Prof. Dr. Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler

Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler studied Arabic, Islamic and Religious Studies as well as Political Science in Göttingen. Since completing her doctorate in 1994 on the history of science of the Egyptian Fatimids, she has been working on the city of Cairo, and since the 2000s on visual and material culture, mosques and religiously plural spaces. 

From 2006 to 2010 she was Professor for the Study of Religion at Goethe University Frankfurt, since 2010 she is Professor for the History of Religion at Philipps University Marburg. In addition to dean's office functions, editorships (ZfR, Religionswissenschaft heute) and advisory board activities (Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum, Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung), actually she is deputy director of the Marburg ZIR (Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion). From 2019 to 2022 she was part of the BMBF-funded project REDIM „Dynamics of Religious Objects in Museums“, and is currently PI in the DFG-funded Research Group „Staging Religious Atmospheres in Ancient Cultures“ at the Marburg Center of the Antique World MCAW. 

https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/fb05/fachgebiete/fachgebiete/religionsgeschichte/personal/prof-dr-beinhauer-koehler-1

Walls and Fortifications in Medieval Cairo—Agents of Religious Plurality, Politics and Economic Life

Previous work on the city of Cairo during the Middle Ages has focused on the organization of religious plurality. Cairo can be seen as an example of a metropolis under Islamic rule with a high degree of religious and ethnic plurality. Especially the monograph Spielräume religiöser Pluralität. Kairo im 12. Jahrhundert (2018) asked about the opportunities for different groups politically to participate. This topic was framed in terms of spatial theory and the study followed a path through various physical and socio-cultural spaces (palace, commercial areas, residential quarters, religious sites). 

In addition, the sub-project “Walls and Fortifications in Medieval Cairo—Agents of Religious Plurality, Politics and Economic Life” is currently focusing on material culture. Historiographical texts and other sources from various religious groups provide insights into the role of buildings. They are examined as agents of human-thing relations, in order to shed light on mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, bridging and boundry making. The questions are:

How did larger walls shape life in the city? To what extent are different building materials or architectural forms an expression of social prestige and political and economic power? To what extent were prestigious infrastructure projects such as city walls, commercial buildings (wikālāt, khānāt, etc.) or religious buildings part of shared or separate social practices of people from different religious backgrounds?

This is based on the hypothesis that institutionalized non-Islamic religious communities such as Jews and Christians were not per se excluded, but that their economic and political activities and their capital as an educated elite can be traced in their own documentation of important buildings. This allows us to question stereotypes of cities as places of religious segregation.

(to be published) „Mauern im historischen Kairo. Elemente sozialer Organisation einer religiös pluralen Gesellschaft“, in: Thomas Großbölting, Karen Körber, Anna Körs (eds.), Urbane Sozialformen des Religiösen zwischen Pluralisierung und Regulierung, Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag 2025.

"A Muslim-Christian Heterarchy in 12th-Century Cairo. Plural Perspectives on a Patriarch Visiting a Vizir", in: Numen 69/2-3 (2022), 163-184.

“Moscheeküchen. Materielle Kultur und soziale Praxis”, in: Ömer Alkin, Mehmet Bayrak und Rauf Ceylan (eds.), Moscheen in Bewegung (Studies on Modern Orient 37), Berlin: De Gruyter 2022, 147-174. 

“Das historische Kairo – ein Open Space?”, in: Kunst und Kirche. Interreligiöse & interkulturelle Architektur, 2.2022, 50-57.

„Ritual Performances to Install a New Coptic Patriarch in Twelfth Century Fatimid Cairo“, in: Anna Echevarria Arsuaga, Dorothea Weltecke (eds.), Religious Plurality and Interreligious Contacts in the Middle Ages (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 161), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2020, 125-136.

Spielräume religiöser Pluralität. Kairo im 12. Jahrhundert (Religionswissenschaft heute 13), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2018.

with Edith Franke, Christa Frateantonio, Alexander Nagel (eds.), Religion, Raum und Natur. Religions- wissenschaftliche Erkundungen (Marburger Religionswissenschaft im Diskurs 1), Berlin: LIT Verlag 2017. 

with Bernadette Schwarz-Boenneke, Mirko Roth (eds.), Viele Religionen – ein Raum?! Analysen, Diskussionen und Konzepte, Berlin: Frank & Timme 2015.

„Orientierung auf dem Weg zum religiös pluralen Raum“, in: Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Bernadette Schwarz-Boenneke, Mirko Roth (eds.), Viele Religionen – ein Raum?! Analysen, Diskussionen und Konzepte, Berlin 2015, 231-234. 

„In Bewegung. Gebetsräume für Juden, Christen und Muslime am Frankfurter Flughafen“, in: Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Bernadette Schwarz-Boenneke, Mirko Roth (eds.), Viele Religionen - ein Raum?! Analysen, Diskussionen und Konzepte, Berlin: Frank & Timme 2015, 195-212. 

„Im Zwischenraum. Plurale Raumarrangements aus religionswissenschaftlicher Sicht“, in: Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Bernadette Schwarz-Boenneke, Mirko Roth (eds.), Viele Religionen - ein Raum?! Analysen, Diskussionen und Konzepte, Berlin 2015, 55-76.

„Moscheen sehen. Blickweisen und Perspektiven", in: Dorothea Weltecke, Ulrich Gotter, Ulrich Rüdiger (eds.), Religiöse Vielfalt und der Umgang mit Minderheiten. Vergangene und gegenwärtige Erfahrungen, Konstanz/München: UVK 2015, 107-132.

Gelenkte Blicke. Visuelle Kulturen im Islam, Zürich: TVZ 2011. 

with Daria-Pezzoli-Olgiati, Joachim Valentin (eds.), Religiöse Blicke – Blicke auf das Religiöse. Visualität und Religion, Zürich: TVZ 2010. 

with Claus Leggewie, Moscheen in Deutschland. Religiöse Heimat und gesellschaftliche Herausforderung, München: Beck Verlag 2009.