Gerard Wiegers (PhD Leiden University 1991, cum laude) is a member of the Chair Group Modern History and Full Professor of History and Comparative Studies of Religion in the Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies (GER) at the University of Amsterdam, and a specialist in the Academic Study of Islam and the history of religions in the Muslim West and of Islam in Europe. Previously he was full professor of Religious Studies, in particular Islam, at Radboud University Nijmegen and associate professor and Research Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW) at Leiden University. His research concentrates on the relations between Islam and other religions in Europe and the Muslim West and the history of Islamic and Jewish minorities in Europe and the Middle East. He is supervisor of 8 PhD students. Gerard Wiegers holds visiting research fellowship from the Mediterranean Languages and Culture Group of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC, Madrid) and the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Research Group Dynamics in the History of Religions at the Ruhr Universität Bochum, where he worked as a visiting research fellow in 2013-2014.
His fields of interest are the dynamics between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the history of Eurasia and Europe; Islamic ethics; History of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and Europe; Ritual Studies, and Theory and Method in the Study of Religions.
He was Principal Investigator in the HERA funded project Encounters with the Orient in Early Modern Scholarship (EOS) (Humanities in the European Research Area) (2013-2016) see for project website, with the online exhibition on https://www.kent.ac.uk/ewto/index.html
He was Project Leader (with Dr Sipco Vellenga) of the NWO funded project Delicate Relations. Muslims and Jews in Amsterdam and London and advisor and team member of the ERC Advanced Grant project Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics and Interaction (CORPI), led by Mercedes García-Arenal, PI, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/corpi/en/home
He is a researcher in the ERC Synergy Grant Project the European Qur'an (https://euqu.eu/), 2019-2025.
Member of the editorial board of the Numen Book Series (NUS, Brill)
Member of the editorial board of The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World (MEMI, Brill)
member of the Editorial Board of the Colección de Literatura Española Aljamiado-Morisca (CLEAM)
Member Editorial Board Leiden University Press
Advisory Board Iberia y Berbería (www.arabicaetromanica.com/iberia-berberia/
Daily Board Member of the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS) (http://www.hum.leidenuniv.edu/nisis/nisis/about-nisis.html)
Board Member of the Netherlands School of Advanced Studies in Religion and Theology (NOSTER) (https://noster.org/)
Member of the Daily Board of the Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam
Chair of the Capacity Group Religious Studies and History of Hermetic Philosophy (HHP)
Between 2009 and 2014 I have prepared, with Mercedes García-Arenal (CSIC Madrid), an edited volume which grew out of the International Conference we organised in Madrid on 3 and 4 September 2009: "The Moriscos: The Expulsion and After" (Los Moriscos. la Expulsión y Después), in the National Library of Spain (sponsored by the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales). Spanish edition was published by Valencia University Press in 2013. The English translation (by Consuelo López Morillas and Martin Beagles) was published in Brill's series Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World [MEMI) in 2014.
Religious Studies Research Master course
*Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion (with Dr Itamar Ben Ami, University of Utrecht)
*Religious Experience
Herman Beck and Gerard Wiegers: Moslims in een westerse samenleving. Islam en Ethiek. Zoetermeer: Meinema 2008. [268 pp.]
M.García Arenal and G.A.Wiegers: Un hombre en tres mundos. Samuel Pallache, judío de Fez entre la Europa Católica y la Protestante . Madrid : Siglo XXI 2007 (revised and expanded version).
G.A.Wiegers and H.L.Beck: Religie in de krant. Een eerste kennismaking met degodsdienstwetenschap. Nijmegen: Valkhof Pers 2005.
G.A.Wiegers: Het inquisitieproces van Alonso de Luna. Moriscos in Spanje en de diaspora in de zeventiende eeuw en hun geschriften over het christendom. Rede uitgesproken bijdeaanvaarding van hetambt van gewoon hoogleraar Godsdienstwetenschappen, in hetbijzonder islamologie, aan de Faculteit der Theologie van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op 8 september 2004 . Nijmegen 2004. [inaugural lecture, 31 pp. isbn 90-9018429-5]
García-Arenal, M. and Wiegers, G.A.: A Man of Three Worlds: Samuel Pallache, A Moroccan Jew inProtestant and Catholic Europe (translation: Martin Beagles, with a foreword by David Nirenberg and Richard Kagan). Baltimore and London : Johns Hopkins University Press 2003 (paperback edition Johns Hopkins Universty Press: 2007).
