Prof. Dr. Nora Derbal

My research engages with the modern and contemporary world of Islam. Regionally, my research focuses on the Arabian Peninsula, particularly Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf monarchies, and Palestine/Israel. I currently pursue two directions: First, I examine the lived and everyday manifestations of Islamic concepts and practices. Second, my research reflects on the ways knowledge about Islam and Muslim societies is and has been created and perpetuated in Europe.

I welcome students who would like to write an MA thesis or dissertation related to the modern history and contemporary Arab world.

Current Research Projects

“Heinrich von Maltzan, A Life in Fragments”

In my habilitation project, I examine the production of knowledge about Islam and Muslim societies through the life and works of the German Orientalist Heinrich von Maltzan (1826–1874). Maltzan is considered one of the first modern European “explorers” to travel the Arabian Peninsula. He wrote widely read travelogues and scholarly treatises about his journeys. While the history of German Oriental Studies at German universities has now been well researched, the important intermediary role that travelers played in the production and dissemination of knowledge about Islam has received little attention to date. By illuminating the complex interplay between travelers to the “Orient”, the university, and the public, the project makes an important contribution to the history of knowledge and scholarship in the 19th century.

“The Arab Gulf States and Palestine”

I am currently gathering materials that help me to examine the diverse entanglements of the Arabian Peninsula with Palestine in the first half of the 20th century. I am interested in exploring how Palestine became a multifaceted symbol of the Arab and Islamic world (including a symbol of a the “just” war, solidarity, the unity/suffering of the Arab world, Islam, longing and diaspora, resistance, and oppression to mention a few). The research addresses topics such as solidarity and community, martyrdom and jihad, as well as transnational entanglements in art and culture, educational networks, and civil society between the societies of the Arabian Peninsula and Palestine.

“Law and Society in Saudi Arabia”

Together with Dominik Krell and Ulrike Freitag, international conference at the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, October 9–10, 2024, funded by the Körber Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. Proceedings in preparation.

Academic Bio

I was born in 1984 in Oran, Algeria. During my school years in southern Germany, I was involved with Verein Flüchtlingskinder im Libanon e.V.. As part of the association’s work, I conducted interviews in the Palestinian refugee camps of Rashidiye and Bourj Al-Shemali in Southern Lebanon. I graduated from school (International Baccalaureat) in 2003 with an extended essay on “Attitudes and Perceptions of Palestinian Pre-Adolescents towards the Israel-Palestine Conflict”. After school and an involuntary gap year, I first studied Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University, Pembroke College. I eventually transferred to Freie Universität Berlin because I could not afford the tuition fees in the UK.

After completing my Magister in Islamic Studies and Modern and Contemporary History in Berlin, I earned my doctorate in Islamic Studies in 2017 from the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. My dissertation, “Charity for the Poor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1961–2015,” supervised by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag and Prof. Dr. Gudrun Krämer, was awarded second place in the annual German Dissertation Prize (Körber Stiftung). From 2015 to 2020, I lived in Cairo for five years, where I worked as a research associate at the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) and as a postdoc at the American University in Cairo (AUC). From 2020 to 2024, I was based in Jerusalem, where I held a BMBF-funded postdoc position as a member of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

My book, Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society under Authoritarianism (Cambridge University Press 2022), was named one of the “Books of the Year 2022” by the Times Literary Supplement and won the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines. I have published on, among other topics, gender and women in Saudi Arabia, pop culture and music festivals in Riyadh, the Boy Scouts movement on the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi humanitarian aid, and youth groups in Jeddah.

You can find most of my publications on https://uni-hamburg.academia.edu/NoraDerbal .

I’m honored to be the book review editor of Die Welt des Islams.

I am keen to establish and expand research and teaching collaborations with partners in the Middle East.

Publication list (German/PDF)

CV (German/PDF)

Supervised theses (German/PDF)