KMP Team

Asma Hilali is an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Lille, France. Dr Hilali has worked in various research centres in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Her main interest is the transmission of religious texts in early and mediaeval Islam. She is the author of The Sanaa Palimpsest: The Transmission of the Qur'an in the First Centuries AH (Oxford University Press, 2020), and her latest publication is the edited volume The Making of Religious Texts in Islam: The Fragment and the Whole (Gerlach, 2017).

Marlen Börngen, MA
Member

Marlen Börngen is an academic associate at the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences (CICS), part of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH Köln), and a PhD student at Universität Hamburg’s Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), where her studies are supported by the Mathilde-von-Mevissen scholarship from TH Köln.  She is a book and paper conservator trained at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart’s programme in the conservation of works of art on paper, archive and library materials. Her research interests include conservation education and the conservation of paper-based modern and contemporary art. She is Assistant Coordinator for the ICOM CC Working Group Graphic Documents.

Davidson MacLaren is research associate for cultural heritage at Universität Hamburg’s Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), Germany. He is a specialist in the care and management of cultural heritage, especially Islamicate manuscripts, who has lived in worked in Turkey and Arab countries for over 20 years. His research interests include cultural property protection and heritage ethics, Arabic-script calligraphy, Ottoman treatises on artists’ materials and tools, Ottoman Sufism, and Islamicate olfactory cultures.

Kristine Rose-Beers, ACR
Member

Kristine Rose-Beers, ACR, is head of conservation at the Chester Beatty in Dublin, Ireland, and an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation (ICON) with over 18 years of experience in manuscript conservation. Her research interests include the conservation of Islamic manuscript material, early binding structures, and the use of pigments and dyes in medieval manuscripts. Recent publications include: ‘Indo-Persian Histories from the Object Out: The St Andrews Qur'an Manuscript between Timurid, Safavid, Mughal, and Deccani Worlds’ in Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Cultures, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700 (Indiana University Press, 2020) and 'Investigating the Palette of the Ruzbihan Qur’an’, in Lapis and Gold: Exploring Chester Beatty’s Ruzbihan Qur’an (Paul Holberton, 2018).

Khaoula Trad is a Post-Doc research associate in the DFG project African Voices in the Islamic Manuscripts from Mali: Documenting and Exploring African Languages Written in Arabic Script (Ajami) at the CSMC. She earned he PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of Hamburg. She worked on Islamic embryology in the Islamic West and now her main focus is on Islamic esoterism and palimpsesting techniques in the West African manuscripts. She is the author of The Concept of Prenatal Life in the Medieval Islamic West The Hermeneutics of Abū Bakr Ibn al-‘Arabī and Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ (Ergon, 2024)

Jonathan Brockopp, professor of history, religious studies, and philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, has worked on the Kairouan collection of manuscripts for over 25 years. A specialist on early Muslim scholarly communities, his most recent publications include ‘MS Chester Beatty 3001 and the apotheosis of Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795)’, JSAI (2020) and Muhammad's Heirs: The Rise of Muslim Scholarly Communities, 622–950 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Prof. Dr Brockopp was director of the KMP from 2018 to 2021.

Walid Saleh is professor of Islamic studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. Saleh is a specialist on the Qur’an and history of its interpretation (tafsir). He is also a specialist on Arabic paleography and manuscripts. Saleh is the author of The Formation of the Classical Tafsīr Tradition: The Qur’ān Commentary of al-Tha‘labī (d. 427/1035) (Brill, 2004) and In Defense of the Bible: A Critical Edition and an Introduction to al-Biqā‘ī’s Bible Treatise (Brill, 2008).

Wes Thiessen lived and worked in Kairouan for 15 years, specializing his academic work on the formation of the Mudawwana of Imam Sahnun. He is currently a family mediator with Resolve Legal Group in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, specializing in cross-cultural conflict, and the pastor of Dalemead Church in Dalemead, Alberta, Canada. He also provides conflict consulting and coaching services through his own private practice, Understanding the Other, and participates actively in interfaith dialogue to more fully understand others with integrity and respect.