Albrecht Hermann Hofheinz

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2026). Good Enough to Read? Dirty OCR, Large Language Models, and Arabic Manuscript Triage. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 26(1), s. 55–82. doi: 10.5617/jais.13616. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article proposes a pragmatic workflow for accelerating access to and analy-sis of large Ara-bic manuscript collections. Faced with the immense volume of historical texts and the inherent challenges of traditional approaches to hand-written text recognition (HTR), the proposed meth-od combines off-the-shelf, cloud-based Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with large lan-guage models (LLMs). Despite the imperfect output often produced by Arabic HTR, this research demonstrates that LLMs can effectively derive meaningful summaries and key insights, enabling rapid triage for scholars. The workflow significantly enhances research efficiency by allowing for the swift identification of valuable documents, thereby freeing human expertise for in-depth analysis. While this approach holds particular importance for endangered archives, such as those in the Sudan, the paper points to its broader potential: manuscript scholars mastering AI tools not to replace but to support and enhance human understanding.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2025). Arabic Media Coverage of Climate Change and the Green Shift: A Social Media Perspective. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 25(1), s. 19–55. doi: 10.5617/jais.12438. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article analyses Arabic media coverage of climate change and the energy transition during COP26 through a systematic study of social media engagement with news articles. In a novel methodological approach, the research uses BuzzSumo data to identify the most shared Arabic content, combining quantitative social media engagement metrics with qualitative content anal-ysis and computational topic modelling. The analysis reveals a distinct narrative emphasising economic opportunities in renewable energy, particularly green hydrogen, while simultaneously supporting continued fossil resource exploitation. Popular coverage frames renewables primari-ly as future export commodities that could replace oil and gas, rather than as necessary tools for combating climate change. This suggests a strategy aimed at maintaining existing political and economic rentier systems rather than risking (or opening for) fundamental structural change. Arabic media coverage thus reflects entrenched policy priorities that seek to preserve stability while positioning the region as a future leader in renewable energy exports.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2025). Beja. The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. ISSN 1873-9830. doi: 10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24008. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2024). من فكي إلي دكتور: تغیر اتجاھات المثقفین السودانیین في الأریاف تجاه التقاليد. I الهاشمي, بدر الدين حامد (Red.), السودان بعيون غربية. ج ١٤. باركود. ISSN 9781861640406. s. 95–108. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2023). al-Majādhīb. I Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Dennis; Nawas, John & Rowson, Everett (Red.), Encyclopaedia of Islam - Three 2023-4. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004533639. s. 50–53. doi: 10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_36045. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Majādhīb, one of the six leading “holy families” (Holt) amongst the Jaʿaliyyūn of northern Sudan, exemplified the rise to power of Islamic religious leaders there in the twelfth/eighteenth century and of the subsequent strengthening of Islam as a frame of reference for organising public and private life.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2022). Diqna, ʾUthmān. I Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett & Allen, Roger (Red.), The encyclopaedia of Islam three [70] = 2022,5. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004464629. s. 22–26. doi: 10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_25578. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  ʾUthmān b. Abī Bakr Diqna (b. c.1840, d. 8 December 1926; Secretary of State, 89), commander of the Mahdist armies in eastern Sudan, was amongst the Mahdist state’s most capable military leaders (the Sudanese Mahdiyya was a religious and political movement launched in 1881 by Muḥammad Aḥmad b. Abdallāh, d. 1885, later known as the Mahdī, against the Khedivate of Egypt, which had ruled Sudan since 1821; in 1885, the Mahdists established their own government, which, from its capital in Omdurman, controlled the Sudanese territories until it was brought down by the Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1898).

