Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OTRA (An Ontology for the Transmission and Re-Use of Argumentative Patterns (OTRA) in Christian-Muslim Religious Encounters)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-06-01 bis 2024-05-31
There is a long tradition of Christian intellectual engagement with Islam, much of which consists of apologetic and polemical texts—attempts to defend Christianity and challenge Islamic doctrines. These texts are an important source of information regarding intellectual exchanges between the two religions. However, assessments of their quality have varied. Some scholars have even argued that the Western image and knowledge of Islam has developed very little from the 7th century to the present day.
To better understand the trajectory of this intellectual relationship, a comprehensive, long-term perspective is needed. This project hypothesized that such a perspective can best be achieved by representing knowledge about Islam in the West in digital form. The project's objective was thefore to develop a Digital Humanities method to represent which sources authors authors in Christian-Muslim debates used and how they argue based on them. Based on this method, a historical case-study was to be conducted, illustrating how such knowledge might be used.
Specifically, the project aimed to a) develop a controlled vocabulary, an ‘ontology’, that allows modeling of references, re-use, and patterns of argumentation in interreligious debates, b) apply this scheme to a selection of key texts from the tradition of Christian-Muslim Religious Encounters (CMRE), thereby creating a digital knowledge base, and c) use this knowledge base to investigate the evolution of arguments and argumentative structures in Christian anti-Islamic polemics. Beyond this, the framework sought to enable researchers to share their data, to collaborate more effectively, and to base conclusions on larger datasets.
To better understand the trajectory of this intellectual relationship, a comprehensive, long-term perspective is needed. This project hypothesized that such a perspective can best be achieved by representing knowledge about Islam in the West in digital form. The project's objective was thefore to develop a Digital Humanities method to represent which sources authors authors in Christian-Muslim debates used and how they argue based on them. Based on this method, a historical case-study was to be conducted, illustrating how such knowledge might be used.
Specifically, the project aimed to a) develop a controlled vocabulary, an ‘ontology’, that allows modeling of references, re-use, and patterns of argumentation in interreligious debates, b) apply this scheme to a selection of key texts from the tradition of Christian-Muslim Religious Encounters (CMRE), thereby creating a digital knowledge base, and c) use this knowledge base to investigate the evolution of arguments and argumentative structures in Christian anti-Islamic polemics. Beyond this, the framework sought to enable researchers to share their data, to collaborate more effectively, and to base conclusions on larger datasets.
An ontology, named the Connective Ontology, was designed to record and classify references, borrowings, and similarities in arguments within religious polemical discourse. In line with best practices, terminology from two previous projects was adopted, the Hypermedia Dante Network (HDN) and Sharing Ancient Wisdoms (SAWS). These ontologies, as well as the Connective Ontology, were aligned with the widely recognized top-level ontologies in the humanities, CIDOC CRM and LRMoo. This alignment ensures broad compatibility with other Digital Humanities projects and facilitates interdisciplinary knowledge sharing.
To build the proof-of-concept knowledge base, intertextual connections were extracted from six text editions within the CMRE tradition. These connections were homogenized and refined, among others by assigning precise positions to intertextual connections, standardizing references to source works – which often vary between editions – and ensuring consistent recording of this information. The argumentation in the texts was paraphrased, summarized, and then, like the intertextual references, linked to specific text passages. Finally, the data were converted to the target Linked Data format. A preliminary corpus was published under the dataset OTRAone.
In addition to this technical work, the project explored broader questions of how knowledge about connections between texts can be shared and how interreligious connectivity can be studied. These issues were addressed through talks, papers, and an international workshop.
To build the proof-of-concept knowledge base, intertextual connections were extracted from six text editions within the CMRE tradition. These connections were homogenized and refined, among others by assigning precise positions to intertextual connections, standardizing references to source works – which often vary between editions – and ensuring consistent recording of this information. The argumentation in the texts was paraphrased, summarized, and then, like the intertextual references, linked to specific text passages. Finally, the data were converted to the target Linked Data format. A preliminary corpus was published under the dataset OTRAone.
In addition to this technical work, the project explored broader questions of how knowledge about connections between texts can be shared and how interreligious connectivity can be studied. These issues were addressed through talks, papers, and an international workshop.
The Connective Ontology combines the underlying principles of HDN with the expressiveness of SAWS. Additionally, it allows for representation of whether and how the text itself signals that it is quoting or paraphrasing some source. The ontology enables the expression of intertextual connections and modes of quotation with a high degree of detail, independent of creating text editions.
The unique initial dataset consistently represents intertextual connections and allows exploring how they are used in argumentation. Future plans include further analysis of this dataset and significantly increasing the number of texts represented. Modeling intertextual connections as Linked Data is applicable to other fields, including historical, philosophical, theological, and philological research. These standards can enable collaboration between research teams and facilitate the combination of diverse data. A wider adoption would improve the accessibility of existing knowledge and open new pathways of discovery.
The unique initial dataset consistently represents intertextual connections and allows exploring how they are used in argumentation. Future plans include further analysis of this dataset and significantly increasing the number of texts represented. Modeling intertextual connections as Linked Data is applicable to other fields, including historical, philosophical, theological, and philological research. These standards can enable collaboration between research teams and facilitate the combination of diverse data. A wider adoption would improve the accessibility of existing knowledge and open new pathways of discovery.