Lecture
A Cross-Cultural Romance in Arabic Studies (1609)
- Dorrit van Dalen
- Date
- 21 April 2016
- Time
- Series
- WHAT's NEW?! Spring Lecture Series
- Address
- Lipsius Building
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- Lipsius 228
In the winter of 1609-1610, the Moroccan diplomat ͑Abd al-͑ Azīz b. Muḥammad spent four months in the home of the Mennonite Hebraist and Arabist Jan Theunisz. The written reflections of their discussions on religion and everyday matters present an extraordinary example of the shifting attitude towards Islam in the seventeenth century, of a practice of studying a language for which no textbooks were available, and of a remarkable friendship.
About Dorrit van Dalen
Dr. Dorrit van Dalen's field of research is the relations between Islam and other cultures, in the Netherlands and in Africa. She is currently guest-curator of the exhibition Arabs in the West ( Wijzen uit het Oosten) which will open in June 2016, in the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam. Based at the University of Amsterdam, she is a member of the international project team Encounters with the Orient.