Dear friends,

this epidemic that has so much overturned our lives in recent weeks is unfortunately an indicator that much more work remains to be done to better integrate religion and human sciences. Many believers, Christians and Muslims alike, continue to oppose science and faith, as if they were talking of the same thing. Or rather, as if they had competing points of view on the world, whereas they complement each other. In the name of this supposed conflict between science and faith, some believers refuse, for example, to take the necessary health measures, arguing that faith will protect them and not science. No, it is not a lack of faith to listen to the discourse of scientists! And if God is free to perform miracles, it is not up to us to force his hand by refusing to take health measures… Let us stay at home, read, be creative and show solidarity, work remotely, and pray that humanity may come out of this crisis stronger.

Featured in this month’s photo, in the absence of any academic activities, the flowering of two kinds of aloe (vera and maculata) in the garden of the Dominican priory in Cairo.

Scholars’ House

In March we had the pleasure of receiving in the Scholars’ House Ms. Gyöngyi Oroszi and Mr. Levente Teklovics, PhD students from the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies in Piliscsaba, Hungary.

Publications

• Jean Druel, “A sparkle in the debate about the word ʾāmīn used in supplication and its rules in Arabic, by ʾAbū Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḫaššāb (d. 567/1172), an annotated translation”, in Beata Sheyhatovitch & Almog Kasher (editors), From Sībawayhi to ʾAḥmad Ḥasan al-Zayyāt: New angles on the Arabic linguistic tradition, Leiden & Boston: Brill, pages 123‒140.
• Dominique Avon, « Juristes musulmans contemporains, images et caricatures », Revue de l’histoire des religions, n°237, 1/2020, pages 83‒109.

Click here to subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletter. If you would like to receive our invitations for the seminar, please mark the corresponding box.