151
       
  • Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo: Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) Commentary on the Christian Scriptures. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction, HCMR (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations) series vol. 19, Leiden: Brill, 2013 (xvi, 566 pp.)
       Reviews by
    • David Vishanoff, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 25/1 (2014), pp. 138-139
    • Mustafa Shah, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 73/2 (2014), pp. 378-381
    • Andrew Rippin, Ilahiyat Studies: A Journal on Islamic and Religious Studies, 5/1 (2014), pp. 122-125
    • J. Dean, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses, 94/4 (2014), pp. 491-492
    • Roberto Tottoli, “Bollettino di Islamistica”, Oriente Moderno NUOVA SERIE, 94/1 (2014), pp. 186-245, at pp. 208-209
    • J. Scheuer, Nouvelle Revue Théologique, 137/1 (2015), p. 159
    • Imran Iqbal, Al-Masāq, 27/3 (2015), pp. 289-291

Reference Works

  • Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volumes 6-20, (section editor) with David Thomas et al. (eds.), Leiden: Brill, 2014-23.

Book Chapters

  • “Jawāhir al-nuṣūṣ fī ḥall kalimāt al-Fuṣūṣ, ‘The Jewels of Texts in Unravelling the Words of the Fuṣūṣ’”, in ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī: A Bilingual Reader, ed. Lejla Demiri, Samuela Pagani, and Astrid Meier, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck (forthcoming)
  • “Ibrahim Müteferrika, Treatise on Islam”, co-authored with Serkan Ince, Christian-Muslim Relations, Primary Sources 1700-1914, Volume 3, ed. Clinton Bennett, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 26-29.
  • “ʿAbd al-Ghanī l-Nābulusī, Treatise on the special tax revenues imposed upon the dhimmīs”, Christian-Muslim Relations, Primary Sources 1700-1914, Volume 3, ed. Clinton Bennett, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 21-23.
  • “Iskandar ibn Aḥmad, Epistle refuting the Christian religion through the Gospel by means of the discipline of kalām”, co-authored with Serkan Ince, Christian-Muslim Relations, Primary Sources 1700-1914, Volume 3, ed. Clinton Bennett, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 18-21.
  • “The Book of Exile of Prince Cem”, in Christian-Muslim Relations, Primary Sources 1500-1700, Volume 2, ed. Martha T. Frederiks, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 18-20.
  • “Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī, Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels”, in Christian-Muslim Relations, Primary Sources 600-1500, Volume 1, ed. David Thomas, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 69-71.
  • “‘He Who has created death and life’ (Q 67:2): Death in Islamic Theology and Spirituality”, in Theological Anthropology in Interreligious Perspective, ed. Lejla Demiri, Mujadad Zaman, Tim Winter, Christoph Schwöbel and Alexei Bodrov, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022, pp. 67-82.
  • “God and Creation, ʿUbayd Allāh al-Samarqandī (d. 701/1301), al-ʿAqīda al-rukniyya fī sharḥ lā ilāha ill Allāh Muḥammad Rasūl Allāh”, in Māturīdī Theology: A Bilingual Reader, ed. Lejla Demiri, Philip Dorroll and Dale J. Correa (eds.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022, pp. 89-102.
  • “Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī, Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels”, in The Bloomsbury Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, 600-1500, ed. David Thomas, London: Bloomsbury, 2022, pp. 56-58.
  • “Freedom as a Theme in Islamic Thought: An Introduction to Selected Premodern Texts”, in Freedom: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, ed. Lucinda Mosher, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2021, pp. 54-61.
  • “Eine Theologie des Todes”, in Islamische Bildungsarbeit in der Schule: Theologische und didaktische Überlegungen zum Umgang mit ausgewählten Themen im islamischen Religionsunterricht, ed. Fahimah Ulfat and Ali Ghandour, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2020, pp. 249-264.
  • “Death as an Existential Quality (Amr Wujūdī): ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī’s Commentary on Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī’s Poetry”, in Early Modern Trends in Islamic Theology: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī and His Network of Scholarship (Studies and Texts), ed. Lejla Demiri and Samuela Pagani, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019, pp. 363-422.
  • “Reflections on Theologie des Zusammenlebens”, in Theologie des Zusammenlebens. Christen und Muslime beginnen einen Weg, ed. Bernd Jochen Hilberath and Mahmoud Abdallah, Theologie des Zusammenlebens Christliche und Muslimische Beiträge series vol. 1, Ostfildern: Grünewald, 2017, pp. 73-85.
  • Taḥrīf in der vormodernen muslimischen Literatur”, in Das koranische Motiv der Schriftfälschung (taḥrīf) durch Juden und Christen. Islamische Deutungen und christliche Reaktionen, ed. T. Güzelmansur, CIBEDO-Schriftenreihe, vol. III, Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2014, pp. 15-44.
  • “Mose: ein Prophet des Islams”, in Die Boten Gottes: Prophetie in Christentum und Islam, ed. A. Middelbeck-Varwick, M. Gharaibeh, H. Schmid and A. Yaşar, Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2013, pp. 89-102.
  • “Ḥanbalite Commentary on the Bible: Analysis of Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) Al-Ta‘līq”, in The Bible in Arab Christianity, ed. D. Thomas, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2007, pp. 295-313.

Journal Articles

  • “An Angelic Jesus? A Medieval Muslim Quest for an Alternative Christology”, Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie (NZSTh), 60/1 (2018), pp. 21-43.
  • “Međuvjerski odnosi u srednjovjekovnome svijetu: Muslimanska tumačenja kršćanskih svetih knjiga”, Forum Bosnae, Sarajevo 61-62/13 (2013), pp. 194-201.

