Rāġib, Māykil Ḥilmiī [Ragheb, Mickel Helmy], aṯ-Ṯīʾuṭūkīyāt al-ḥabašīya (Widdāsī Māryām) fī ḍawʾ ʾaṣlihā al-qibṭī wa-turāṯ at-tarānīm aš-šarqīya al-ʾuḫrā (‘The Abyssinian Theotokia (Widdāsī Māryām) in View of Their Coptic Origin and the Heritage of the Other Oriental Hymns’)

Book review

Exploring the Ethnicity and Social Condition of Muslim Calligraphers: A Short Note on Two Scribes from the Horn of Africa in the Mamlūk Period

Thus far, very little is known of the social origin and position of scribes and calligraphers in the premodern Islamic world. The difficulty in finding data on the biographies and activities of the professional practitioners of calligraphy in historiographical works is probably one of the main causes of this regrettable situation. Taking as a starting point the results of some previous groundbreaking research, the present article gathers scattered information retrieved from different sources about two calligraphers from the Horn of Africa that lived and worked in the Middle East during the Mamlūk period. In the analysis of these two cases, it is hoped that some light will be shed on the presence of calligraphic masters from the Horn in the Arab world from which may be gained, on a more general level, a better picture of the personalities of calligraphers in the Islamic world

Knowledge generation between design, data and theory: Argumentation in design-based research

Design-based research (DBR) is a diversified research genre: The combination of two worlds – that of research and that of education – and the different backgrounds and intentions of those involved entail different emphases, epistemological ideas, ideas on valuable outcomes and normative claims. This becomes visible in very different kinds of reasoning: No uniform structure of argumentation can be discerned, and so far, a differentiation into clear DBR types has not been convincingly achieved. This is a challenge for the orientation of DBR novices, the quality review of DBR studies, and the legitimation of DBR in the field of educational research. This article provides an empirical contribution to the discussion on argumentation: In a literature review, DBR studies are examined regarding their outcomes, the rationales authors use to justify their outcomes and indications for specific challenges in DBR reasoning. The analysis confirms for the sample that preliminary, prescriptive theory is most common alongside diverse practical outcomes. Authors often justify them with emphasis on variation, iteration, cooperation, and data triangulation. Different (standard) orientations, multi-level reasoning, and sub-studies present challenges for authors and readers, going back to the complexity of DBR projects. To justify their results in a comprehensible way, authors are confronted with the task to actively select an argumentation strategy

A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in British Public Collections

As material objects bearing textual and visual information, illustrated Christian manuscripts from the Horn of Africa are among the most valuable sources of data for scholars specializing in this field. This article is the second handlist produced within the framework of the AHRC-DFG project Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in Early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270– 1527). It focuses on illustrated Early Solomonic manuscripts housed in public libraries in the United Kingdom. This is the first time that this body of illuminations has been comprehensively analysed. The resulting work sheds new light on the history of book illustration in Early Solomonic Ethiopia and provides insights into the connected histories of the Christian empire of the Ethiopian-Eritrean highlands and the wider Mediterranean world. Moreover, it showcases the movements of manuscripts and the development of collections of Gǝʿǝz manuscripts in Europe

Research Slices: Core Processes for Effective Iteration in EDeR

Educational Design Research (EDeR) methodologists argue that iteration is a core component of EDeR. Iteration is currently defined as a process of gathering more information through actions, such as testing, and using that information to improve the design. In this paper, we seek to tighten the definition of iteration to help EDeR teams conduct iterations more effectively. We argue that EDeR teams should organize their research in slices that deliver small but real value to end users while informing the design research. EDeR should pick slices that are: (a) minimal and focused, (b) deployed in a real context, (c) valuable to the end users, and (d) informative to the research. Slicing helps EDeR teams increase ecological validity when they test because it allows testing which is within real-world educational contexts or with the stakeholders who will use and be impacted by the design. Increasing ecological validity of testing is particularly important because EDeR projects tackle highly complex real-world problems with many unknown elements and relational complexity—this means it is challenging to predict what designs will have the desired impact without real-world deployment. Effective iteration through organizing research in slices helps EDeR teams to better support stakeholder goals, develop more impactful theory, and have greater and earlier impact upon education