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2022). A Flame of Learning in the Winds of Change: Notes on the History of the Majādhīb of al-Qaḍārif. I Delong-Bas, Natana J. (Red.), Islam, Revival, & Reform: Redefining Tradition for the Twenty-First Century. Essays Inspired by John O. Voll. Syracuse University Press. ISSN 9780815637509. s. 84–138. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv2fwfzp9.7. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Rooted in the world historical methodology of John O. Voll, this collection brings together a diverse group of scholars to investigate the ongoing impact of revival and reform movements beginning in the eighteenth century and continuing through to the present. Ranging from the MENA region to Africa, India, and China, and covering a variety of religious interpretations, from scripturalist to Sufism, these essays offer new perspectives on movements including the Wahhabis of Arabia, the Sokoto Caliphate, the neo-Sufism of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, Sufi scholars and networks on the African continent, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Contributors explore encounters between Islamic revival and reform and modernity with a focus on the ways in which Islamic reforms influence the political sphere. Concluding with contemporary reinterpretations of Islam in the digital arena, this volume examines, but also moves beyond, texts to include embodiments of religious practice, the development of religious culture and education, and attention to women’s contributions to education, cultural production, and community building.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann & Guth, Stephan (2021). Introduction [to themed section "In 2016: How it felt to live in the Arab World 5 years after the 'Arab Spring'"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 5–20. doi: 10.5617/jais.9481. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Theoretical background, methodological considertations, and project history.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Mobile Phones [an array of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 186–195. doi: 10.5617/jais.9517. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  An array of Egyptian and Tunisian lifeworlds in 2016.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Male vs. Female [a code of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 316–335. doi: 10.5617/jais.9542. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  A cluster of arrays “provid[ing] principles of order within the unstructured simultaneity of everyday-worlds”* in Egypt and Tunisia in 2016, forming part of the two countries’ “culture” during the In 2016 project’s target year. *H. U. Gumbrecht, In 1926: Living at the Edge of Time (1997), 443.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Young vs. Settled [a code of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 370–375. doi: 10.5617/jais.9549. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  A cluster of arrays “provid[ing] principles of order within the unstructured simultaneity of everyday-worlds”* in Egypt and Tunisia in 2016, forming part of the two countries’ “culture” during the In 2016 project’s target year. *H. U. Gumbrecht, In 1926: Living at the Edge of Time (1997), 443.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Social Media [an array "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 248–255. doi: 10.5617/jais.9526. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  An array of Egyptian and Tunisian lifeworlds in 2016.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Red Sea Islands [an array of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 232–239. doi: 10.5617/jais.9524. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  An array of Egyptian lifeworlds in 2016.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2021). Celebrities [an array of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"), s. 35–39. doi: 10.5617/jais.9486. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  An array of Egyptian and Tunisian lifeworlds in 2016.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2019). Rāqī bi-akhlāqī. The Moral Turn: from Sufi Sheikhs to Facebook Groups? I Mayeur-Jaouen, Catherine (Red.), Adab and Modernity: A “Civilising Process”? (Sixteenth-Twenty-First Century). De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004415997. s. 620–650. doi: 10.1163/9789004415997_023. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter aims to pose a question and state a hypothesis rather than to come up with a conclusive answer. I wish to draw attention to some interesting parallels that may be observed when comparing a number of core features of early modern Muslim reform movements to the structural impact of present-day internet use in the Muslim world. The significance of these parallelswhether they are coincidental, or indicative of a trajectory—needs to be discussed using further evidence and examples from different contexts than what I can provide in this chapter. My aim here is primarily to outline these parallels, in order to ask whether it is possible to speak of a “moral turn” as part of a dynamic that changed the Muslim world profoundly over the past two to three centuries. This dynamic, I hypothesise, led to expanding practical responsibility for moral control of behaviour, in principle, to every individual in the “crowd” of believers, eroding the hierarchy of religious specialists. Idealtypically, one might say that the divide between al-khāṣṣa (the learned elite) and al-ʿāmma (the masses of commoners) was abolished; the ʿāmma obtained the same rights as the khāṣṣa. This must of course not be over-stated or misinterpreted as a dissolution of religious authority; nevertheless, it seems indicative that the use of the khāṣṣa/ʿāmma-divide has fallen out of favour in the period under consideration. The dynamic I seek to identify here may be compared to processes often associated with “modernisation,” and may thus be an element in a much larger investigation of the roots of “modernity” in the Muslim world.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2018). The Islamic Eighteenth Century: A View from the Edge. I Zemmin, Florian; Stephan, Johannes & Corrado, Monica (Red.), Islam in der Moderne, Moderne im Islam: Eine Festschrift für Reinhard Schulze zum 65. Geburtstag. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004364035. s. 234–253. doi: 10.1163/9789004364042_012. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter acknowledges the pioneering work of Reinhard Schulze in suggesting that the eighteenth century in the Islamic world may have witnessed significant-enough epistemological and social change to justify regarding it as a turning point. It argues that extant studies on Early Modernity in Islamdom should be supplemented by a broader look at dynamics on the ‘periphery’ of the established urban centres of Islamic learning and culture. In Sub-Saharan Africa, an unprecedented explosion of writing activity can be dated to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. It was largely due to the activities of movements of ‘inner mission’ that aimed at spreading Islamic knowledge and responsible Islamic practice beyond the traditional confines of the urban-based scholar-jurists. The carriers of these movements were to a large part standing in the tradition of the Sufi orders. Their audience was mainly people at the boundaries of the traditional urban sphere. Both pietist preaching and puritan politics helped to break the hegemony of scholastic scholars over defining “Islam” and dilute the concomitant divide between the elite (al-khāṣṣa) and the commoners (al-ʿāmma). This development may be seen as an important factor in the rise of the individual in the Islamic world.