Breevaart, H. van de, Wiegers, G., Molendijk, A. L., Lem, A. van der: Religie in de academische arena: leven en werk van C.P. Tiele (1830-1902): catalogus bij een tentoonstelling in de Leidse Universiteitsbibliotheek van 11 januari tot 24 februari 2002 . Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden: Leiden: Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden 2002 [Kleine publicaties van de Leidse Universiteitsbibliotheek; nr. 46] (95 pages).
M.García-Arenal y G.A.Wiegers: Entre el Islam y Occidente. La vida de Samuel Pallache, judío de Fez . Madrid : Siglo XXI 1999.[213 pages].
P.S. Van Koningsveld, Q. al-Samarrai and G.A.Wiegers: A hmad b. Qâsim al-H ajarî: Kitâb nâs ir al-dîn c alâ l-qawm al-kâfirîn (The Supporter of Religion againstthe Infidels). Historical study, critical edition and annotated translation , Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas 1997 [Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas, 21].
G.A.Wiegers: Islamic Literature in Spanish and Aljamiado: Yça of Segovia (fl. 1450), His Antecedents andSuccessors . Leiden , etc. 1993. (PhD diss., trade edition).
G.A.Wiegers: Yça Gidelli (fl. 1450), his Antecedents and Successors.A Historical studyof Islamic Literature in Spanish andAljamiado (Diss. Leiden). Leiden1991.
G.A.Wiegers: A LearnedMuslim Acquaintance of Erpenius and Golius:Ahmad b. Kâsim al-Andalusî and ArabicStudies in the Netherlands . Leiden 1988.
(in association with J.G.Platvoet): Modern Societies and the Science of Religion. Studies in honour of Lammert Leertouwer (Supplementa ad Numen, 95). Leiden . etc. Brill 2002.
(with K.D.Jenner); Transplantatie van organen en weefsels. Hoogwaardig technisch ingrijpen in het menselijk lichaam in het licht van godsdienst en levensovertuiging . Kok: Kampen 2002 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 4].
(with J. Frishman and K.D.Jenner) :
Godsdienstvrijheid en de religieuze identiteit van joden, christenen en moslims. Verwachting en realiteit. Kampen, 2000 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 3]
(with K.D. Jenner): Heilig boek en religieus gezag. Ontstaanen functioneren van canonieke tradities. Kampen 1998. [Leidse Studiën van de godsdienst, 2]
(with K.D. Jenner): Jeruzalem als Heilige Stad. Religieuze voorstelling en geloofspraktijk. Kampen 1996. [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst, 1]
Towards a global view?The study of religion between birth and maturity, in: Religion 39 (2009), 379-382
Wojtkowiak, J. and G.A.Wiegers: 'Moslims doen het helemaal zelf. Veranderende islamitische uitvaartrituelen in Nederland, in: E. Venbruxe.a. (eds): Rituele Creativiteit. Actuele veranderingen in de uitvaart- en rouwcultuur in Nederland . Zoetermeer: Meinema 2008, 31-44.
'Mudejar Biographiesin Aljamiado and Arabic Polemical texts', in: Ana Echevarría Arsuaga (ed): Biografías mudéjares. Madrid 2008 [Estudios Onomástico-Biográficos de al-Andalus], pp. 497-515.
The missing link between religious education and the study of religions. Reflections on the role of the study of religions in secondary education. In:Christa Dommel/Gordon Mitchell (eds), Religion Education. On the boundaries between Study of Religions, Education and Theologies: Jürgen Lott and the Bremen approach in international perspective, Bremen: Kleio Humanities 2008, 161-173.
Wiegers, Gerard, and Heleen Kommers, 'Godsdienstonderwijs en Godsdienstwetenschap. De grondslagen van de meest gebruikte methoden voor het vak godsdienst/levensbeschouwing in het voortgezet onderwijs' in Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 61/4 (2007), 269-280.
(with P.S. vanKoningsveld): 'El Pergamino de la "Torre Turpiana": El Documento Original y sus Primeros Intérpretes', in: Los Plomos del Sacromonte . Invención y tesoro (M.Barrios Aguilera y M. García-Arenal, eds): Valencia, Granada,Zaragoza: Universitat de València, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de Zaragoza, 2006, pp. 113-139.
'Nueva luz sobre la identitad de Alonso de Luna,alias Muhammad b. Abi 'l-Asi y su proceso inquisitorial (1618)', in: Los Plomos del Sacromonte . Invención y tesoro (M.Barrios Aguilera y M. García-Arenal, eds).: Valencia, Granada, Zaragoza: Universitat de València, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de Zaragoza, 2006, 113-139, pp. 403-418.
