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The Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities today gave its approval for a new long-term project on Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The project, entitled “Biblia Arabica: Researching and preserving the Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament” will run for 21 years (2026–2046) and is based at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. It will be jointly led by Prof. Dr. Ronny Vollandt (LMU Munich) and Prof. Dr. Nathan P. Gibson (Goethe University Frankfurt). The new project will be the first comprehensive study of Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament – a central testimony to the shared cultural heritage of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities in the Near East. These translations document centuries of religious and linguistic interconnection, but are now in danger of being forgotten. Using state-of-the-art methods of digital humanities, the team will identify and describe around 8,200 manuscripts and make them digitally available through a selection of editions and English translations. They will also investigate historical contexts, translators, and usage traditions. The aim is to preserve this unique heritage, and make it visible and accessible worldwide – as a historical reflection of pluralistic culture and a contribution to interreligious dialogue. The academy project builds on earlier research undertaken in the DFG-DIP project “Biblia Arabica” (2012–2018).
