Documenta Coranica Byzantina (DoCoByz). Byzantino-Islamica in the Age of Digital Humanities

Projektinformationen

DoCoByz

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 101063466

DOI

10.3030/101063466

Projekt abgeschlossen

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 15 Juni 2022

Startdatum 1 September 2023

Enddatum 31 Juli 2026

Finanziert unter

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Gesamtkosten

Keine Daten

EU-Beitrag

€ 276 681,60

Koordiniert durch

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DoCoByz (Documenta Coranica Byzantina (DoCoByz). Byzantino-Islamica in the Age of Digital Humanities)

Berichtszeitraum: 2023-09-01 bis 2025-07-31

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

The DoCoByz project investigates Greek translations of the Qur’an and anti-Islamic discourse in Byzantine polemics. Its main objective is to document and analyze how the Qur’an was transmitted, used, and interpreted in the Byzantine world and how these interpretations shaped Christian-Muslim relations from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. To this end, DoCoByz creates a comprehensive, open-access digital database that systematizes all Greek Qur’anic fragments and their polemical contexts according to philological, thematic, and polemical categories. The project thereby aims to bridge Classical and Digital Humanities and to provide scholars and the wider public with an innovative tool for studying the reception of the Qur’an in Byzantium and beyond.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

Research has focused on two main areas: the collection, classification, and analysis of Greek Qur’anic fragments; and the systematization of Byzantine anti-Islamic writings containing these fragments. Manuscript research was conducted, and major philological results include preliminary studies for the preparation of critical editions of key Byzantine works. Major achievements include the preparation of a critical edition of a Byzantine polemic containing Qur’anic quotations; the development of a philological framework for distinguishing levels of translation and interpretation; and the establishment of a thematic and polemical classification system for textual analysis. Several scholarly publications have resulted from this work, addressing methodological questions, the significance of Greek Qur’anic translations for comparative Qur’anic studies, and the evolution of Byzantine hermeneutics of the Qur’an within Christian-Muslim polemics. The digital component of the project is currently being implemented. Preparatory work for the TEI XML schema is underway, defining a consistent tagging system that will allow interoperability, reproducibility, and integration into open-access repositories. Training in GitHub and digital humanities tools was completed to ensure proper data management and alignment with FAIR and Open Science standards.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

DoCoByz advances scholarship beyond the current state of the art by preparing, for the first time, a digital and philologically systematic methodology and corpus of Byzantine Qur’anic material. It establishes a rigorous two-level classification system—Testimonia Coranica Graeca (text fragments) and Episteme Islamica Orthodoxa (their polemical use)—based on innovative TEI XML tagging. This allows for cross-textual and diachronic analysis of how Byzantine authors quoted, interpreted, and re-used the Qur’an across centuries. The project introduces a new methodological framework for studying the intellectual history of Christian-Muslim relations. It enables scholars to test long-standing hypotheses on the evolution of Byzantine anti-Islamic argumentation, re-evaluating concepts such as “originality” and “continuity” within Byzantine polemics. The integration of philological precision, theological interpretation, and digital humanities techniques ensures the reusability of data and enhances interdisciplinary collaboration.