PURPOSE (23/3)

The Applied Digital Islamicate Studies Educational Program aims to establish a connection between academic research in the field of theology and the methods of digital humanities. The influence of digitization processes on the social sciences has given rise to a set of new research methods known as Digital Humanities (DH). Mapping information through geographic information systems, reinterpreting social relationships through network analyses, and conducting text analyses based on quantitative methods contribute to providing a new perspective to the social sciences. These methods also allow for a reinterpretation of the methodologies within this broad field. The adaptation of these research methods to Islamic literature has been on the academic agenda for the past two decades. Progress is being made towards the establishment of an independent field of study known as "Islamicate Digital Humanities" through various comprehensive projects, notably including OpenITI, Kitab, and Sharia, on an international scale. These projects, utilizing methods from computational social sciences, involve the compilation and coding of Islamic literature (OpenITI Corpus), the analysis of the measurable transformation of knowledge transfer within classical texts (KITAB project), visualization, and the open-access publication of datasets through extensive interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to projects focusing on fundamental areas of theology such as jurisprudence (Sharia Project), hadith, and Quranic studies (Linked Open Tafsir), there are numerous studies encompassing Arabic language research enriched with NLP technologies (e.g., CAMel-LAb). These projects also extend to research related to the history of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Detailed information about these projects can be found in Saraçoğlu (2022). Computational processes carried out with various coding languages and artificial intelligence tools, as well as services like automatic transcription, contribute to reducing the academic workload for those working in the field of theology. Additionally, they offer the opportunity for collaboration with academics employing different research methods. The use of these technologies allows for the swift completion of research that would traditionally take years through coding assistance, and the analysis of large datasets leads to the emergence of new results, providing a fresh perspective to theological studies.

Digital Humanities (DH) studies in Turkey have been ongoing for a considerable period. In this field, collaborative efforts have been established with the Marmara University Digital Humanities Research Center, giving the field an institutional identity. There are limited but significant publications and projects representing theology faculties in this emerging field, which closely concerns faculties of theology and Islamic studies. It is noteworthy that these endeavors have not yet been fully incorporated into the curricula of theology faculties at the postgraduate level.

Books:

Recep Şentürk. "Toplumsal Hafıza Hadis Rivayet Ağı, 610-1505, translate. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, İstanbul, Gelenek Yay., 2004.

This work, focusing on social network analyses, is the Turkish translation of Recep Şentürk's doctoral thesis titled "Narrative Social Structure: Anatomy of the Hadith Transmission Network, CE 610-1505," prepared at Columbia University in 1998. The thesis examines the hadith transmission networks in the context of sociological paradigms.

Mehmet Apaydın's work "Siyer Kronolojisi" (Chronology of the Biography of the Prophet) was published by Kuramer in 2018.

In this work, Associate Dr. Mehmet Apaydın utilizes his developed Kuramer program to code and analyze classical texts based on narration. The book also includes discussions on the usage of Kuramer-Pro in education.

Theses/Published Theses:

Apaydın, Mehmet. Hadislerin Tespitinde Bütünsel Yaklaşım. İstanbul: Kuramer, 2018.

The work is a creation of the underlying structure of the Kuramer program, based on the author's doctoral thesis.

Aydemir, Halis. Rivayetlerin Olasılığı Teorisi Işığında Nâfî‘ Mevlâ İbn Ömer. Bursa: Emin Yayınları, 2008.

It is a study based on the doctoral thesis prepared by Prof. Dr. Halis Aydemir, which focuses on the probability of narratives developed through numerical analyses named after the structure of attribution and the reliability status of narrators.

Saraçoğlu, Tuba Nur, Siyerde İsnâd (İbn Sa‘d’ın Rivayet Ağları), Bursa: Uludağ Üniv., SBE, 2023.

It is a doctoral thesis where the project leader utilizes social network analyses to identify the main routes and narrators of siyer narratives.

Articles:

Abay, Muhammet, “Tefsir Tarihi İçin Bir Veritabanı Modeli”, Sakarya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 15 (2007), 33-54.
Abay, Muhammet, “Yeni Bir Tabakâtü’l-Müfessirîn Denemesi”, Tarihten Günümüze Kur’an İlimleri ve Tefsir Usûlü, 275-288. Ankara: İlim Yayma Vakfı Kur’an ve Tefsir Akademisi, 2009.
Abay, Muhammet, “Tefsir Tarihi Yazımı ve Bilişim Teknolojileri”, Tefsir Tarihi Yazımı Sempozyumu Kayseri 23-24 Ekim 2014, 357-378. Ankara: Araştırma Yayınları, 2015.

Abay’ın çalışmaları tefsir alanında dijital metin kodlama yöntemlerinin kullanılmasını teklif eden ilk metinlerdir.

Kurt, İsmail. “Ricâl Tenkit Araştırmalarının Dijital Kaynakları: İnternet Siteleri”. Tevilat: Selçuk Üniversitesi İslami İlimler Fakültesi Dergisi II/1 (2021), 89-105.

