Introduction

Just over ten years ago in 2010, the first institutes for Islamic theological studies at public German universities opened their doors to students. In the background, a whole society was awaiting something between complete failure and absolute fulfilment of prevailing high expectations. Scholars of Oriental and Islamic studies both welcomed the establishment of a theological neighbouring discipline and warned against a confessionalisation of research on Islam. The state had high expectations of successfully integrating migrant Muslims into German society, and addressing complex issues such as de-radicalisation. Muslim organisations saw the emerging academic field as an opportunity to make progress on their way to official recognition by the state, on the one hand, while fearing state influence on their religion, on the other. Muslim students had vast expectations and projections about a new academic discipline that teaches their religion. Ten years on, where do Islamic theological studies in Germany stand against these expectations? How did it establish itself as an academic discipline, and what future challenges and prospects await it?

In this chapter, we will first present the backdrop of the establishment and the ideas that led to the science policy decision to introduce departments of Islamic theological studies at public universities. We will argue that this process did not take place in a linear form, but was determined by different actors, different expectations and fears. We will give an insight into the first decade of experience and we will present discussions around and within the discipline, its academic staff, the students, the impact of and on the Muslim community and the relationship to Islamic studies. We will also sketch out how the departments are integrated within the larger university setting vis-à-vis other disciplines that take Islam as an object of study, and how far the assumption of a confessional perspective on Islam is valid in this context. Here, we will argue that a closer look at the practices of knowledge-production at universities shows that boundaries between confessional and non-confessional studies are clearer to define in theory than to find in practice. It is worth looking at the epistemic challenges the canon of an Islamic theological tradition receives from being engaged with an interdisciplinary setting and practical demands.