• Guth, Stephan; Chiti, Elena & Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Arrays of Egyptian and Tunisian Everyday-Worlds: An update on the project "In 2016—How it felt to live in the Arab World five years after the 'Arab Spring'”. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 17, s. 455–508. doi: 10.5617/jais.6130. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Broken Walls: Challenges to Patriarchal Authority in the Eyes of Sudanese Social Media Actors. Die Welt des Islams: International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam. ISSN 0043-2539. 57(3-4), s. 278–302. doi: 10.1163/15700607-05734p02. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article presents and discusses voices of active social media users from the urban Sudan on the social impact of internet and mobile communication, with a focus on changes in individuals’ attitudes to established patriarchal norms, in particular regard- ing relations between the sexes, and between young people and their parents’ genera- tion. The picture that emerges from interviews and online sources is that of young people often impatient with the pace of change in their society, while at the same time professing that the new technologies have enabled them, in their own lives, to break established norms, to expand the realm of their private sphere, and to assert their own voice. Such sociocultural change risks going unnoticed if one focuses mainly on the political side of the Arab Spring; it may, however, be as important as regime change to the understanding of current dynamics in the Arab world.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Baby Milk. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 17, s. 466–469. doi: 10.5617/jais.6133. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The article was first published by the JAIS. http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/forskning/publikasjoner/tidsskrifter/jais/

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2017). Baby Milk [an array of "In 2016"]. Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 21(Themed section "In 2016"). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Guth, Stephan & Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Introduction: From "Issues" to "Arrays". Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 17, s. 457–462. doi: 10.5617/jais.6131. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). #Sisi_vs_Youth, or: Who Has a Voice in Egypt? Journal of Arabic and Islamic studies. 16, s. 327–348. doi: 10.5617/jais.4755. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article presents voices from Egypt reflecting on the question of who has the right to have a voice in the country in the first half of 2016. In the spirit of the research project “In 2016,” it aims to offer a snapshot of how it “felt to live” in Egypt in 2016 as a member of the young generation (al-shabāb) who actively use social media and who position themselves critically towards the state’s official discourse. While the state propagated a strategy focusing on educating and guiding young people towards becoming productive members of a nation united under one leader, popular youth voices on the internet used music and satire to claim their right to resist a retrograde patrimonial system that threatens every opposing voice with extinction. On both sides, a strongly antagonistic ‘you vs. us’ rhetoric is evident.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Soziale Medien im Arabischen Frühling. I Schneiders, Thorsten Gerald (Red.), Der arabische Frühling: Hintergründe und Analysen. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. ISSN 9783658011734. s. 117–125. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-01174-1_7. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Welche Rolle spielten die „Sozialen Medien“ im Arabischen Frühling (2010 – 11)? Waren sie ausschlaggebend für die „arabischen Revolutionen“ (wie die Ereignisse seit dem Sturz des tunesischen Präsidenten in der arabischen Welt meist genannt werden)? Oder waren Facebook, Twitter und YouTube „nur“ Werkzeuge in der Hand von Revolutionären, die sich einfach zeitgemäßer Mittel bedienten?

