Islamic History Geodata Initiative

Islamic History Geodata Initiative

The Islamic History Geodata Initiative (ihGeo) seeks to stimulate scholarship on the role of places and spaces in the history of the Middle East during the Islamic period. Established by a research unit at the University of Tübingen, it provides a forum for international exchange and envisages collaborative projects in the Spatial Humanities. Another aim is to develop novel research tools for use in the public domain.

Learn about the endeavour of ihGeo to link history, geoinformatics, and cartography for a new understanding of how the region’s societies have been geared to the making and re-making of human landscapes.

Research

Pilot projects

ihGeo has implemented two thematic pilot projects that map important aspects of Islamic history with the help of a web-based Geographic Information System, and is currently establishing a historical WebGIS baselayer. Alpha versions have been achieved in January 2016 and are constantly being improved for open-access publication in the near future. Moreover, practical classes taught at Tübingen result in historical geo-databases to be mapped on this basis.

• Hajj Routes and Traffic, 12th–16th Centuries. Investigator: Kurt Franz. 2015–2017.


• Mints of the Middle East, 13th–14th Centuries. Investigator: Lutz Ilisch. 2015–2017.


• Mamâlik Baselayer: The Physical Geography and Hydrology of the Middle East during the Islamic Middle Period for GIS Applications. Design: Kurt Franz. Cartography: Martin Grosch, Christian Wörner, Jeannine Ernst. 2015—.


• The Ottoman Hajj Route and the Hejaz Railway. Investigators: students of the class The Ottoman Hajj, and Kurt Franz. Winter term 2015–2016.


• Itineraries of al-Iraq and al-Jibal according al-Muqaddasi. Investigators: students of the class Early Islamic Routes, and Kurt Franz. Winter term 2016–2017.


• Internet Resources for Space-related Islamic Studies. Investigators: students of the class Islamic Studies Internet Resources, and Kurt Franz. Summer term 2017.

Project grant proposals

• eTAVO – Cultural Landscapes of the Middle East. Collaborative long-term project proposal by the University of Tübingen’s institutes of Asian and Oriental Studies, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Archaeological Sciences, Biblical Archaeology, Evolution and Ecology, and Geography, the university’s eScience-Center, and the University of Konstanz’s Archaeology of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures. Accepted by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities for submission to the Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften (Akademienprogramm, 2019/2020 round).


• Mamâlik – Spatial Dynamics in Islamic History, 750–1550: An Online Geographic Information System for Interdisciplinary Middle Eastern Studies. Grant proposal for an international collaborative Web-GIS project (under preparation).

Cooperations

• Die Reisen des Botanikers Carl Haussknecht (1838–1903) in das Osmanische Reich und nach Persien (1865 und 1866–1869): Die kommentierte digitale Edition seiner Tagebücher. Institute for Special Botany with Herbarium Haussknecht, University of Jena, in collaboration with the Center for Near and Middle East Studies of the University of Marburg and the Center for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies, University of Halle-Wittenberg. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), 2017–2020.


• Spatial Thought in Islamicate Societies, 1000–1600: The Politics of Genre, Image, and Text. Proceedings of the conference held in Tübingen, 30.03.–01.04.2017, edited by Kurt Franz, Zayde Antrim, and Jean-Charles Ducène, in preparation.


• Räumliche Intelligenz: Kulturtechniken der Orientierung im Wandel. Interdisciplinary lecture series in the frame of the University of Tübingen’s Studium Generale, winter term 2018–2019, organized by Kurt Franz, Robert Kirstein, and Ellen Widder.


• EGYLandscape Project: The Land and Landscapes in Mamluk and Ottoman Egypt, 13th–18th Centuries. Institut de recherches et d'études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans, Aix-Marseille Université, and Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Marburg. Funded by the Agence National de la Recherche (ANR) and German Research Foundation (DFG), 2019–2022.