Konferenzen 2025
Language, History and Collective Memory - Syriac Studies Conference (20-24 July 2025)
I: 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS)
II: 19th Century Turabdin in Syriac Sources — A Contribution to the History of Late Ottoman Empire (invited speakers only)
III: Sayfo 1915 — Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans
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20 July 2025, Sunday |
15:00 |
Registration and Coffee |
16:20 |
Welcoming and Greetings
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17:00 |
Gründler, Beatrice (FU Berlin): Kalila wa-Dimna and the Role of the Syriac Versions |
17:25 |
Hartmann, Elke Shoghig(FU Berlin): The Ottoman Eastern Provinces in the 19th Century |
17:50 |
Hölck, Lasse (FU Berlin): Natural Selection? Small Scale Indigenous Groups between Extermination, Genocide and Ethnocide. A Global View from Latin American History |
18:15 |
Reception |
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21 July 2025, Monday |
08:30 |
Registration |
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Section I: 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS) |
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Chair: Klimiuk, Maciej |
09:30 |
Askar, Kawther Najeeb (SU Erbil): Deviation in Khamis Bar Qardahi’s Poem (ܢܲܦ̮ܫܵܐ ܣܲܘܝܵܐ ܘܲܪܓܼܝܼܓܼܵܐ): A Stylistic Study الإنزياح في قصيدة (ܢܲܦ̮ܫܵܐ ܣܲܘܝܵܐ ܘܲܪܓܼܝܼܓܼܵܐ) لخاميس بر قرداحي :دراسة أسلوبية |
10:00 |
Pritula, Anton (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg): The Erbil Poetic Circle during the Syriac Renaissance Period: Manuscripts, Authors and General Features |
10:30 |
Muraviev, Alexey (Moscow State University): Khizhniakova, Stanislava (HSE University): Eye Diseases in Syriac Medieval Medical Literature |
11:00 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Furman, Yulia |
11:30 |
Younansardaroud, Helen (FU Berlin): An Amulet Scroll with Incantations for an Assyrian Woman from Ardishay (Urmia) |
12:00 |
Gross, Simcha (FU Berlin): Divorcing Demons in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac: Reflections on Transmission and Religious Contact in Late Antique Iraq |
12:30 |
Abousamra, Gaby (Lebanese University Beirut): A Syriac Magical Bowl in Manichaean Script |
13:00 |
Lunch (by Invitation Only)
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Chair: Kuzin, Nikita |
14:00 |
Furman, Yulia (FU Berlin): Šurṭē: Prisoners of War or Arabic Militia? Evidence from Syriac Sources |
14:30 |
Čéplö, Slavomír (BBAW); DiRusso, Giovanni (Harvard University): Syriac Linguistics in the Age of AI |
15:00 |
Grenert, Briana (Duke University); Čéplö, Slavomír (BBAW): Religion in Syriac: A Word Vector Analysis with Simtho Data |
15:30 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Hakeem, Salam Neamah Hirmiz |
16:00 |
Yohanna, Samer Soreshow (SU Erbil): Textual Study of ܠܟܬܼܵܒܼܵܐ ܕܲܙܡܝܼܖ̈ܬܼܵܐ by the Forgotten Author Father Elias Sher دراسة نصّيّة لـ"ܟܬܼܵܒܼܵܐ ܕܲܙܡܝܼܖ̈ܬܼܵܐ" للكاتب المنسي الأب إلياس شير الراهب |
16:30 |
Mustață, Radu (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): New Words in Syriac from South India: The Witness of Kadavil Chandy Kattanar’s Poetry |
17:00 |
Eramia, Rony (FU Berlin): David Barzani — His Biography and Literary Works |
17:30 |
Jasim, Anmar Abduljabbar (University of Al-Qadisiyya): Gravestone Inscriptions in the Church of the Monastery of Our Lady, Protector of the Crops, in Alqosh/Mosul نقوش شواهد القبور في كنيسة دير السيدة العذراء حافظة الزروع في القوش/الموصل |
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22 July 2025, Tuesday |
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Chair: Kouriyhe, Yousef |
09:30 |
Alhameedawi, Adnan Shibeeb Jasim (University of Baghdad); Baybuzi, Amel Adee Polus (University of Baghdad): The Semantic Overlap of Phonetically Similar Roots in Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic: A Comparative Study التداخل الدلالي للجذور المتقاربة لفظاً في السريانية والعبرية والعربية: دراسة مقارنة |