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Internet. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 216–217. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0. International Journal of Communication. 5, s. 1417–1434. doi: 10.1163/22138617-09101005. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Research on the impact of the Internet in the Middle East has been dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the hope for ‘revolutionary’ change and the admission that regime stability in the region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with the new and with the latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term sociocultural developments. This contribution is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study more seriously the social and cultural effects of internet and mobile phone use; to find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and how these dynamics are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0. Oriente Moderno. ISSN 0030-5472. N.S. 91, s. 23-39–23-39. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Research on the impact of the internet in the Middle East has been dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the hope for “revolutionary” change and the admission that regime stability in the region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with the new and with latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term sociocultural developments. This contribution is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study more seriously the social and cultural effects of Internet and mobile phone use; to find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and to determine how these dynamics are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2010). The elusive quest for revolution: What about the ‘next generation’? I Sudweeks, Fay; Hrachovec, Herbert & Ess, Charles (Red.), Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication 2010. School of Information Technology, Murdoch University. ISSN 9780869059661. s. 187–197. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Research on the impact of the Internet in the Middle East has been dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the hope for ̳revolutionary‘ change and the admission that regime stability in the region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with the new and with the latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term socio-cultural developments. This paper is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study more seriously the social and cultural effects of Internet and mobile phone use; to find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and how these dynamics are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2010). A history of Allah.com. I Brügger, Niels (Red.), Web History. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISSN 9781433104688. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In chapter 4, "A history of Allah.com", Albrecht Hofheinz analyzes the development of the website Allah.com and related websites which for some time presented themselves as being the 'official site' of an Islamic religious brotherhood in the mystical tradition, the Sudanese Sammaniyya. The website Allah.com turns out to be the work of an Egyptian Muslim emigrated to the United States who uses it to promote his own mission, his own understanding of Islam. Hofheinz argue that Allah.com is an example of how the web furthers an ever growing assertiveness among modern Muslims to construct their 'own' Islam, to assume authority to speak out and represent this Islam to the whole world, and to assume personal responsibility for spreading this understanding to a generalized audience - 'everyone'.

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• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2024). نار العلم في مهب رياح التغيير: نبذة عن تاريخ مجاذيب القضارف. دار المصورات / Cambridge Academic Press. ISBN 9781861640918. 92 s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  يتناول الكتاب دور العلماء المحليين في الحفاظ على التراث الإسلامي في السودان، متخذاً من عائلة المجاذيب في الدامر مثالاً. لقد واجهت هذه العائلة تحديات كبيرة، من بينها الغزو التركي المصري، وصعود المهدية، والاستعمار البريطاني. رغم هذه التحديات، تمكن المجاذيب من الحفاظ على مكانتهم الدينية والاجتماعية، والمساهمة في تشكيل الهوية الإسلامية في السودان. يركز الكتاب على المجاذيب الذين استوطنوا في التاكا في شرق السودان بعد الغزو التركي، ودورهم في الحفاظ على المعرفة الدينية، وتدريس العلوم الشرعية، وتقديم الخدمات المجتمعية. كما يسلط الضوء على أهمية دراسة التاريخ الإقليمي لفهم التنوع الثقافي والديني في السودان. ويضم الكتاب صور عدة مخطوطات من تراث العائلة بنصها المحرر. إن قصة المجاذيب هي قصة صراع بين التغيير والثبات، بين الحداثة والتراث. وهي قصة تذكرنا بأهمية الحفاظ على الجذور التاريخية، وأثر العلماء المحليين في تشكيل المجتمعات.

