LECTURE SERIES

THE MIDDLE EAST
Muhammad, Muslims, Minorities, Myths, Media and More

THU 16 AND 23 JAN, 6, 13 AND 20 FEB – 19:30 TO 21:30
Karl Dittrich Hall, Student Services Centre, Bonnefantenstraat 2

Ronald Kon
Arabist, Cultural Entrepreneur, Author, (Literary) Translator, Founding owner of Centre of Expertise KONTEKS and Guest Researcher Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University

Inescapably these days, attention is drawn towards the Arab world: a neighbouring and geographically vast universe with a historical depth of millennia, defined by partially unknown consecutive and contemporaneous civilisations and empires, and a chronological cascade of (monotheistic) religions, languages, alphabets, cultural (self-)expressions and influences defining “them” and thereby “us”. For those inclined to better understand and disentangle the nuances of this kaleidoscopic mosaic of intricacies, this series chooses to offer a vademecum, and make current affairs more transparent.

The individual lectures
1. Muhammad (7^th century CE) and the Islam (16 Jan)
2. Muslims of Different Convictions and Power of Persuasion (23 Jan)
3. Middle Eastern Minority Cultural Phenomena (6 Feb)
4. Myths of the Middle East (13 Feb)
5. Self-Definition Presented by Media: Seeing the Same, but Thinking Differently (20 Feb)


Cost of the whole series
UM students €10 / UM employees and students from other schools €25 / Others €50