The study of Arabic in Berlin

The subject of the discipline of Arabic studies

Arabic Studies concerns the spoken language and written texts of the Arabic-speaking world. At the Free University of Berlin, Arabic Studies is a literary discipline that includes such subjects as Arabic poetry and prose literature of the pre-Islamic period to the present, as well as religious, philosophical, historical and geographical literature of Islamic culture as well as Jewish and Christian literature in Arabic.  Special emphasis is placed on the Koran as a key document of religious discourse in late antiquity, on the reception of classical antiquity in Arab culture, and finally, on modern literature as part of the process of global exchange.

 

Research, Advantages of Location and Cooperative Exchanges

• The world’s only archive of Samaritan-Arabic manuscripts that remain for the most part unanalyzed and unpublished
• The Gotthelf-Bergsträsser-Archive of Koranic microfilms
• Cooperative arrangements with other faculties of the Free University, the Humboldt University and the University of Potsdam in the area of the ‘Modern Middle East’ and
• The Humanities Research Centre for the Modern Orient
• The Humanities Research Centre for Literature and Cultural Studies
• The Interdisciplinary Centre: ‘Building blocks for a Social History of the Middle East’ at the Free University of Berlin.
• A unique network of scientific and cultural institutions with respect to the Arab World:

The Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin

The State Library for Prussian Cultural Heritage, with its Oriental Department (containing the nation’s most extensive collection of Arabic manuscripts)

The House of World Cultures  (Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt)

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences

College of Science in Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin)
 

Combined studies

One can pursue a degree course to obtain a Master’s degree (Magister) majoring in Arabic Studies (M1, M2) or minoring in it (M3), in combination with two majors or one major with two minor subjects.

In combination with Islamic studies, Arabic Studies may only be pursued along with a third not closely related subject.

Within the framework of the Bachelor’s degree, Arabic studies is part of the course entitled ‘History and Culture of the Middle East’.