'Thepersistence of Mudejar Islam? Alonso de Luna, the "Lead Books" andthe Gospel of Barnabas'. In: Medieval Encounters, 12 (3) 2006, pp. 498-518.
'De complexe relatie tussen religie engeweld. De Marokkaanse sultan Zaydān tussen djihād en diplomatie (1608-1614)", in: Leidschrift. Historisch Tijdschrift, 20, no. 1 (2005), pp. 123-139.
'Henry Corbin and the Gospel of Barnabas', in: Mohammed Ali Amir-Moezzi, Christian Jambet, Pierre Lory (dir.), Henry Corbin. Philosophies et sagesses des religions du Livre , vol. 126 [Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des hautes Etudes Sciences Religieuses. Histoire et prosopographie de la section des sciences religieuses, 1], Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, pp. 177-194.
'Afscheid van het methodologisch agnosticisme? Godsdienstwetenschap en Theologie aan het begin van de 21e eeuw', in: Tijdschrift voor Theologie 45 (2005), pp. 153-167.
"Un manuscrito aljamiado en la Biblioteca Nacional de Malta", in: Aljamía. Anuario de información bibliográfica 15 (2003), pp. 85-89.
(with P.S. vanKoningsveld): "The Parchment of the 'Torre Turpiana': The Original Document and its Early Interpreters", in: Al-Qantara XXIV, fasc. 2 (2003), pp. 327-258 (includes photos of the parchment found in the Torre Turpiana (Granada), pp. 254-358.
(with H.J. de Jonge): "Dr. Lammert Leertouwer: Curriculum Vitae, A ChronologicalListof his Publications, and a Selective List of his other Academic and Administrative Responsibilities", in: G.A.Wiegers, in association with J.G.Platvoet (eds): Modern Societies and the Science of Religions.Studies in honour of Lammert Leertouwer (Supplementa ad Numen, 95). Leiden. etc. Brill 2002, pp.1-15.
'Introduction. The Science of Religions. Its Social Functions and Applicationsin a Changing World', in: G.A.Wiegers, in association with J.G.Platvoet (eds): Modern Societies and the Science of Religions. Studies in honour of Lammert Leertouwer (Supplementa ad Numen, 95). Leiden. etc. Brill 2002, pp.17-37.
'The Science of religions in Spain: The Instituto Universitario de Ciencias de las Religiones in Madrid and Ibn Rushd University in Córdoba', in: G.A.Wiegers, in association with J.G.Platvoet (eds): Modern Societies and the Science of Religions. Studies in honour of Lammert Leertouwer (Supplementa ad Numen, 95). Leiden. etc. Brill 2002, pp.166-184.
'Muslim Discussions on Organ Donations to Adherents of Other Religions', in: W.A.Shadid and P.S. van Koningsveld (eds) Intercultural Relations and Religious Authorities. Muslims in the European Union. Leuven etc.: Peeters, pp. 215-225.
(with K.D. Jenner): 'Orgaandonatie in hetlicht van godsdienst en levensovertuiging: inleiding en probleemstelling', in: K.D. Jenner and G.A.Wiegers (eds): Transplantatie van organen en weefsels. Hoogwaardig technisch ingrijpen in het licht van van godsdienst en levensovertuiging. Kampen: Kok 2002 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 4], pp. 4-18
"Orgaan- en weefseldonatie in de islam: recente fatwa's", in: K.D. Jenner and G.A.Wiegers (eds): Transplantatie vanorganenen weefsels. Hoogwaardig technisch ingrijpen in het licht van godsdienst en levensovertuiging. Kampen: Kok 2002 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 4], pp137-150.
(with K.D.Jenner): "De factor religie en levensovertuiging tussen het volledig beslissysteem en het geen bezwaar systeem. Enkele godsdienstwetenschappelijke observaties, in: K.D. Jenner and G.A.Wiegers(eds): Transplantatie van organen en weefsels. Hoogwaardig technisch ingrijpen in het licht van godsdienst en levensovertuiging. Kampen: Kok 2002 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 4], pp. 181-184.
'European convertsto Islam in the Maghrib and the polemical writings of the Moriscos', in: M. García-Arenal (ed.): Conversions islamiques. Identités religieuses en Islam méditerranéen . Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose/European Science Foundation 2001, pp. 207-223.