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• Madore, Frédérick; Hiribarren, Vincent; Błoch, Agata; Hofheinz, Albrecht; Harris, Ashleigh & Ndione, Augustin [Vis alle 24 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2026). For Whom and For What Purpose? A Position Paper on Digital Humanities and AI in African Studies. doi: 10.58144/20260827-000. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  African Studies scholars have been involved in Digital Humanities (DH) projects since the 2000s. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), have expanded the possibilities for textual analysis and archival research, but implementation raises difficult questions: who controls access, whose data trains these systems without consent, whose languages remain underserved, and who bears the labour and environmental costs. This position paper is the collective work of a Volkswagen Foundation-funded scoping workshop in Hanover, Germany, in February 2026, with twenty-six scholars from sixteen countries. Across four working groups – language technologies; archives and visual heritage; infrastructure, governance, and access; and epistemologies, decoloniality, and ethics – one question recurred: for whom and for what purpose is this work undertaken? Ownership and sovereignty, access, sustainability, and standardisation emerged as transversal problems, which we set in dialogue with critiques of data colonialism and extractivism. We propose situated practices: licensing that conditions openness on return to source communities; digitisation agreements as living documents; ontologies built collaboratively; design grounded in access, governance, and sovereignty; and ethics treated as a process rather than a deliverable. Many of the problems we examine are common across DH and AI: consent, standardisation that erases variation, algorithmic bias, hidden labour, and the funding of innovation over maintenance. African contexts make them sharper and more visible, and Africa-based practice has produced concrete responses. We therefore argue that African epistemologies and decolonial critique belong at the centre of both fields, and that African scholars, practitioners, and institutions belong where these technologies are designed and governed.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2025). From Sudan to UNESCO: Leveraging ATR and AI to Analyze the Hofheinz Manuscript Collection. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This presentation gives an update on ongoing work applying automatic text recognition (ATR) and artificial intelligence to analyse the Hofheinz Collection, a unique corpus of over 600 manuscript pages from 18th-20th century Sudan deposited with the Bergen Sudan Collection. This work is an important step in preparing the nomination of the collection for the UNESCO World Heritage List. Beyond that, this particular case is used to demonstrate that even imperfect ATR output can effectively support AI-powered content analysis and summarisation, significantly reducing the time needed to identify relevant materials for in-depth textual scholarship. This methodology proves particularly valuable for processing large Arabic manuscript collections given the constraints of limited human resources and the time-consuming nature of traditional ATR pre-training.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2025). Syrias historie i fem tusen år: Fra sivilisasjonens vugge til Den arabiske våren. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2025). AI-Powered Analysis of Arabic Manuscripts: Accelerating Access to Sudan’s Endangered Archives. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This paper explores the potential of utilizing “imperfect” Automatic Text Recognition (ATR) as a springboard for AI-powered analysis of Arabic manuscripts. Achieving perfect ATR remains challenging for complex historical documents like Arabic manuscripts. Taking a philological-historical lens rather than a purely engineering one, the paper argues that imperfect ATR output, despite containing errors, can be leveraged for AI-powered content analysis and summarization, thus facilitating the identification of priority materials for further human study. By reducing the time and effort required to identify material that warrants more detailed examination, this approach can free resources for in-depth textual scholarship. To validate this hypothesis, documents previously studied by the author through conventional approaches will be subjected to AI-assisted analysis based on imperfect ATR, comparing the effectiveness of this method with the ‘ground truth’ of traditional scholarly examination. The methodology involves a case study focusing on material from the ‘Hofheinz Collection’ (University of Bergen), a unique corpus of over 600 manuscript pages from the Sudan (18th-20th c.) photographed by the author. Comparative data from Yemeni manuscripts (19th-20th centuries) held at the Italian Foreign Ministry and previously catalogued by the author will also be considered. The study will (1) assess the relative accuracy of using ATR tools (such as Transkribus, OCR4all, OCR-D, and daiR) in an only partially supervised setting for transcribing these documents; and (2) investigate how well AI-assisted analysis can detect noteworthy passages within the resultant data. The study serves as a proof of concept aiming to expedite the exploration of large Arabic manuscript corpora. This is particularly relevant given the constraints of limited human resources and the time-consuming nature of traditional HTR pre-training. The author has extensive experience working with Arabic manuscripts from the Sudan, Yemen, and Mali. His expertise includes collecting, transcribing, and analyzing Sudanese and Yemeni manuscripts; overseeing digitization and cataloguing efforts within the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project; and designing and delivering university courses focused on the identification of Arabic manuscripts from the National Library of Norway and from a private Norwegian collection.