Barbara Roggema

Vita
Positions

• 2020-2025 - Research Fellow, ERC Project Armenia Entangled: Connectivity and Cultural Encounters in Medieval Eurasia (ArmEn), University of Florence, Italy

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• 2016-2020 - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany
   

• 2013-2015 - ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Theology & Religious Studies / Centre for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London
   

• 2009-2013 - Adjunct Assistant Professor of History and Religion, John Cabot University, Rome
   

• Spring-Summer 2009 - Invited guest professor at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Tübingen, Germany
   

• 2006-2008 - AHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Graduate Institute for Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, UK
   

• 2004-2006 - Lecturer in the History of Islam, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy
   

• 1999-2002 - Lecturer in Arabic Language and Culture, University of Groningen, The Netherlands 
   

• 1996-2001- Research Fellow, The Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research

 

Education and degrees

• 2007 - Ph.D. in Languages and Cultures of the Middle East, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
   

• 1995-1996 - M.Phil program in Islam and the History of Christian-Muslim relations, University of Birmingham
   

• 1994-1995 - Arabic and Syriac studies at the Oriental Institute/Pembroke College, University of Oxford
   

• 1989-1995 - Doctoraal (BA + MA) in Languages and Cultures of the Middle East., Dept. of Languages and Cultures of the Middle East, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (with distinction). First language: Arabic, second language: Syriac, Minor: theory of literature
   

• 1991-1992 - Arabic at Cairo University, Egypt

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Publications

Books

• The Legend of Sergius Bahīrā. Eastern Christian Apologetics and Apocalyptic in Response to Islam, Leiden, 2009 [The History of Christian-Muslim Relations – Texts and Studies 9]

• Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History (600-1500), Leiden, 2009 [co-edited with David Thomas, in collaboration with Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Teule, and John Tolan]

• The Three Rings: Textual Studies in the Historical Trialogue of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Leuven, 2005 [co-edited with M. Poorthuis and P. Valkenberg]

• Communal Identity and Self-Portrayal in the Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300-1500 [forthcoming mid-2016]

• Patterns of Argumentation and Exchange of Ideas in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, edited with Yannis Papadogiannakis [forthcoming mid-2016]

 

Articles/book chapters [selection]

• ‘Ibn Kammūna’s and Ibn al-ʿIbrī’s responses to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Proofs of Muḥammad’s Prophethood’, The Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 2 (2014), 193-213

• ‘Muhammad almost Christian. An Eastern Christian Legend about the Origin of Islam’, Groniek 189 (2011), 369-381 [In Dutch]

•  ‘Biblical exegesis and interreligious polemic in the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter—The Book of the Rolls’, in: David Thomas (ed), The Bible in Arab Christianity, Leiden, 2007, 131-150 [The History of Christian-Muslim Relations – Texts and Studies 6]

•  ‘The Debate between Patriarch John and an emir of the Mhaggrāyē: A Reconsideration of the earliest Christian-Muslim Debate’, in: Martin Tamcke (ed), Christen und Muslime im Dialog. Christlich-muslimische Gespräche im muslimischen Orient des Mittelalters, Beirut, 2007, 21-39 [Beiruter Texte und Studien, 117]

• ‘Epistemology as Polemics: Ibn Kammūna’s Examination of the Apologetics of the Three Faiths’, in: Barbara Roggema, Marcel Poorthuis and Pim Valkenberg (eds), The Three Rings: Textual Studies in the Historical Trialogue of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Leuven, 2005, 47-68

• ‘ikāyāt amthāl wa-asmār… king parables in Melkite apologetic literature’, in: H. Teule and R. Ebied (eds), Studies on the Christian Arabic Heritage – in honour of Father Prof. Dr. Samir Khalil Samir S.I. at the Occasion of his sixty-fifth Birthday, Leuven, 2004, 113-131 [Eastern Christian Studies 5]

• ‘Muslims as crypto-idolaters – a theme in the Christian portrayal of Islam in the Near East’, in: D. Thomas (ed), Christians at the heart of Islamic Rule: Church life and scholarship in `Abbasid Iraq, Leiden, 2003, 1-18 [The History of Christian-Muslim Relations – Texts and Studies 1]

• ‘A Christian Reading of the Qur’ān: the Legend of Sergius-Baīrā and its Use of Qur’ān and Sīra’, in: D. Thomas (ed), Syrian Christians under Islam: the first thousand years, Leiden, 2001, 57-73

• ‘The Legend of Sergius-Baīrā. Some remarks on its origin in the East and its traces in the West’, in: K. Ciggaar and H. Teule (eds), East and West in the Crusader States. Context – Contacts – Confrontations. II. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in May 1997, Leuven, 1999, 107-123 [Orientalia Lovaniensa Analecta 92]

• ‘Jewish-Christian debate in a Muslim context: Ibn al-Marūma’s Notes to Ibn Kammūna’s Examination of the Inquiries into the Three Faiths’, in: H. Vanstiphout et al (eds), All those nations …Cultural Encounters within and with the Near East. Studies presented to Han Drijvers at the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday by colleagues and students, Groningen, 1999, 131-139

• ‘Muslim-Christian Relations in Patristic Literature: The ‘Questions and Answers’ of Basil and Gregory’, in: S. Toenies Keating and D. Bertaina (eds), Festschrift for  ….. [forthcoming]

• ‘Salvaging the Saintly Sergius: the Hagiographical Aspects of the Syriac Legend of Sergius Bahira’, in: A. Cuffel and N. Jaspert (eds), Entangled Hagiographies [forthcoming]

 

Grants and Fellowships

Faculty Development Grant from John Cabot University 2010-2012; Summer school fellowship at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften & Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, 2007; Summer school fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, 2003; Research grant from the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome, Spring 1997; VSB Foundation scholarship for postgraduate studies abroad, 1996-1997; Erasmus scholarship, Oriental Institute/Pembroke College, Oxford, 1994-1995; Dutch-Egyptian Cultural Agreement scholarship, Cairo University 1991-1992