Prof. David Hamidovic
About
david.hamidovic@unil.ch
David Hamidovic is a Full Professor at the University of Lausanne, holding the chair in Jewish Apocryphal Literature and the History of Judaism in Antiquity.
He earned his PhD from the Sorbonne and is a recognized expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the literature of the Second Temple period.
His research explores the religious and literary developments of ancient Judaism, focusing on how apocryphal and pseudepigraphical texts reflect the shifting theological landscapes of the time.
Hamidovic’s work provides essential context for the diversity of thought that characterized Judaism in the centuries surrounding the common era.
Lecture Abstract:
The presence of Jews and Jewish communities in the Arabian Peninsula during Antiquity, before the rise of Islam, is well established by epigraphy and, to a lesser extent, by archaeology. The southern Arabian Peninsula, particularly the Himyar and Kinda regions in southern Yemen, appears to have been a centre of Jewish life, according to inscriptions. In this context, it is surprising not to find any trace of Jews further east, in the Dhofar region, whose maritime trade with other parts of the Indian Ocean is well documented, or in the Muscat region further north, also known for its maritime trade with the Persian and Indian worlds. This study proposes to address this gap in two ways: first, by examining the onomastics of several sites in Oman, and second, by analysing the specific contextual features of the ethnic designation "Jews" in the Arabian Peninsula during the Late Antique and Medieval periods. This term tends to be synonymous with the designation of "Christians".