10:00 |
Muhammad, Himdad Abdulqahhar (SU Erbil); Hakeem, Salam Neamah Hirmiz (SU Erbil): A Stylistic Analysis of Symbolism in the Syriac-Kurdish Poem ‘Shuraya Daqyamta’ تحليل أسلوبي للرمزية في القصيدة السريانية الكردية "ܫܘܼܪܵܝܵܐ ܕܲܩܝܵܡܬܵܐ" |
10:30 |
Al-Khailani, Laith Hasan Mohammed (University of Baghdad): Pseudo-Interrogative Sentences in Arabic and Syriac: A Comparative Study الاسْتِفْهَام الغير حقيقي في الجملة العربية والسريانية: دراسة مقارنة |
11:00 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Askar, Kawther Najeeb |
11:30 |
Tawfeeq, Barween Badri (SU Erbil): Discovery of the Site of the Monastery of Sabrishoʿ in Adiabene: A Historical, Documentary and Archaeological Study الكشف عن موقع دير سبريشوع في حدياب: دراسة تأريخية وثائقية – اثرية |
12:00 |
Najm, Amer Abdullah (University of Mosul): The Book of Prelates by Thoma d-Marga as a Source for Urbanism and Monasteries: An Urbanistic Study and Investigation كتاب الرؤساء لتوما المرجي مصدراً من مصادر البلدانيات والديارات: دراسة وتحقيق بلداني |
13:00 |
Lunch (by Invitation Only)
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Chair: Yohanna, Samer Soreshow |
14:00 |
Voigt, Rainer (FU Berlin): On the Verbal Stem Morphology of Syriac |
14:30 |
Khudher, Luma Aphraim (SU Erbil): The Debate Between Cain and Abel: A Comparative Study in Syriac and Mesopotamian Literature and Jewish Traditions المناظرة بين قايين وهابيل: دراسة مقارنة في الأدب السرياني والرافديني والتقاليد اليهودية |
15:00 |
Cherkashina, Anna (Tel Aviv University): New Textual Evidence for the ‘Syriac Treatise of Shem’ |
15:30 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Park, Grace |
16:00 |
Birol, Simon (Universität Göttingen): Transmission and Reception of the Syriac Ahiqar Story |
16:30 |
Rucki, Mirosław (Casimir Pulaski Radom University): References to Syriac in Talmud |
17:00 |
Edmonds, Alexander (Universität Münster): The Last of Gilgāmeš. A Mesopotamian King in Theodore Bār Kōnay’s Kṯāḇā d-ˀeskōlyōn |
17:30 |
Aho, Shemunkasho (University of Salzburg): 150th Anniversary of the Visit of Patriarch Peter IV to Queen Victoria |
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23 July 2025, Wednesday |
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Chair: Khudher, Luma Aphraim |
09:30 |
Friestad, Kjetil (University of Agder): Pilgrimage Practices of the Christians of Beth Qatraye in the 6th–8th Centuries |
10:00 |
Hager, Anna (University of Vienna): Defining the Terms ‘Assyrian’ and ‘Suryān’ in the Context of Modern Lebanon |
10:30 |
BarAbraham, Abdulmesih (Munich): Regulation and Improvement of the Nestorian Districts in the Hakkari Region during the Late Ottoman Empire |
11:00 |
Coffee Break |
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Section II: 19th Century Turabdin in Syriac Sources |
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Chair: van Ginkel, Jan |
11:30 |
Turgut, Ramazan (Mardin Artuklu University): The Church of the East in Qudshanis: Ottoman Policies, Internal Rivalries, and Western Intervention (19th–20th Century) |
12:00 |
Talay, Shabo (FU Berlin): Turabdin in the 19th Century — an Overview |
12:30 |
Üzel, A.-S. Barbara (FU Berlin):Notable Figures of 19th Century Tur Abdin |
13:00 |
Lunch (by Invitation Only)
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Chair: Üzel, A.-S. Barbara |
14:00 |
Atas, Nicolas (KU Leuven, BEL): Ṭuroyo Manuscripts from the Sachau Collection in Berlin as a Source for the History of the Turabdin Region in the 19th Century |
14:30 |
Birol, Simon (Universität Göttingen): Echoes of Turmoil: Syriac Voices on Encroachments in 19th-Century Tur Abdin |
15:00 |
Kouriyhe, Yousef (FU Berlin):Western Missionaries in 19th Century Turabdin and the Reaction of the Syriac Orthodox |
