Academics Gregory Vandamme and Stéphane Vincent will unite their readings of the work Culture of Ambiguity: Another History of Islam (2025, Fenêtres Editions) by Thomas Bauer, a renowned professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in Germany, in a new Wednesday of Knowledge event, in the presence of editor Mehmet Balsever, on May 6, 2026 (6pm-8pm).
Gregory Vandamme is an Islamologist, with a doctorate in Religious Sciences (UCLouvain), specializing in Sufi philosophy. He currently serves as a research fellow at the FNRS (National Fund for Scientific Research) and UCLouvain, in Belgium. He has also been a researcher at the University of Chester (England) and an invited lecturer at SciencesPo Paris.
Stéphane Vincent is a PhD student in Medieval History and Islamic studies, teaching Literature/History at the University of Paris-Cité.
A BOOK TO ESCAPE THE WESTERN IMAGINARY OF AN ISLAM DOMINATED BY NORMS
To escape the Western imaginary of an Islam dominated by dogmatic religious norms that allow no nuance, Thomas Bauer proposes to explore the evolution of Muslim Arab societies and their relationship with ambiguity over several centuries. Discover how, for over a thousand years, a multitude of interpretations of religious texts have coexisted, without this diversity being perceived as a threat, but rather as a result of divine will. Through the fascinating study of various cultural and civilizational elements, from law to Quranic exegesis to poetry, the integration of religious minorities and foreigners, or even the relationship to sexuality, Bauer demonstrates the value placed on plurality in these societies. Until the colonization of the Middle East in the 19th century led them to change their paradigm.
Thomas Bauer is a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Münster and a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of North Rhine-Westphalia. He received the Leibniz Prize (the most prestigious research award in Germany) for his book Culture of Ambiguity, the Tractacus-Preis (philosophy book prize), and the “WISSEN!” (humanities book prize) for the book Why There Was No Islamic Middle Ages (Fenêtres Editions, 2023). He also contributed to the book Which Language Does God Speak? Three Essays on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Fenêtres Editions is the first to translate this widely recognized author abroad.
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