Prof. Dr. Thomas Eich

Since the early 2000s I developed three main working areas. My dissertation about Abu l-Huda al-Sayyadi (d. 1909) from Northern Syria dealt with Sufism in the late Ottoman Empire. Here I focused on socio-historical questions in the field of research ‘tradition and modernity’ with an emphasis on personal networks in Syria and Iraq, which had previously been marginalised by research because they were considered ‘traditional and Sufi’. This analysis aimed to break through the overemphasis on modernist thinkers in the recent history of the Arab Levant and thus create better access for the study of intellectual history processes against the backdrop of fundamental political and social upheavals. I have also published further articles with new material on this topic beyond my dissertation.

Another focus of my work is on contemporary debates among Sunni Muslim legal scholars on medical ethics issues, particularly those relating to the beginning of life, such as reproductive medicine and prenatal screening. In this context, I have primarily analysed discussions since the 1960s. This work aimed to address the question of how certain technical developments are discussed in contemporary Islamic law and what concrete social dimensions the respective technological change has, which in turn has an impact on the discussion of legal scholarship. Medical ethics debates can thus also become a window that provides insights into contemporary social change in countries in the Middle East. My expertise in the contemporary intellectual and social history of Arab countries in the second half of the 20th century is now primarily reflected in my teaching.

My third area of focus has developed since around 2010 and deals with Arabic-Islamic texts from approximately the 7th to 12th centuries (fiqh, hadith, Qur’an and their respective commentaries). For a long time, questions about the beginnings of prenatal human life were at the forefront of my work, and I read these texts as evidence of the negotiation processes of various scholarly cultures and religious identities. Through my more recent work, I have developed a strong interest in the political and social-historical developments of the Mediterranean region in the 6th and 7th centuries, in particular the history of ascetic lifestyles and the associated personal networks that stretched from Palestine to Rome and England. This research interest includes Arabic poetry, Christian liturgical texts and research on the history of monasticism from the 5th to the 8th century.

From 2015 to 2021, I led an international research team “Contemporary Bioethics and the History of the Unborn in Islam”, funded by a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council.

Academic CV

1999 Magister degree Bamberg University

2002 Dissertation Bochum University (RUB)

4/2002 – 12/2002 unemployed

2003 – 2007 DFG project on contemporary Islamic bioethics at the RUB

2005 – 2006 Wissenschaftlicher Assistant (lecturer), RUB

2007 – 2010 Akademischer Rat auf Zeit (non-tenured associate lecturer and academic officer), Tübingen University

2010 Professor Islamic Studies (W2) Hamburg University