Encyclopaedia Entries

  • “Hasan Hüsnü Toyrânî” (pp. 580-584), and Hacı Abdullah Petricî (pp. 105-109), in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 18. The Ottoman Empire (1800-1914), Leiden: Brill, 2021. 
  • “Abdullah Edib Bayramzâde” (pp. 176-178), “Hasan Sabri” (pp. 225-228), and “Celal Nuri İleri” (pp. 237-245), co-authored with Serkan Ince, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 18. The Ottoman Empire (1800-1914), Leiden: Brill, 2021.
  • “ʿAbd al-Ghanī l-Nābulusī” (pp. 108-129), in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 12. Asia, Africa and the Americas (1700-1800), Leiden: Brill, 2018.
  • “İbrahim Müteferrika” (pp. 154-162), and “İskender ibn Ahmed Feylesof et-Trabzonî” (pp. 147-149), co-authored with Serkan Ince, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 12. Asia, Africa and the Americas (1700-1800), Leiden: Brill, 2018.
  • “Altıparmak Mehmed Üskübî” (pp. 104-108), co-authored with Serkan Ince, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 10. Ottoman and Safavid Empires (1600-1700), Leiden: Brill, 2017.
  • “Hikâye”, in Christian-Muslim Relations Online II, Leiden: Brill, 2017.
  • “Cem Sultan” (pp. 676-687) and “Abū l-Faḍl al-Suʿūdī” (pp. 639-643) in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 7. Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600), Leiden: Brill, 2015.
  • “Hüsâm Çelebi” (pp. 592-598), “Molla Kâbız” (pp. 615-621) and “Ibn Kemal” (622-638), co-authored with Muharrem Kuzey, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 7. Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600), Leiden: Brill, 2015.
  • “Ibn ʿAwf” (pp. 675-678) in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 5 (1350-1500), Leiden: Brill, 2013.
  • “Ṣāliḥ b. al-Ḥusayn al-Jaʿfarī” (pp. 480-485), “al-Sayf al-Murhaf” (pp. 662-665) and “Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī” (pp. 724-731) in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 4 (1200-1350), Leiden: Brill, 2012.
  • “Tûfî” in DİA (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi), Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, 2012, vol. 41, pp. 324-327.
  • “Ibn Ẓafar al-Ṣiqillī” (pp. 625-631) and “Naṣr ibn Yaḥyā” (pp. 750-754) in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 3 (1050-1200), Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Book Reviews

  • Samer Akkach, Letters of a Sufi Scholar: The Correspondence of ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641-1731), in Al-Masāq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, 24/3 (2012), pp. 313-315.
  • R.Y. Ebied and D. Thomas (eds), Muslim-Christian Polemic during the Crusades, in Collectanea Christiana Orientalia (CCO), Cordoba: Universidad de Córdoba and CEDRAC (Université Saint-Joseph), 3 (2006), pp. 438-442.

General Audience Publications (Books & Articles for Newsletters and Magazines)

  • „Green Theology: Eine islamische Perspektive“, feinschwarz.net. Theologisches Feuilleton (15 March 2022). https://www.feinschwarz.net/green-theology-eine-islamische-perspektive/
  • Una Palabra Común: Texto y Reflexiones, Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 2020 (xxi, 87 pp.) [Spanish translation of A Common Word: Text and Reflections]
  • Общее слово: Текст и размышления. Руководство для приходов и мечетей, Moscow: St Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute, 2018 (xxiii, 103 pp.) [Russian translation of A Common Word: Text and Reflections]
  • “Maryam nel Corano”, Donne Chiesa Mondo (Mensile dell’Osservatore Romano), Città del Vaticano, No. 57 (May 2017), pp. 14-8.
  • “Maryam en el Corán”, Donne Chiesa Mondo (Suplemento mensual), Vaticano 25 (May 2017), pp. 8-10.
  • “Mary in the Qur’an”, L’Osservatore Romano (The Newspaper), Città del Vaticano (2 May 2017).
  • “Maryam im Koran”, L’Osservatore Romano (Wochenausgabe in deutscher Sprache), Vatikanstadt, No. 24 (16 Juni 2017), p. 6.
  • “Reading the Bible through the Qur’an: Najm al-Din al-Tufi’s Study of the Christian Scriptures”, Muslim Views of the Bible: Past and Present, Oxford: The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Research Briefings: no. 2 Autumn 2014, pp. 9-10. 
  • Një Fjalë a Njëjtë: Kumt dhe Përqasje, Tirana: Erasmus, 2011 (xxii, 97 pp.) [Albanian translation of A Common Word: Text and Reflections]
  • A Common Word: Text and Reflections, Cambridge: Muslim Academic Trust, 2011 (xx, 90 pp.)
     Reviews by
    • Mehmet Ata Az, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 46/3 (2011), pp. 469-70
    • Armand J. Boehme, Reviews in Religion & Theology, 19/4 (2012), pp. 440-2
       
  • Texts from the Early Islamic Period of Egypt: Muslims and Christians at their First Encounter, with Cornelia Römer (eds.), Vienna: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 2009 (xviii, 53, xiii pp.)
     Reviews by
    • David Bertaina, The Medieval Review, 10.02.14 (2010)
    • Wadad Kadi, Speculum, 87/3 (2012), pp. 861-2
    • Pierre Larcher, Arabica, 61 (2014), pp. 186-9

Teaching material for schools