15:30 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Yildiz, Efrem |
16:00 |
Bcheiry, Iskandar (Chicago SOK): Sacred Places in Ṭūrʿabdīn in a Collection of Syriac Orthodox Archives from the Late Ottoman Period |
16:30 |
van Ginkel, Jan (FU Berlin): On the Informal Connections between Syriac Orthodox Communities in Eastern Turkey and the Syriac Communities in India at the End of the 19th and Early 20th Century |
17:00 |
Barthoma, Soner (Uppsala Universitet, SWE): Early Results from a Survey Study on Community Resilience among Assyrians in Turkey |
17:30 |
Zeitoune, Abboud (Wiesbaden): Role of Naum Faiq in Documenting the Sayfo Period |
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24 July 2025, Thursday |
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Section III: Sayfo 1915 |
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Chair: Barthoma, Soner |
09:00 |
Al-Jeloo, Nicholas: The Story of the Massacre of Assyrians in the District of Cizre, 1915 |
09:30 |
Yildiz, Efrem (University of Salamanca): The Written and Oral Sources from the Botan Region on the Assyrian Genocide |
10:00 |
Hofmann, Tessa (FU Berlin): Sayfo 1915 — Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans |
10:30 |
Ninos, Sanherib (Frankfurt University): The Assyrian/Aramean Genocide of World War I: Memory, Identity and Recognition of the ‘Sayfo’ in the European Diaspora |
11:00 |
Coffee Break
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Chair: Birol, Simon |
11:30 |
Binder, Matthias (Marburg University): Theology of the Sayfo? A Survey of Discourses within the Syriac Orthodox Church |
12:00 |
Mor Polycarpus A. Aydin (Netherlands SOK): Faith, Liturgy, and Collective Memory: The Syriac Orthodox Church’s Response to Sayfo |
12:30 |
Beth Turo, Yawsef (Enschede): New Eyewitness Accounts of the Sayfo Published in Turkiye |
13:00 |
Lunch (by Invitation Only)
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Chair: Mor Polycarpus A. Aydin |
14:00 |
Abdalla, Michael (Poznań University): Nisibis and its Population at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries |
14:30 |
Talay, Shabo (FU Berlin): Sayfo 1915: The Cultural and Linguistic Dimensions of Genocide |
15:00 |
Mate, Parween Shamoon (Syriac Writers Union-Erbil): We Will not Forget Sayfo لن ننسى سيفو |
15:30 |
Final Discussion |
16:00 |
Coffee Break and Fingerfood |
Fabeckstraße 23/25, 14195 Berlin
Raum: -1.2009 Großer Hörsaal im Untergeschoss!
Semitic Dialectology Conference Cutting-Edge Research in Semitic Dialectology: Bridging Theory and Practice
Conference Program
11 June 2025 (Wednesday)
Room: Holzlaube, 2.2059 (Fabeckstr. 23/25)
11:00–11:30 |
Registration and coffee break / Greetings |
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Grammatical and Lexical Peculiarities in Arabic Dialects Chair: Werner Arnold |
11:30–12:00 |
Maria Persson Functions of bədd-/bidd-/badd- in Syrian Arabic |
12:00–12:30 |
Gabriel M. Rosenbaum Lexical Peculiarities in the Spoken Language of Christians in Egypt: What They Say and What They Don’t |
12:30–13:00 |
Taku Kumakiri Semantic Change of the Verb wallaː of Tunis Arabic |
13:00–14:00 |
Lunch |
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Linguistic Variation and Contact in Arabic Varieties Chair: Maria Persson |
14:00–14:30 |
Volkan Bozkurt Contact-Induced Linguistic Change in Khorasan and Khamse Arabic |
14:30–15:00 |
Shomoukh Sami Alyami and Munira Ali Al-Azraqi The Variation in the Usage of the 2nd Masculine Singular Suffix in Najrani Arabic |
15:00–15:30 |
Julie Lowry and Andrea Boom Notes on Salient Linguistic Variation in Harūb, Jazan, Saudi Arabia |
15:30–16:00 |
Coffee break |
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Dialectology and Oral Traditions in Modern South Arabian Languages Chair: Letizia Cerqueglini |
