Constructing Hellenism in Classical Islam and Renaissance Europe: Transfer, Appropriation, and Transformation

All are welcome to participate! Places are limited, so registration is required. To register,
please e-mail Han Lamers before 10 November 2014 (han.lamers@hu-berlin.de).

The spread of Hellenism from the Hellenistic period onward has often been viewed in terms of a
cultural transfer in which ancient Greek art, literature and philosophy are “received’ by non-Greek
cultures. Taking Classical Islam and Renaissance Europe as complex and rich case studies for the
construction of Hellenism in two non-Greek cultural spheres, this workshop relies on the idea that
cultural transfers are not simple, one-directional processes. The transfer of ancient Greek learning
from the Byzantine world to the Arabic and European contexts rather constitutes historically
complex phenomena that, like all forms of cultural transfer, are characterized by processes of
appropriation, interpretation and transformation.

By what means and for what purposes did scholars in Classical Islam and Renaissance Europe
transfer, appropriate and/or transform Greek texts and ideas? How did they adopt the Greek
heritage and adapt it to their specific concerns? What principles governed their selection of sources?
How did they deal with the potential conflict between scriptures and the views they found in Greek
texts? How do modern scholars on the other hand understand the role of Hellenism in the Arabic
and European spheres as well as its role in shaping cultural paradigms within these traditions? And
how has their methodology evolved in the past decades?

Addressing these and related questions, the primary aim of this workshop is to examine some
of the specific mechanisms and processes underlying the construction of Hellenism both in the
medieval Arabic and early modern European contexts as well as by the modern scholars who
investigate these traditions. The workshop is thus oriented toward two objectives: (1) to provide
an overview of approaches to the theorization of Hellenism in Classical Islam and Renaissance
Europe, examine methodological pitfalls associated with the existing secondary literature, and
explore new avenues of research, especially within a cross-cultural and comparative framework; (2)
to contribute to a clearer understanding of some of the key processes at work in the social and
cultural construction of Hellenism through an examination of several case studies that illuminate
the (often implicit) theoretical approaches in the scholarship.

Program