cfp Islamic, Semitic, and Biblical Studies in Germany during the First Half of the Twentieth Century (and Beyond): Paul E. Kahle and His Scholarly Legacy

Paul Ernst Kahle (1875–1964) was one of the most prominent representatives of Semitic, Islamic, and Biblical studies in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century. Besides his own scholarly achievements in those fields, Kahle had superb organizational skills and a unique ability to collaborate and foster collaborative work. During the 1920s and 1930s, since his appointment to a professorial position in Bonn on 1 October 1923, which was followed by his appointment as Geschäftsführer of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft and eventually Herausgeber of its publications, until the fall of 1938, when he was suspended and eventually dismissed from his position in Bonn and stripped of his responsibilities at the DMG, Kahle was the most influential personality among German Orientalists. During World War II, he was based in Oxford and London where he was commissioned to catalogue the Chester Beatty manuscript collection, which opened up entirely new vistas to him. Although Kahle's detailed partial catalog was never published, many of his publications during the 1940s and 1950s are based on material from the Chester Beatty collection. Kahle’s scholarly legacy, consisting of his study notes and materials, including his unpublished catalog of the Chester Beatty manuscript collection, his correspondence, and his collection of about 11,000 books and 300 manuscripts, was acquired in 1966 by Turin University (Fondo Paul Kahle; http://www.paulkahle.unito.it/index.php). This special issue focusses on Kahle’s scholarly legacy and his rich correspondence with colleagues from different countries, addressing aspects of the history of the disciplines as seen through the material. Papers examining specific aspects of Kahle’s contributions to Islamic, Semitic, and Biblical studies from a wider point of view are also most welcome. Abstracts should be submitted until July 15, 2022 to Uta Nitschke (nitschke@ias.edu). Final submissions are due by December 31, 2022. All submissions will undergo a double blind peer-review. Historical Interactions of Religious Cultures is a new journal published by Mohr Siebeck (Tübingen), and edited by Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann (Zürich), Alexander Fidora (Barcelona), Markus Friedrich (Hamburg), Thomas Kaufmann (Göttingen), Volker Leppin (New Haven), Sabine Schmidtke (Princeton), and Rebekka Voß (Frankfurt).