Is this systematic enough? Systematicity and openness in the implementation phase of DBR

Within Design Based Research (DBR), designing and implementing an intervention in order to improve an educational practice become part of the research process. This represents a unique feature of DBR. Though the innovative nature of DBR raises questions that have not yet been answered. This paper focuses on the extent to which systematicity, as principle of scientific research, and openness, as essential prerequisite of teaching practice, can be both fulfilled within the implementation phase of DBR studies. By presenting an investigation in the field of German as a foreign language I will offer an example of the challenges that researchers face regarding the tension between systematicity and openness. Besides the discussion about DBR standards, the aim of this paper is to delineate concrete requirements for the further development of this research approach. Guidelines helping researchers to use DBR appropriately represent an important step which could clarify still controversial aspects of DBR and also lead to an increase in its use. In this paper, I suggest that concepts discussed within the implementation research, like for instance Fidelity of Implementation, can help to develop such guidelines

Theory genesis in the design-based research process – a subject didactic view on theory application, verification and development by using design principles

Der Artikel zielt darauf ab, die Entwicklung von Theorien zu untersuchen, die im Rahmen von Design-based Forschungsprozessen (DBR) in konkrete Designprinzipien umgesetzt werden. Dafür werden aus drei abgeschlossenen Doktorarbeiten der Autor*innen Theorien und Theorieelemente ausgewählt, die sich in Bezug auf Reichweite, Tiefe und empirische Sättigung unterscheiden. Es werden verschiedene Wege der Theoriengenese im Forschungsprozess aufgezeigt (in verschiedenen Phasen des DBR-Zykluses) und es wird ihr Beitrag als theoretischer Output des Forschungsprozesses für den schulischen Kontext und die fachdidaktische Community diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse dieser Analysen münden in der Einführung eines Modells für die Theorieentwicklung in DBR-Projekten.This article intends to provide answers to the overarching question of how theories, which are transferred into concrete design principles, develop in a DBR process. Theories from three completed DBR projects in geography didactics will be examined regarding their genesis in the research process and their function in individual phases of a DBR cycle. The chosen theories differ in scope, depth and empirical saturation. The aim is to analyse the role that these theories take in the DBR research process and to discuss them in terms of their contribution to the output of DBR projects and a possible generalisability of the findings. Finally, the results of the analyses are synthesised into a model for theory genesis in DBR projects

Jeffrey M. Shaw, The Ethiopian–Adal War 1529–1543: The Conquest of Abyssinia

Book review

The Location of the Candace Episode in the Alexander Romance and the Chronicle of John Malalas

The Alexander Romance is vague about Alexander's passage from India to the realm of Candace of Meroë, but seems to suggest it is accomplished swiftly and easily. The earliest versions of the Romance, moreover, indicate there were close relations between Candace's kingdom and India, even that her ancestors once held power over India. If Candace's realm is identified as Ethiopia, this is a perplexing state of affairs. But it seems to have taken on a plausibility with the rise of the kingdom of Aksum. In the De Vita Bragmanorum Palladius depicts Aksum as a province of a vast empire centred on Sri Lanka. But it is John Malalas, in his universal chronicle, who modifies the story of Alexander and Candace to explicitly locate it in Aksum, or the land of the 'Inner Indians', as distinct from both India and Ethiopia. This modification not only made sense of several details in the Alexander Romance, but was also consistent with shifting attitudes toward Ethiopians and Aksumites in Late Antiquity

Knowledge by Design in Education: Epistemological questions revisited

The editorial introduces the special issue Knowledge by Design in Education: Key challenges and experiences from research practice, posing key questions, offering an insight into ongoing discussions, and presenting an overview of the included articles