Ph.D. Position, Faculty of Humanities (8-186) Faculty of Humanities
Leiden University , Faculty of Humanities ONE PHD POSITION (38 hours a week) Application number: 8-186 Starting between January and September 2009 the Leiden Institute for Area Studies and the School of Middle Eastern Studies has a vacancy for one PhD student to work on part 3 of the research project "The Formation of Islam. The View from Below" (see below). Project description : "The Formation of Islam. The View from Below" is a five-year research project (January 1 2009 - December 31 2013) funded by the European Research Council to write a history of the formation of Islam using the vastly important but largely neglected papyri from Egypt. Until the introduction of paper in the 10th C., papyrus was the Mediterranean world's primary writing material. Thousands of papyrus documents survive, preserving a minutely detailed transcription of daily life, as well as the only contemporary records of Islam's rise and first wave of conquests. The prevailing model of Islam's formation is based on sources composed by a literary élite some 150 years after the events they describe. The distortions this entails are especially problematic since it was in these first two centuries that Islam's institutional, social and religious framework developed and stabilised. To form a meaningful understanding of this development requires tackling the contemporary documentary record, as preserved in the papyri and combining the information they offer with that from literary and other primary sources. Yet the technical difficulties presented by these mostly unpublished and uncatalogued documents have largely barred their use by historians. This project is a systematic attempt to address this critical problem. The project has three stages: 1) a stocktaking of unedited Arabic, Coptic and Greek papyri; 2) the editing of a corpus of the most significant papyri; 3) the presentation of a synthetic historical analysis through scholarly publications. By examining the impact of Islam on the daily life of those living under its rule, the goal of this project is to understand the striking newness of Islamic society and its debt to the diverse cultures it superseded. Questions will be the extent, character and ambition of Muslim state competency at the time of the Islamic conquest; the steps – military, administrative and religious – by which it extended its reach; and what this tells us about the origins and evolution of Muslim ideas of rulership, religion and power. Tasks: * The writing of a PhD dissertation on a topic of the history of early Islamic Egypt (CE 600-900); * publishing research results in the form of an article; * presenting papers at (international) conferences; * participation in local research meetings and PhD teaching; * organising roundtable meetings and conferences in the framework of the research project. Requirements: * an MA, M.Phil or 'doctoraal' degree in history, Arabic language, Near Eastern Studies or an equivalent education in a comparative field; * research knowledge of Arabic; * fluent in English (spoken and written) as well as being able to use academic literature in other modern European languages; * ability to work independently; * good organizational and contactual skills; * interested in doing interdisciplinary research; * willingness to work in a research team. Conditions of employment The successful applicant will be appointed for eighteen months and after a positive evaluation followed by a fixed- term period. The total period will be four years. Gross salary will be € 2000,- per month during the first year, gradually rising, also depending upon evaluation, to € 2612,- per months in the final year, conform the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. Applications Please send your application (in Dutch or English) by November 15, including a cover letter stating your motivation for this position, a CV, and two references. Please send the letter, indicating the application number on letter and envelope to: De afdeling P&O, t.a.v. E.M. Bakker, Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Postbus 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands publicatiedatum: 6-10-2008
