Colinda Lindermann, M.A.
Research Associate within the framework of Dahlem International Network Junior Research Group "Arabic Philology and Textual Practices in the Early Modern Period"

Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies
Arabic Studies
Research Associate External Funds
Junior Research Group "Arabic Philology and Textual Practices in the Early Modern Period"
14195 Berlin
From 2015 to 2019 Colinda Lindermann worked as a research associate within the framework of the Dahlem International Network Junior Research Group, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Islam Dayeh and supported by Freie Universität Berlin as part of the Excellence Initiative of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Currently, she works as a research associate in the DFG project "Orient-Digital" at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
Academic Biography
2020 - | Managing Editor, Philological Encounters (Brill). |
2020 - |
Research Associate in the DFG project "Orient-Digital" at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. |
2016 - 2019 |
Editorial Assistant, Philological Encounters (Brill). |
2015 - 2019 |
Research Associate within the framework of Dahlem International Network Junior Research Group „Arabic Philology and Textual Practices in the Early Modern Period“. |
2014 - 2017 |
Arabic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin; intended degree: Master of Arts (M.A.). |
2009 - 2014 |
Studies of History and Culture of the Near East at Freie Universität Berlin; |
1999 - 2005 |
Studies of Classics at Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands; degree: doctorandus (M.A.) |
Lectures in winter 2019/20
- 40521 Lernwerkstatt
Von Adab bis Orient. Kritische Begriffe der Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft (Colinda Lindermann)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 19.10.2017)
Ort: 1.2058 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23-25)
Lectures in winter 2017/18
- 14285 Lektürekurs
Das arabische Wörterbuch: Arbeitsinstrument und Unterhaltungsliteratur (Colinda Lindermann)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 19.10.2017)
Ort: 1.2058 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23-25)
Lectures in summer 2017
- 14281 Seminar
Scheich und Schüler: Lehre und Wissensvermittlung in der arabisch-islamischen Kultur (Colinda Lindermann)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00, zusätzliche Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 18.04.2017)
Ort: 1.2058 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23-25)
Lectures in winter 2016/17
- 14281 Seminar
Einführung Semitistik/Arabistik - Die ersten Jahrhunderte der arabischen Sprache und Literatur (Colinda Lindermann)
Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00, zusätzliche Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 19.10.2016)
Ort: 1.2051 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23-25)
Lectures in summer 2016
- 14287 Seminar
Helden, Räuber, Totenklagen: die vorislamische Dichtung (Colinda Lindermann)
Zeit: Di 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 19.04.2016)
Ort: 0.2051 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23-25)
Socio-intellectual dimensions of Arabic language scholarship in the Ottoman-ruled Arab lands
Debates about the subtleties of the Arabic language proliferated in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Ottoman-ruled Arab lands. Famous scholars such as Shihāb al-Dīn al-Khafājī (d. 1659) and Muḥammad al-Muḥibbī (d. 1699) devoted entire dictionaries to the subject of correct language use, the influence of foreign languages, and the language of the “commoners” (al-ʿāmma). These texts both draw on a rich sociolinguistic tradition and reflect intellectual debates about the position and function of language in a rapidly changing society, in which scholars of Arab descent with a classical training in the sciences were no longer the only contenders for a scholarly and/or administrative career. In my dissertation, I analyse these linguistic works and link them to their socio-intellectual environment. By combining linguistic and literary-biographical sources, I show that Arabic language scholarship was not only preliminary and instrumental to a scholarly career, but central to group identity construction. By drawing, redrawing, and defending the boundaries of Arabic, language scholars updated the classical linguistic tradition to include the themes that were debated in their encounters with Rūmī scholars and aspiring scholars lacking a traditional ʿulamāʾ background. The intensity with which topics of classical and contemporary language were discussed indicates that language was a relevant and vibrant field of study in the madrasa and the majlis, as well as a means of forging intellectual networks throughout the Arabic-speaking community.
Co-organisation of and Participation in conferences and workshops
2017 | With Islam Dayeh, Rossella De Luca and Katharina Kloss: Conference “What Was Philology in Arabic?”, Freie Universität Berlin, 13 - 15 July 2017. |
2017 | With Rossella De Luca: Workshop with Dana Sajdi (Boston College) “Texts as Objects and Images”, Freie Universität Berlin, 14 - 26 June 2017. |
Research interests
- Lexicography and grammar
- Arabic philology in European Oriental studies
- pre-Islamic poetry
- modern Arabic literature
Articles
2019 | “A Shared Set of Solecisms: The Mamlūk and Ottoman Reception of al-Ḥarīrī’s Durrat al-ghawwāṣ,” Philological Encounters 4,1-2 (2019), 55-79. |
2017 | “Al-Fīrūzābādī togatus: Arabische Wörterbücher in der europäischen Frühmoderne,” Geschichte der Germanistik 51/52 (2017), 66-74. |
Talks
2021 |
with Christoph Rauch: „Authority records in Qalamos: Practices and perspectives”, Workshop „<Author><Title><Place>: Authority Records and Manuscripts in Libraries and Research“, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 28 Oktober 2021. |
2021 |
„Loanwords from Within: Debating taʿrīb in the Multilingual Ottoman Environment“, Konferenz „Pre-modern comparative literary practice in the multilingual Islamic world(s)“, Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Research Centre (OCCT), University of Oxford, 23 July 2021. |
2021 |
„Tamma or tatimma? Endings in Arabic Lexicography“, Konferenz „How to End Things in Arabic Literature“, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg/American University Beirut, 4 June 2021. |
2019 |
شبكات اللغويين الاجتماعية والفكرية في مصر والشام في القرن السابع عشر („Die soziointellektuellen Netzwerke der Lexikographen in Ägypten und Bilād aš-Šām im siebzehnten Jahrhundert“), Summer School der Arab German Young Academy (AGYA) „Mapping the Urban: Cities in Arabic Literature, Culture, and Society“, Universität Ca´ Foscari, Venedig, 18 October 2019. |
2019 | „In or out? Word lists in early modern Arabic lexicography,“ Enumeration, Epistemology, Etcetera: International Conference „Lists and List-Making in Literature and Culture“, Universität Freiburg, 5 July 2019. |
2019 | „Arabic lexicography in a competitive context: Discussing language deviation in the Ottoman empire,“ Cambridge Graduate Middle East Conference: Languages of Legitimation in the Middle East, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, 7 Juni 2019. |
2018 |
„Widespread Errors: Kemālpaşazāde’s view on solecism,“ Turkologentag Bamberg, 21 September 2018. |
2018 |
„What’s in a Lemma? Functions of early-modern Arabic treatises on language deviation,“ Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, 21 February 2018. |
2017 |
„An den Grenzen der ʿArabīya: laḥn und muʿarrab,“ Deutscher Orientalistentag 2017, Jena, 19 September 2017. |