Since September 2015 Prof. Dr. Thomas Eich from the Asian-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg will examine together with his team, how the ideas of prenatal life in Islamic history have developed over 1400 years of Islamic history. The aim of the Project, funded with a Consolidator Grant for the duration of five years by the European Research Council (ERC) is to show in an overall view, which factors have influenced and possibly also changed these ideas at different times.

The history of ideas about the prenatal human life in Islam is still largely unexplored so far. However, in contemporary bioethical debates of Islamic jurisprudence these ideas constantly play an important role, e.g. with respect to abortion, genetic research or reproductive medicine.

Over the centuries, a comment on the Koran and on literature collected sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (called hadiths) has developed. They both continue to develop further until today. In both passages ideas about prenatal life can be found. The commentary literature provides insights how e.g. legal issues, theological discussions or medical knowledge originating from a respective time can associated with the individual passages from the Qur'an and Hadith.

Under COBHUNI these commentaries will be systematically examined and evaluated.

Read more about the COBHUNI Project:

• Project Summary
• COBHUNI Approach
• Stages & Fields of Inquiry
• How will COBHUNI proceed?
• COBHUNI Project Phases

The European Research Council ERC

The European Research Council supports frontier research, cross disciplinary proposals and pioneering ideas in new and emerging fields which introduce unconventional and innovative approaches. The ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of scientific excellence.

The ERC consists of an independent Scientific Council, responsible for scientific strategy, and an administrative arm, the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA).

ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support researchers at the stage at which they are consolidating their own independent research team or programme. The scheme will strengthen independent and excellent new individual research teams that have been recently created.

Read more about the fundings of the European Research Council.