Researcher in Arabic legal studies during Ottoman times / ERC MCILRaP (M/F) (H/F)

CNRS; France; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 55 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

A prominent research organization in France is offering a temporary position for a Leading Researcher to study the application of Islamic law in the Ottoman Empire. The role involves developing research strategies, conducting analyses of court cases, and contributing to a relational database. A doctoral thesis in the relevant field and strong proficiency in Arabic and English are required. This unique opportunity is part of a five-year ERC-funded project under expert supervision.

Responsabilités

• Elaborate a strategy for studying court cases in Ottoman Arabic.
• Read court registers from Syria for juridical specificities.
• Conduct bio-bibliographical research on local jurists.
• Provide database descriptions of works.
• Participate in the scientific monitoring of the project.
• Contribute to project development and management.

Connaissances

Research experience in the field of legal thought and practice in the Ottoman period

Excellent knowledge of Arabic

Excellent knowledge of English

Formation

Doctoral thesis in a relevant field

Outils

Digital humanities tools

Description du poste

Organisation/Company CNRS Department Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes Research Field History » Ancient history History » Archaeology History » Medieval history Researcher Profile Leading Researcher (R4) Country France Application Deadline 19 Dec 2025 - 23:59 (UTC) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Mar 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon 2020 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

As part of the MCILRaP (Mapping Change in Islamic Law: Rules and Practices) project, which aims to study legal thought in Islam and the textual analysis of a large corpus of Arabic texts, the IRHT (Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, CNRS) is offering a one-year renewable fixed-term contract to research the application of Islamic law in the Arabic provinces of the Ottoman Empire (axis 3 of the project).

Responsibilities

• Elaborate a strategy for studying court‑cases in relation with juridical thinking in Arabic for the Ottoman period.
• Read court registers from Bilad al‑Sham (Syria) from the angle of their juridical specificities.
• Conduct bio‑bibliographical research on local jurists and their works.
• Provide the project database with descriptions of works and inputting information.
• Participate in the scientific monitoring of the project.
• Take part in a working group and in the development and management of projects.

The work will be carried out within the team of the Arabic Section of the Institut de recherche et d'histoire de textes (CNRS‑IRHT) under the supervision of Christian Müller, Director of Research at the CNRS, in collaboration with the other members of the MCILRaP project. The IRHT is a CNRS unit attached to the InSHS, dedicated to the study of medieval manuscripts and the transmission of ancient texts (irht.cnrs.fr). The MCILRaP project, led by Christian Müller, is funded by the ERC for five years (Nov 2024 - Oct 2029). This project is undertaking a historical survey of legal authority in Islam. Sharia, long associated with the law of Muslim jurists, remains a crucial subject in Muslim and Western societies where it is often perceived as divine law. MCILRaP takes an innovative approach by examining legal casuistry rather than isolated rules to understand the paradox between timeless law and observed adaptations. In casuistry, rules are established as laws and additions, for specific cases, allow for different solutions, thus constituting legal changes.

The historical deconstruction of Sharia law and its growing authority in applied law is based on three lines of research: 1) cataloguing the thousands of works preserved according to a new typology; 2) mapping the rules of legal casuistry of dozens of major works, available in electronic text form, using machine learning methods; 3) study the links between legal innovation and notarial practices through selected cases. In doing so, MCILRaP will fundamentally change the study of Islamic law. The person recruited will be involved in building a relational database to store the texts studied, information on their authors, the corresponding metadata, and rich annotations on these texts (in particular, segmentation results). This work will be based on the existing CALD database.

Finally, the person recruited will participate in the implementation of semi‑automatic and automatic text processing techniques for the automatic segmentation of the texts studied and, more generally, for their large‑scale analysis.

Knowledge

• Research experience in the field of legal thought and practice in the Ottoman period (doctoral thesis).
• Excellent knowledge of Arabic and of English.

Know‑how

• Facility and learning ability in the use of digital humanities tools.

Personal skills

• A taste for teamwork.

Additional comments

Contract duration: 1 year renewable up to the end of the project. The MCILRaP project, led by Christian Müller, is funded by the ERC for five years (Nov 2024 - Oct 2029).