Georges Nicolas Tamer holds the Chair of Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Until September 2012, he was professor of Arabic and Islamic studies and the holder of the M.S. Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. A scholar of religion, philosophy, and Arabic and Islamic literature and culture, his fields of specialization include Qur'anic studies, Arabic philosophy, Christian- and Judeo-Arabic thought, and Islam in modernity. He has previously taught at the Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the Central European University.
Education and scholarly activity
Infected by polio as an infant in Lebanon, Tamer was unable to attend elementary school and relied on autodidactic learning and private tutoring. After attending high school in Lebanon for one year, Tamer moved to Germany where he studied philosophy, sociology and theology in Frankfurt inter alios with Jürgen Habermas. He obtained his MA in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1995 and was granted a Ph.D. in philosophy in 2000. He completed his habilitation in Islamic Studies at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in 2007.
Tamer is a highly productive researcher throughout Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, having taken part in a number of research bodies and colloquia attached to institutes of higher education. These include the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Working Group on Modernity and Islam at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He has planned and hosted interdisciplinary conferences on Maimonides, humor in Arabic culture, migration in Germany, and, most recently, on the influential Muslim thinker al-Ghazali.
A member of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Tamer founded a parish in Berlin. He has participated in several ecumenical activities and interfaith dialogue groups in Germany.
Selected publications
Books
Islamische Philosophie und die Krise der Moderne: Das Verhältnis von Leo Strauss zu Alfarabi, Avicenna und Averroes. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill (Islamic philosophy, theology and science, Vol. 43), 2001. Al-Hadātha wa-khitābuhā s-siyāsī (Modernity and its Political Discourse): An Anthology of Jürgen Habermas, translated into Arabic, with introduction and explanations, Beirut: Dar Annahar 2001. Tārīkh al-Qur'ān: Theodor Nöldeke et al., Geschichte des Qur'ans. Translation into Arabic, with Introduction, Explanations and Register, Beirut: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung 2004. 2nd Edition annotated with a new Preface. Köln, Beirut: Al-Kamel 2007. Die Trias des Maimonides. Jüdische, arabische und antike Wissenskultur / The Trias of Maimonides. Jewish, Arabic and Ancient Culture of Knowledge (Ed.), Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter 2005. Zeit und Gott: Hellenistische Zeitvorstellungen in der altarabischen Dichtung und im Koran, Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter 2008. Humor in der arabischen Kultur / Humor in Arabic Culture (Ed.), Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter 2009. Kritische Religionsphilosophie. In Memoriam Friedrich Niewöhner, Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann & Georges Tamer (Eds.), Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter 2010.