Questions of Historiography

Workshop for Pakistani Madrasa students

From 15-25 July, 2016 the Chair of Muslim Cultural & Religious History, University of Erfurt hosted a first academic workshop titled ‘Questions of Historiography`. Eleven male and female students of Pakistani religious seminaries participated in this workshop together with eleven students from the University of Erfurt.

The workshop heavily relied on the research and expertise of Islamic Studies. In addition, students were also introduced to different religious traditions represented and taught by Erfurtian scholars of religious studies with a motivation to review the processes of historicization and subsequently compare those with participants´ own traditions. The academic exercises held at Erfurt University intended to help the students in answering the question as to how far is historicization informed by the past enmeshed in questions and interests of and in the present to serve the future.

Workshop Modules

Over the course of ten days, the madrasa students from Pakistan as well as Erfurt University learnt a wide array of topics related to the concept of religious historiography by focusing on the following topics:

• Religious Pluralism and Religious Historiography
• Histories of Jewish, Protestant and  Orthodox Traditions
• Orality and Textual traditions
• Memory and Forgetting
• Historicising Sharia
• Pakistan & its Historiographies
• Empire and Gender
• Sufi voices – malfuz literature
• Peace Education
• Intercultural Communication

Participating Madrasas from Pakistan

• Jamia Khair al-Madaris, Multan
• Dr. M. Sarfraz Naeemi Institute Of Peace Education, Lahore
• Jamia Rizwia Zia al-Ulum, Rawalpindi
• Jamia Sirajia Naeemia, Lahore
• Jamia Salafia Faisalabad
• Markaz-e Ulum al-Islamia Mansoora, Lahore