'Holy Cities in the Perspective of Recent Theoretical Discussions in the Science of Religions', in: A. le Boulluec, ed.: Á la recherché des Villes Saintes . Actes du Colloque Franco-Néerlandais 'Les villes saintes' Collège de France, 10 et 11 mai 2001. Turnhout 2004, pp. 1-13 [Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Religieuses, 122].
(with K.D. Jenner): 'Godsdienstvrijheid en de religieuze identiteit van joden, christenen en moslims in het perspectief van de empirische en toegepaste godsdienstwetenschap', in: J.Frishman, K.D.Jenner en G.A.Wiegers (eds): Godsdienstvrijheid en de religieuze identiteit van joden, christenen enmoslims. Verwachting en realiteit . Kampen, 2000, pp. 9-21. [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 3]
(with K.D.Jenner): 'Verwachting en realiteit. Godsdienstvrijheid ondanks of dankzij religieuze identiteit', in: J.Frishman, K.D.Jenner andG.A.Wiegers (eds): Godsdienstvrijheid en de religieuze identiteit van joden, christenen en moslims. Verwachting en realiteit . Kampen, 2000, pp. 217-221 [Leidse Studiën van de Godsdienst 3].
(with P.S. van Koningsveld):'Dereligieuze betekenis van Jeruzalem in de islam', in: W. Bartels,G.ten Berge, P. vanGeest (red): Jeruzalem. Stad van Vrede. Vrede voor de stad . Kampen, 2000, pp. 136-161.
(with P.S. van Koningsveld): 'An Appeal of the Moriscos to the Mamluk Sultan and its Counterpart to the Ottoman Court: Textual Analysis, Context, and Wider Historical Background', in: Al-Qantara XX, fasc. 1 (1999), pp. 161-189.
'De Nederlanden en de islam in de zeventiende eeuw: Wisselwerking tussen beeldvorming en cultuurcontact?', in: W.A.Shadid en P.S. van Koningsveld (eds.): Religie, cultuur en minderheden. Historische en maatschappelijke aspecten van beeldvorming . Tilburg 1999, pp.141-153.
(with M.García-Arenal): 'Aux dessus des frontières: Samuel Pallache (m. 1616)', in: Hespéris-Tamuda 36 (1999), pp. 99-111.
(with K.D.Jenner): 'Omtrent het ontstaan en functioneren van canons: de maatschappelijke relevantie van de godsdienstwetenschappen', in K.D. Jenner and G.A. Wiegers (eds): Heilig boek en religieus gezag. Ontstaan en functioneren van canonieke tradities , Kampen 1998, pp. 9-22.
'De canon in de klassieke en moderne soennietische islam',in: K.D. Jenner and G.A. Wiegers (eds): Heilig boek en religieus gezag. Ontstaan en functioneren van canonieke tradities , Kampen 1998, pp. 283-303.
(with K.D. Jenner): 'De canon herzien? Canonieke Tradities tussen godsdienstpolitieke en socio-culturele werkelijkheid', in: K.D.Jenner and G.A. Wiegers (eds): Heilig boek en religieus gezag. Ontstaan en functioneren van canonieke tradities , Kampen 1998, pp. 304-308.
'La diaspora morisca en el Maghreb: la obra polémica anticristiana de MuhammadAlguazir (fl..1610)', in: J.M Perceval e.a.: La Expulsion de los moriscos (14 de octubre de 1997-9 de junio de 1998). [Valencia]: Bancaja 1998, pp.90-121.
'Mahoma visto comoel mesías: comparación de las obraspolémicas de Juan Alonso con el Evangelio de Bernabé ', in: 'Ilu 1 (1996), 197-222 and 'Ilû 2 (1997), pp. 199-228.
(with P.S. van Koningsveld): 'Islam in Spain during the Early Sixteenth century. The Views of the Four Chief Judges in Cairo (Introduction, translation and Arabic Text)', in: O. Zwartjes, G.J. van Gelder and E. de Moor (eds.): Poetry, Politics and Polemics. Cultural Transfer between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa . Amsterdam, Atlanta 1997 (= Orientations IV), pp. 133-152.
'The Andalusî Heritage in the Maghrib: The Polemical Work of Muhammad Alguazir (fl. 1610)', in: O. Zwartjes, G.J. van Gelder and E. de Moor (eds.): Poetry, Politics and Polemics. Cultural Transfer between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa . Amsterdam, Atlanta 1997 (=Orientations IV), pp. 107-132.
