Event in Arabic language – Thursday, 27 August 2026 at 7 pm
Online Zoom Event: registration link
The German poet Goethe once claimed that names were just ‘sound and smoke’. But this may be the bliss of ignorance of a man adhering to the elite of an imperial culture – because naming is power: parents name a speechless newborn, communities decide on a name for the place they live in, and throughout history victorious powers renamed the places they conquered. A connection is established and a mark is made.
The Palestinian German archaeologist, epigraphist, and historian Dr. Mohammed Maraqten thought much more deeply about this – his book “Sites of Memory in Palestine: The Names of Palestinian Cities and Villages and Their Linguistic and Historical Identity” was published in February 2026 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha and Beirut.
The lecture will introduce the central approach of Maraqten’s book and explore the deep historical roots of Palestinian place names through the concept of the “memory of place,” and address biblical interpretations of place names, policies of erasure and Hebraization of names, and how place names can serve as keys to understanding geography, identity, culture, and historical continuity. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including Egyptian texts, ancient inscriptions, and Ottoman archives, the book traces linguistic layers reflecting a historic continuity in the region.
Speaker
Prof. Mohammed Maraqten
Prof. Mohammed Maraqten is a Palestinian-German epigraphist, archaeologist, and historian specializing in the ancient Near East, particularly the inscriptions of the Arabian Peninsula. He founded and edits Athirat: Journal of Ancient Arabia, published with the Hassan bin Mohammed Center and Brill. Maraqten received his master’s and doctoral degrees in Semitic languages and Ancient Near Eastern languages and cultures from the University of Marburg, Germany, completing his doctoral studies in 1987. He has taught and conducted research at several European universities and academic institutions, including the University of Marburg, Heidelberg University, the University of Münster, and the University of Vienna. He has also served as a scientific research coordinator at Qatar University, as a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, and as a visiting linguist and consultant for “the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language” in Qatar. In addition, he has conducted research at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Corpus Coranicum). He is a member of several international scholarly organizations, including the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft). Maraqten´s most recent work, “Sites of Memory in Palestine: The Names of Palestinian Cities and Villages and Their Linguistic and Historical Identity, was published at the end of February 2026 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha and Beirut.
Commentator
Prof. Muntasir Fayez al Hamad is a professor at Qatar University in Doha and a specialist in Arabic, comparative Semitic linguistics, epigraphy, and Arabic language education. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Semitic Languages from the University of Manchester and studied Semitic languages and epigraphy at Yarmouk University. His research focuses particularly on Nabataean inscriptions, early Arabic, Arabic sociolinguistics, dialectology, cultural communication, and the linguistic interaction between Nabataean and Arabic.
Moderator
Dr. Amany Alsiefy (Ibn Rushd Fund)
We warmly invite scholars, researchers, students, and everyone interested in Palestinian history, language, archaeology, and cultural heritage to join this special intellectual evening.
Online Event in Arabic – Thursday, 27 August 2026 at 7 pm
To attend, please register using the following link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89120675346?pwd=BrobHV8X1uYRdxVpXSpaYRzmHKH4Sm.1