Mu'tazilite Manuscripts Project (2005-2007 Research Grant, Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation) and ERC Advanced Grant "Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam" (2008-2013)

In 2003, Sabine Schmidtke (Princeton, then Berlin) and David Sklare (Jerusalem) founded the “Mu’tazilite Manuscripts Project Group” with the purpose of collecting all hitherto unpublished Mu‘tazilite manuscripts (Muslim and Jewish), of identifying these materials and of preparing critical editions, in order to set the scientific research of the Mu‘tazilite movement on a broader basis. They have since been the coordinators of the group and were able to receive substantial research grants from the Thyssen Foundation (2003-06), the Henkel Foundation (2005) and Yad Hanadiv (2006). The “Mu’tazilite Manuscripts Project Group” consisted of about fifteen active members from the West, the Islamic world and Israel who come from both Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies. Together with Wilferd Madelung (Oxford), Schmidtke also applied successfully for and coordinated a research group of eight scholars (plus five guests), “Mu’tazilism in Islam and Judaism”, at the IAS (nowadays IIAS), Jerusalem (2005-06). The work of the Mu'tazila Manuscripts Project Group were lateron (2009-2013) continued as part of the research project "Dediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam", funded by an ERC Advanced Grant granted to Schmidtke.