Leiden University is famous for its library’s large collection of Oriental manuscripts. Part of this collection is a group of 104 Arabic documents written on papyrus and paper (Or. 8264 and 12885). These documents date from the 7th through 10th century CE and cover a wide range of subjects (private…

With regard to governance, policies and law, many Muslims and Muslim countries recognise the possibility that Islam has something important to say about the way society is to be ordered, governed, and regulated.

Dating back more than 400 years, Leiden University has the oldest continuous chair of Arabic outside the Arabic-speaking world. Today the MENA region is studied at Leiden from before the coming of Islam up to today from a wide array of disciplines. And Arabic is studied within the diverse linguistic,…

Combining approaches from intellectual history, philology and the study of Arabic manuscripts, this study places the Bornu scholar Muḥammad al-Wālī within his intellectual environment on the one hand, and it portrays him as someone who responded to the concerns of ordinary Muslims around him on the…

Imami Shiʿism was a key part of the turbulent thesis and antithesis which formed Islam, and it remains greatly influential today. The aim of the ImBod project is to write the first comprehensive social history of the Imamate.

To reach a larger audience beyond the academy, a number of activities in the cultural realm have been programmed over the years.

A selected group of unpublished amulets from various collections in the world will be studied and edited.

Ömer Koçyigit defended his thesis on 7 July 2020

Humanities, Institute for Area Studies

Meet Bart, Reza, Weiyan, James, Daphne and Yasmin.

In this section we will be sharing numerous resources with you on the project and the broader topics of Ai and Islam.

An overview of our exhibition catalogues and research monographs on the Middle Eastern collections.

The chief aim of this study is to explore how classical Persian poetry and the Persian mysticism that is interwoven with the poetry have been used in the new politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially during the Iran-Iraq war.

LUCIS works with Science ON AIR to put its researchers in the spotlight. For that purpose, several online videos of LUCIS members have been produced.

On this page you find useful links to cooperating universities, Dutch institutes and other interesting links to information related to Arabic & Islamic studies, Egyptian Archaeology, and learning Dutch.

Eschatology played a central role in both politics and society throughout the early modern period. It inspired people to strive for social and political change, including sometimes by violent means, and prompted in return strong reactions against their religious activism.

Are you a student from Indonesia, planning to study in Leiden?

Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) studies religion as human activity, in all its diversity.

The NVIC offers academic courses in Arabic & Islamic studies and in the study of Ancient Egypt, in the framework of study programmes at the Dutch and Flemish universities that support the institute. NVIC also puts its teaching experience at the disposal of companies, embassies, international organisations…

Anthropology of Law in Muslim Sudan analyses the hybridity of law systems and the plurality of legal practices in rural and urban contexts of contemporary Sudan, shedding light on the complex relation between Islam and society.

Hekmat Dirbas defended his thesis on 14 February 2017

The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Punching Back is a detailed ethnographic study that demonstrates that young Muslim women who kickbox develop agentive selves by challenging gender norms, challenging expectations, and living out their religious subjectivities.

On Friday 2 October journalist Sander van Hoorn starts his lecture series ‘The Middle East doesn't exist’, which was organised by the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS). ‘If all goes well, people will understand the Middle East that bit less after my lectures.’

Serie workshops waarin mensen werkzaam op het terrein van Midden-Oosten- en islamstudies vertellen over hun ervaringen in de praktijk.

Here you can find annual reports and evaluation reports of LUCIS from previous years.

At our Summer School on Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World we offer graduate students and researchers lectures by experts, practical classes, and hands-on experience with manuscripts from Leiden University’s famous collection of oriental manuscripts.

The present volume focuses on the political perceptions of the Hajj, its global religious appeal to Muslims, and the European struggle for influence and supremacy in the Muslim world in the age of pre-colonial and colonial empires.

The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia aims to promote research on the ancient languages and cultures of Arabia, and to disseminate this knowledge to the broader public.

Chaider Bamualim defended his thesis on 9 September 2015

This dissertation is a study of archaeological remains left behind by nomadic communities in the Black Desert, situated in the northeast of modern Jordan.

Aesthetic formations and cultural repertoires give meaning to our reality in ways that are never neutral. Focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its global interlocutors, this project brings together a team of scholars from Leiden University who bring in inter-disciplinary, inter-area…

Dina Ishak Bakhoum defended her thesis on 21 January 2021

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Designed for high-achieving students, Leiden University's master's in Middle Eastern Studies (Research) offers you unmatched resources and expertise.

Humanities, Institute for Area Studies

Each month we will be spotlighting material we have been reading, or that have been recommended to us that relate to AI and a particular theme.

The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia aims to promote research on the ancient languages and cultures of Arabia, and to disseminate this knowledge to the broader public.

A project aimed at understanding the complicated process of religious transformation in one of the centres of the early Muslim world.

The subjects of the texts vary from Demosthenes to the delivery of camels in early Islamic Egypt, and their provenances stretch from the Eastern to the Western Desert, and from the Egyptian Nile valley to Qasr Ibrim in northern Nubia.