The MWS project database provides an overview of current and completed projects at the institutes of the MWS and aims to make information on these accessible to everyone. It enables a search by subject area and subject. It is based on the selection of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) adapted by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek as the German specialised library for the field of history. It is also possible to search by country (states existing today) and major epochs. The database includes dissertation and habilitation projects that were funded, for example, as part of a scholarship, as well as the institute's own and third-party-funded collaborative projects.
The search results are sorted chronologically in descending order, starting with the project with the most recent start date.
The project database aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the thematic breadth and diversity of research at the institutes and research groups of the MWS. Information on current research foci of the institutes can be found on the respective institute websites.
To these ends, the project studies historiography and other literatures of the late 14th through the early 17th centuries, in order to unearth how the incorporation of Syria and Egypt into the Ottoman empire did affect — or did not affect — local literary traditions in these areas. My basic assumption is that trajectories differ between Egypt and Syria, or, for that matter, between their respective urban centers and — newly — peripheral places. I presume that Damascus and Cairo underwent different processes than towns like Baalbek or Asyut.
The project connects approaches and research questions from literary studies and social history to demonstrate how changing circumstances influenced the perception of specific writers of this political transition (Cairo was turned form an imperial into a provincial capital; Syria came under strong imperial control; Egypt and Syria were suddenly part of a vast expansive empire) and how these authors appropriated traditional forms to make sense of these new phenomena.
On a different level, this project is very much concerned with the general issue of periodisation. By treating literature of the late Mamluk era and the beginning of the Ottoman era in conjunction, I hope to provide new perspectives on continuities and discontinuities within the production and reception of literature as well as the role and status of the (local) scholars within society.
In 2014, the focus lies on the life and works of Muḥammad Ibn Ṭūlūn (d.1546), one of the most prominent and prolific Damascene writers of the 16th century and an eye-witness to the Ottoman occupation of Damascus.