It is an article that addresses the digital databases used in the field of Hadith.

Yılmaz, Rahile Kızılkaya- Haksever Elif. “Dijitalleşmenin Hadis Çalışmalarına Katkısı”. Modern Dönemde Hadis ve Babanzâde Ahmed Naîm. Ed. İbrahim Özcoşar, Ali Karakaş, Fikret Özçelik, Üsame Bozkurt. 349-364. İstanbul: Divan, 2022.

The study examines and critiques the methods of digital humanities applied in the field of Hadith.

Tombul, Sema. “Veri Madenciliği Tekniklerinin ve Algoritmik Araştırmaların Hadis İlmine Uygulanabilirliği”, Eskiyeni, 44 (2021), 461-474.

It is a study that evaluates various applications developed by engineering researchers in the field of Hadith from the perspective of Hadith methodology.

Saraçoğlu, Tuba Nur, “Dijital Beşerî Bilimler Bağlamında İlahiyat/İslâmî İlimler”, İslam Tetkikleri Dergisi, 12/2 (2022), 845-891.

It is an article written by the project leader, aiming to serve as a guide for digital theology research. The article extensively explores the processes and research methods of Digital Humanities (DBB), discussing their contribution to the field with examples related to Islamic sciences.

Projects:

“2./8. Asır Hadis Halkalarının İnşası”, Destekleyen: TÜBİTAK, Yürütücü: Doç. Dr. M. Enes Topgül, (devam ediyor).

Initiated in October 2021, this is the first TÜBİTAK-supported project in the field of theology based on Digital Humanities (DH) analyses. The project focuses on transforming scattered and closed information presented in sources into datasets, aiming to identify knowledge circles in the 2nd to 8th centuries and reveal the temporal differences of the Ahl al-Hadith (People of Hadith) based on knowledge centers. The project involves comprehensive analyses that will highlight the importance of each city in terms of hadith history within its specific context and enable the construction of a comprehensive hadith history concerning the relationships between cities. With the completion of the stage of converting classical texts into data, the project's coordinator will incorporate a course covering data preparation experiences within this educational framework.

“Osmanlı Dönemi Fetva Mecmualarının Karşılaştırılmasında Yapay Zekâ Yöntemlerinin Kullanılması”, Destekleyen, TÜBİTAK, Yürütücü: Arş. Gör. Dr. Ahmet Faruk Çelik (devam ediyor).

As of June 2022, the project has received approval for TÜBİTAK-supported text analysis. The project aims to develop an artificial intelligence program that allows for the comparison of the fatwas of Minkârizâde Yahya Efendi, a sheikh al-Islam from the 17th century, with the fatwas of other sheikhs al-Islam. Through these comparisons, the project aims to question the similarity rates of fatwa compilations that, at first glance, show commonalities due to their structural elements.

“Selçuklular’dan Osmanlılar’a Dımaşk’ta Eğitim Kurumları Tipolojileri: Nuaymî’nin Medrese Tarihi (1079-1516)”, Destekleyen: TÜBİTAK, Yürütücü: Doç. Dr. Harun Yılmaz, (devam ediyor).

As of June 2022, this is a TÜBİTAK-supported project. Focused on Nuaymi's (d. 927/1521) work "ed-Dâris fî târihi’l-medâris," the project aims to spatialize foundation-based educational institutions established in Damascus during the 11th to 16th centuries. It seeks to identify their structural features, operational mechanisms, and areas of influence, as well as examining the factors influencing their establishment and dissemination processes. The project not only creates an inventory of foundation-based educational institutions but also generates typologies to understand the transformations of pre-modern Damascus educational institutions over time through the synthesis of this information. By going beyond singular, limited examinations of institutional structures, this project offers significant contributions to Islamic historiography by adopting a relational approach to the circulation of knowledge. Moreover, it stands out as the first project in Islamic history based on GIS analyses, paving the way for subsequent projects in this field.

“Klasik Dönem İslâm Dünyasında Bilginin Yayılımı: Rihleler”, Destekleyen: TÜBİTAK, Yürütücü: Prof. Dr. Bekir Kuzudişli, (devam ediyor).

The project, accepted in July 2023, aims to examine the history of Islamic culture, particularly the activities of hadith transmission, based on the travel accounts of scholars. In this collaborative project involving researchers from different disciplines, information scattered in texts related to travels, primarily classical biographical works, is being processed into a database. Various essential issues in the field of hadith, such as the criticism of narrators (rijal), the influence of travel accounts in attribution (isnad), regional studies related to travel routes, scholarly relationships, the circulation of writing materials, and the process of authorship, are being consolidated. Within the scope of the project, text analyses, GIS, and social network analysis methods will be employed. After expert academics conduct data analyses and visualizations, the role of travel accounts in early knowledge transmission will be thoroughly examined within the framework of the mentioned topics.

