P4: The Argument from Scripture

P4 (Lejla Demiri) ‘The Argument from Scripture’ explores the Muslim textual corpus of the religious ‘other’, especially Christianity, in the Ottoman 16th-17th centuries context. This project is the first attempt to draw a comprehensive picture of the Muslim perception, reception and interpretation of Christian scriptures in early Ottoman times. To this end, it explores relevant texts in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, contextualises these works and analyses them theologically. Of significance, the project contributes particularly to the areas of tension between perception of oneself and the ‘other’, inclusion and exclusion, and similarity and alterity. Thus, P4 not only provides innovative research and an integral contribution to the overarching research group, but also contributes to strengthening linguistic, historical, hermeneutical and comparative theological research more broadly.