Research Group Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
The research group brings together scholars from various departments and faculties at the University of Bergen who are interested in the study of Islam, the Middle East, and neighboring regions.
About the research group
The group seeks to:
- serve as a nodal point of research networks in Bergen and beyond,
- produce high-quality publications on its research theme,
- contribute to the career development of junior researchers,
- assist its members in developing research projects,
- foster interdisciplinary exchange,
- disseminate knowledge about Islam and the Middle East,
- and increase the visibility of pertinent research activities at the University of Bergen.
- Collaborate with the Bergen University Library Special collections on the Sudan and MIddle East collections held there.
To reach these goals, the research group organizes regular activities such as academic lunches, guest lectures, PhD seminars, and international workshops.
The research group relies on its Middle East research library and collaborates with other research groups, projects, and units at the University of Bergen, the Chr. Michelsen Institute (external link), and academic institutions in Nordic countries and beyond.
Group history
The research group has existed at the University of Bergen in various forms since 1988 and has played a central role in establishing Bergen as a leading center of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in the Nordic countries.
Featured
Publications
Publications
Pelle Valentin Olsen
- Pelle Valentin Olsen, 2025. “Atomic utopias in Egypt: intellectual thought and popular science, 1945-1950,” with Hebatalla Taha, in Utopias in the Middle East, edited by Thomas Pierret and Simon Fuchs, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN: 9781399537735.
- Pelle Valentin Olsen, 2025. Samirah “Iraqi Jewish Pioneers in the Emergence of Cinema in Iraq,” in Palgrave Handbook of Arab Film and Media, edited by Samirah Alkassim, London: Palgrave. Forthcoming.
- Pelle Valentin Olsen, 2025. “Iraqi Jews and the Emergence of Cinema Culture in Hashemite Iraq,” in Jews of Iraq: Engagement with Modernities, edited by Orit Bashkin, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Forthcoming.
Anne K. Bang
- Anne K. Bang, 2025. “Double-sided print: Silent and Communal Reading During the Rise of Islamic Print in East Africa, c. 1880-1940”, in: K. Barber and S. Newell (eds.), Print Cultures and African Literature, 1860-1960, Cambridge University Press, 335-351.
- Anne K. Bang, 2025. “Reformers Remembered: The Haddadian Paradigm as retold in the 20th- and 21st-century Indian Ocean", in: H. Suzuki and M. Mio (eds.), “Gyres” of the Indian Ocean and Beyond: Discovering the Indian Ocean, Senri Ethnological Studies, Osaka:Japan, 165-183.
- Anne K. Bang, 2024. Zanzibari Muslim Moderns. Islamic Paths to Progress in Interwar Zanzibar, Monograph, 234 pages, London: Hurst Publishers/Oxford University Press.
Kubra Nugay
- Kubra Nugay, 2024, “The discretion of the İmâm”: Ârif Efendi’s Preface to His Translation of Dede Cöngi’s Siyâsetnâme, In: O. Anchassi and R. Gleave, Islamic Law in Context: A Primary Source Reader, Cambridge University Press.
Eirik Hovden
- Eirik Hovden, 2025. "Canonising the Code: the Authorisation and Authorship of šurūḥ and ḥawāšī on the Kitāb al-Azhār under the Early Qāsimī Dynasty in Zaydī Yemen (ca. 1600-1700 CE)”, Arabic https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-01236938
- Eirik Hovden & Mahmood Kooria, 2025. "The Muḫtaṣar and Its Role in the Islamic Legal Schools". Arabica (introduction to special issue) 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-01236942
- Eirik Hovden, 2025. “Backdating the Criticism and Abolition of Family Waqf: Examples from Zaydī Yemen," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JESHO), vol 69, Issue 5-6, 708-733 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341653
- Eirik Hovden & Dominik Krell, 2025. "Reassessing the Family Waqf: New Insights on the Relation Between Family, Wealth, and Islamic Doctrine (introduction to special issue section) Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JESHO), https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341652
- Eirik Hovden, 2024, “Hvordan forstå endringer i før-moderne sharia? Et nærmere blikk på den rettsvitenskapelige tradisjonen i perioden 1200–1800,” Din Tidsskrift for Religion og Kultur, 1 https://doi.org/10.52145/din.2024.1.2284
- Eirik Hovden, 2024. "Understanding and Framing Change in Islamic Law: Potentials and Possible Pitfalls of the Concepts of Canonization and Codification", Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Volume 12, Issue 3, October 2023, Pages 289–313.
- Eirik Hovden & Christian Mauder, 2024, "The Transmission of Canonized Islamic Legal Knowledge: Practices, Genres, and Institutions", Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Volume 12, Issue 3, October 2023, Pages 283–288.
- Eirik Hovden, 2024, “The Treatise of Refutation of those who Criticise [Our] Conduct' (Kitāb al-Radd ʿalā man Ṭaʿana fī l-Sīra) attributed to Imam al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh, Aḥmad b. Sulaymān (d. 566/1170),” In: O. Anchassi and R. Gleave, Islamic Law in Context: A Primary Source Reader, Cambridge University Press.
People
Group manager
Anne K. Bang Research group leader
Group members
Eirik Hovden Associate Professor, Arabic
Pelle Valentin Olsen Associate Professor, History
Peter Edward John Good Associate Professor, Arabic and History
Raphael Michaeli PhD student
Kubra Nugay Post-doctoral researcher
Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif Post-doctoral researcher
Ludmila Ivanova Torlakova Associate Professor, Arabic
Ebrahim Mansoor PhD candidate
Alexandros Tsakos Senior Academic Librarian, Academic Director of Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection
Robert Alexander Forster PhD Candidate