(with L.P. Harvey): 'The translation fromArabic of the Sacromonte tablets and the Archbishop of Granada: an illuminating correspondence', in: Qurtuba. Estudios Andalusíes (published by the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Universityof Cordoba) , I (1996) [published in 1997], pp. 59-78.
'Les manuscrits en écriture arabe et langue espagnole (dits ` aljamiados ')', in: Gazette du Livre Médieval , 30 (1997), pp. 1-7. 'The 'Old' or 'Turpiana' Tower in Granada and its Relics according to Ahmad b. Qâsim al-Hajarî', in: R.Gyselen (ed): Sites et monuments disparus d'après les témoignages de voyageurs. Res Orientales , VIII (1996), pp. 193-207.
(with H. Bouzineb, Rabat): 'Tetuán y la expulsión de los moriscos', in: Titwân khilâl al-qarnayn 16 wa 17 . Tétouan: Université cAbdal-Mâlikal-Sacdî, 1996, pp. 73-108 (with P.S. van Koningsveld): 'The Islamic Statute of the Mudejarsinthe Light of aNew Source', in: Al-Qantara , XVII (1996), pp. 19-58.
'De religieuze status van Jeruzalem in de moderne islam', in: Jeruzalem als heilige stad. Religieuze voorstelling en geloofspraktijk (K.D. Jenner and G.A. Wiegers, eds) Kampen, 1996, pp. 166-184. (with K.D. Jenner): 'De Heilige Stad als onderzoeksobject in de klassieke en moderne godsdienstwetenschap', in: K.D. Jenner and G.A. Wiegers (eds): Jeruzalem als Heilige Stad. Religieuze voorstelling en geloofspraktijk . Kampen 1996, pp. 14-28.
'Learned Moriscos and Arabic studies in the Netherlands, 1609-1624', in: Romania Arabica. (J. Lüdtke, ed). Tübingen 1996, pp. 405-417.
'Language and Identity: Pluralism and the use of non-Arabic languages in the Muslim West', in: Platvoet, J. and Van der Toorn, K.(eds.): Pluralism and Identity. Studies in Ritual Behaviour [Supplementa ad Numen]. Leiden 1995, pp. 303-326.
'Muhammad as the Messiah:A comparison of the polemical works of Juan Alonso with the Gospel of Barnabas' , in: Bibliotheca Orientalis LII no. 3/4, April June 1995, pp. 245-291. Review: Slomp, J.: 'The `Gospel ofBarnabas' in recent research', in: Islamochristiana 23 (1997), pp. 81-109.
(with P.S. van Koningsveld): 'The polemical works of Muhammad al-Qaysî (fl. 1309) and their circulation in Arabic and Aljamiado among the Mudejars in the fourteenth century', in: Al-Qantara (Madrid), XV (1994), pp. 163-199.
'Datation et localisation des codices espagnols écrits en caractères arabes ( aljamiado ): problèmes et perspectives', in: Al-Makhtût al-carabî wa cilm al-makhtûtât (Le manuscrit arabe et la codicologie) (Ahmed-Chouqui Binebine, ed.). Rabat: UniversitéMohamed V, Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines 1994, pp. 21-30.
'Alife between Europeandthe Maghrib: the writings of Ahmad b. Qâsim al-Hajarî al-Andalusî (born ca. 977/1569-70)', in: The Middle East and Europe: Encounters and Exchanges (= Orientations. Yearbook of the Dutch association for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (G.J. van Gelder and E. de Moor, eds.), vol. 1, Amsterdam, Atlanta, 1993, pp. 87-115.
'Diplomatie et polémique anti-chrétienne: naissance et influence de l'oeuvre de Muhammad Alguazir (vers 1021/1612)', in: Actes du V Symposium International d'Etudes Morisques sur: le Ve centenaire de la chute de Grenade 1492-1992 ,Zaghouan 1993, 3 vols., vol. 2, pp. 747-756.
'cIsà b. Jâbir and the Origins of Aljamiado Literature', in: Al-Qantara (Madrid), XI, fasc. 1 (1990), pp. 155-91.
'Los manuscritos aljamiados como fuentes históricas paraelsiglo XVI: el manuscrito 5252 de la Biblioteca Nacional en Madrid', in Actas del III Simposio Internacional de Estudios Moriscos: Las prácticas musulmanas de los Moriscos Andaluces (1492-1609) . Zaghouan 1989, pp. 181-85.