16:00–16:30 |
Andrea Boom and Fatimah al-Mahri Dialectology of Mehri, Contrasting Beit Thuwar and Zaabanot Linguistic Variations |
16:30–17:00 |
Giuliano Castagna Towards a Dialect Atlas of the Jibbali/Śḥerɛt Language |
17:00–17:30 |
Saeed Al-Qumairi and Andrea Boom Dialectal Comparison between Haswayn and Hawf Dialects of Mehri: An Analysis of Four Children’s Stories |
17:30–18:00 |
Amir Azad Adli al-Kathiri and Anton Kungl Šiʿr ar-Riǧāl (hēb iź-ʁāg): An Extinct Poetic Genre in Jibbali/Shahri. An Introduction to the Genre, Its Linguistic Peculiarities and Its Arabic and Mehri Influence |
18:00 |
Dinner |
12 June 2025 (Thursday)
Room: Seminarzentrum, L116 (Otto-von-Simson-Str. 26)
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Phonetic and Prosodic Structures in Semitic Languages and Dialects Chair: Wiktor Gębski |
9:30–10:00 |
Hammal al-Balushi Pharyngealisation or Glottalisation: The Case of Ḥarsūsi Emphatic Stops |
10:00–10:30 |
Maria Lipnicka Juncture and Utterance in Arabic Dialects: Haim Blanc’s Prosodic Feature Theory Compared with Data from Gozo, Malta |
10:30–11:00 |
Mahmut Ağbaht New Findings on Pausal Phenomena: A Major Revision of Processes in Pausal Forms |
11:00–11:30 |
Coffee break |
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Documenting Jewish Arabic Dialects Chair: Maciej Klimiuk |
11:30–12:00 |
Wiktor Gębski Gender-Based Linguistic Variation in the Jewish Arabic Dialect of Ghardaïa (Saharan Algeria) |
12:00–12:30 |
Ori Shachmon Aden Arabic: A Mosaic of Archaisms and Linguistic Innovations |
12:30–13:00 |
Assaf Bar Moshe The Jewish Arabic Dialect of Mosul: Insights from New and Existing Data |
13:00–14:00 |
Lunch |
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Studies in NENA and Turoyo Dialects Chair: Mila Neishtadt |
14:00–14:30 |
Geoffrey Khan Progressive Constructions in NENA Dialects |
14:30–15:00 |
Ablahad Lahdo Adult Language Learners, the Case of Turoyo |
15:00–15:30 |
Shabo Talay Characteristics of the Turoyo Dialect of Bissorino |
15:30–16:00 |
Coffee break |
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Bridging Dialectology and Semantics in the Semitic Languages Chair: Assaf Bar Moshe |
16:00–16:30 |
Mila Neishtadt Integrating Dialectal Data: Reconstructing the Semantics of Semitic kmr |
16:30–17:00 |
Anat Sageev and Letizia Cerqueglini Language, Cognition, and Communal Dialects: Animal Taxonomy in Secular and Ḥaredi Israeli Hebrew |
17:00–17:30 |
Yair Grossman and Letizia Cerqueglini Late-Bronze Northwest Semitic Dialectology between Languages and Scribal Practices: A Corpus-Based Study of Formulaic Phraseology |
17:30–18:00 |
Aharon Geva-Kleinberger The Christian Transjordanian Arabic Dialect of as-Salṭ at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century |
18:00 |
Dinner (Profesorium/Terrace at the Institute of Semitic Studies) |
13 June 2025 (Friday)
Room: Holzlaube, 2.2059 (Fabeckstr. 23/25)
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Morphosyntactic and Phonological Features in Neo-Aramaic Dialects Chair: Julia Furman |
9:30–10:00 |
Nikita Kuzin Quadriradical Verbs in Neo-Aramaic Revisited |
10:00–10:30 |
Werner Arnold Aki’o Nakanos Western Neo-Aramaic Text from Ǧubbʿadīn about Firewood |
10:30–11:00 |
Lidia Napiórkowska The Markedness of the Fronted Rounded Vowels in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic |
11:00–11:30 |
Coffee break |
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Spoken Semitic Languages in Context Chair: Nikita Kuzin |
11:30–12:00 |
Letizia Cerqueglini Ancient Futures, Future Passives: Upper Galilean and Muṯallaṯ Arabic Verbal Pragmatics and Their Elicitation |
12:00–12:30 |
Rainer Voigt Ethiosemitic Dialectology |
12:30–13:00 |
Fabio Gasparini Was I that Bad? Reflections upon Earlier Fieldwork |
13:00–14:00 |
Discussion and closing of the conference / Lunch |