The effort of a researcher in the field of theology to learn these methods appears to be limited to accessing content that appeals to a general audience on some open-access educational platforms. The adaptation of DH methods to the research methods of each sub-discipline of theology, each with its unique text types, text structure, methodology, and history, requires a specific effort. The Applied Digital Islamic Studies Training Program aims to establish a relationship primarily between researchers interested in this field and academics actively involved in current research in the field. It intends to facilitate knowledge transfer, establish a collaborative working environment, and provide assistance to those interested in this area.

For this reason, the project has formed an instructional team consisting of academics recognized for their work in the digital infrastructure in the field, including artificial intelligence (Prof. Dr. Hasan Güçlü, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Celal Şenol, Dr. M. Taha Koçyiğit). The team also includes academics from the history and theology fields who have used DBB methods in their doctoral studies and research projects, such as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yunus Uğur, Dr. Mehmet Apaydın, and Research Assistant Dr. Tuba Nur Saraçoğlu, as well as academics involved in current projects using these methods as project leaders or researchers, such as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Enes Topgül and Research Assistant Sefer Korkmaz. The establishment of such a team aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions within the project.

Professor Dr. Hasan Güçlü (Biostatistics): With extensive experience in network analyses and the use of Pajek in medical research, which is one of the many applications of network analysis, Professor Güçlü has a background in biostatistics, providing education, conducting research, and publishing in this field. He also has unpublished works on network analyses related to Islamic literature and narrative networks. Within the scope of the project, he will deliver training on social network analyses, Pajek applications, and an introductory course on artificial intelligence, a field closely related to his expertise.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yunus Uğur (History/DH): A prominent figure in the field of Ottoman history and a leading name in DH in Turkey, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yunus Uğur has initiated the first studies and projects related to DH in Turkey. With his contributions to education programs and publications, he has played a pioneering role in representing DH studies institutionally. Within the scope of the project, he will deliver a course on the basics of Digital Humanities (DH).

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Enes Topgül (Hadith): With his project in the field of Hadith, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Enes Topgül has made one of the earliest attempts to use DH methods within Ilahiyat faculties. Having extensive experience in the process of converting classical texts into data, he will teach a course within the educational program focusing on the adaptation of theological principles to DH methods.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Celal Şenol (Geography): Specializing in geography and having projects, education, and publications based on GIS analyses and the use of ArcGIS in the Geography department, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Celal Şenol will provide training on ArcGIS applications focusing on Islamic history data within the module dedicated to GIS in the project.

Dr. Mehmet Apaydın (Hadith): Engaging in research using digital methods in the field of Hadith, Dr. Mehmet Apaydın is one of the first academics to bring text analyses into the digital realm with his developed program Kuramer. The new version of Kuramer, the first text coding program for classical Islamic literature, will be introduced and used in the Text Analyses module within this training program.

Dr. M. Taha Koçyiğit (Artificial Intelligence): With expertise in computer engineering, physics, and artificial intelligence, Dr. M. Taha Koçyiğit completed his Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh. He is among the creators of IsarGPT, an artificial intelligence infrastructure used for the analysis of Islamic texts. Within the project, Koçyiğit will provide training in a module dedicated to the applications of large language model-based tools in the analysis of Islamic texts.

Research Assistant Dr. Tuba Nur Saraçoğlu (Islamic History): As the project coordinator with a Ph.D. thesis that utilizes network analyses in Islamic history and having worked on DBB methods for an extended period, Dr. Tuba Nur Saraçoğlu will provide an introductory course in the educational program. The course will cover the field definition of digital theology research, practical examples, issues, possibilities, and the adaptation of DBB methods to the field of theology.

Research Assistant Sefer Korkmaz (Islamic Law): Having worked as a researcher on the significant KITAB project, one of the most important digital Islamicate studies abroad, Korkmaz will lead the Text Analyses module within the educational program. In this module, he will discuss the contribution of text analysis methods used in the KITAB project to theological research and guide participants in utilizing these methods.

The Applied Digital Theology Research Training aims to fulfill a crucial need in spreading discussions within a broad researcher community, establishing an infrastructure for the field, and forming a researcher network that will nourish future projects. The training intends to take the initial steps towards creating a network that will contribute to future projects and studies using these new research methods. It aims to initiate educational activities required for theology studies, facilitate participants' adaptation to new methods by learning applications such as ArcGIS, Pajek, Kuramer, ChatGPT for spatial, network, and text analysis, and foster a collaborative environment for academics from various disciplines. The broader impact includes bringing DBB methods to the agenda of theology faculties and paving the way for interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, to ensure continuous communication throughout the project and beyond, an active Slack account will be set up. Encouraging participants to directly publish their individual or group works during or after the project, or provide links to relevant publications on the project website under the "Project Outputs" section, is also among the common objectives. Furthermore, organizing training activities with different content in subsequent periods and prioritizing participants in subsequent training sessions are planned.