Digital Humanities for Arabic and Islamic Studies - (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 1; The Near and Middle East) by Maxim Romanov (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Digital Humanities for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Maxim Romanov proposes a new path for the field, showing how large-scale text analysis and computational methods can reveal patterns in 1,400 years of Arabic writing and transform traditional scholarship.

Book Synopsis

In Digital Humanities for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Maxim Romanov proposes a bold vision for bringing Arabic and Islamic Studies fully into the digital age. Building on the vast OpenITI corpus--over a billion words spanning 1,400 years--Romanov demonstrates how computational tools can illuminate long-term cultural and linguistic developments across the Islamic world. Through accessible case studies on terminology tracing, genre modeling, and linguistic change, the book shows how digital methods expand rather than replace traditional scholarship. Romanov argues that the field's digital transformation must be led from within--by scholars who understand its texts, traditions, and questions. This book provides both a roadmap and an invitation to rethink how the Arabic and Islamic heritage can be studied in the twenty-first century.

About the Author

Maxim Romanov, Ph.D. (University of Michigan, 2013), is Emmy Noether Junior Research Group Leader at the University of Hamburg. A specialist in Digital Humanities and Arabic and Islamic Studies, he directs the DFG project The Evolution of Islamic Societies (600-1600 CE) and co-founded the OpenITI corpus.