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2024). Unlocking Arabic Manuscripts: Imperfect HTR as a Stepping Stone for AI-powered Analysis. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This paper explores the potential of utilizing "imperfect" Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) as a springboard for AI-powered analysis of Arabic manuscripts. Achieving perfect HTR remains challenging for complex historical documents like Arabic manuscripts. Taking a philological-historical lens rather than a purely engineering one, the paper argues that imperfect HTR output, despite containing errors, can be leveraged for AI-powered content analysis and summarization, thus facilitating the identification of priority materials for further human study. By reducing the time and effort required to identify material that warrants more detailed examination, this approach can free resources for in-depth textual scholarship. To validate this hypothesis, documents previously studied by the author through conventional approaches will be subjected to AI-assisted analysis based on imperfect HTR, comparing the effectiveness of this method with the 'ground truth' of traditional scholarly examination. The methodology involves a case study focusing on samples from the ‘Hofheinz Collection’ (University of Bergen), a unique corpus of over 600 manuscripts from the Sudan (18th-20th c.) photographed by the author. Comparative data from Yemeni manuscripts (19th-20th centuries) held at the Italian Foreign Ministry and previously catalogued by the author will also be considered. The study will (1) assess the relative accuracy of using HTR tools (such as Transkribus, OCR4all, OCR-D, and daiR) in an only partially supervised setting for transcribing these documents; and (2) investigate how well AI-assisted analysis can detect noteworthy passages within the resultant data. The study serves as a proof of concept aiming to expedite the exploration of large Arabic manuscript corpora. This is particularly relevant given the constraints of limited human resources and the time-consuming nature of traditional HTR pre-training. The author has extensive experience working with Arabic manuscripts from the Sudan, Yemen, and Mali. His expertise includes collecting, transcribing, and analyzing Sudanese and Yemeni manuscripts; overseeing digitization and cataloguing efforts within the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project; and designing and delivering university courses focused on the identification of Arabic manuscripts from the National Library of Norway and from a private Norwegian collection.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht Hermann (2022). Myth or Reality? The Green Shift in Arab Media Discourse Around COP26. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  As the fossil fuel economy is being phased out, states and societies in the Middle East and North Africa face major restructuring challenges. Thus, many actors there have developed narratives around a ‘green shift’ to transit into a post-fossil-fuel world. This paper takes a closer look at Arabic-language media coverage of issues related to climate change and the green shift just before and after the UN Climate Change Conference COP-26 in Glasgow Oct.-Nov. 2021. It uses social media metrics to identify which stories were shared most frequently on the internet, and studies how the perceived challenges and proposed solutions were framed in these narratives. A guiding question is to what extent Arabic media present the ‘green shift’ as a promising and realistic alternative to other, dystopian scenarios.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2019). Rex Seán O’Fahey (1943-2019). 23, s. 212–214. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2018). Meikal Mumin and Kees Versteegh (eds.). The Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System. Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 71. Leiden: Brill, 2014. xx, 400 pp. €142.00, hardback; €137.00, e-book. Islamic Africa. ISSN 2333-262X. 9(1), s. 118–122. doi: 10.1163/21540993-00901008. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Guth, Stephan (2018). In 2016: Life in the Arab World after the ‘Arab Spring’. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Much has been written about democracy (or the lack of it), political Islam and violence in the Middle East after the ‘Arab Spring’. But how do these aspects relate to the realities of everyday life in the post-revolutionary Arab world? And aren’t there many other matters that are much more important to ‘ordinary’ Arabs than these three catchwords of western media coverage?

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2018). Social Media. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2018). Social Media Buzz in 2016. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Guth, Stephan; Hofheinz, Albrecht & Haugen, Toril Kristin Viken (2017). Lagar "leksikon" over året 2016: Livet i Egypt og Tunisia fem år etter. [Journal]. Apollon. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Who Speaks for Islam? And What Is Islam? Anti-authoritarianism, Humanism, and Autonomy of Choice as Important Dimensions in Current Self-Reflection. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2017). Baby Milk. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). Daring to Transgress: The Growing Visibility of Blasphemy and Atheism in the Current Arab Public. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). Blasphemy among Muslims. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). A Look Back on Generation Stuck: of Dreams Repressed, of Seeking a Way Out. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). Social Media Five Years after the “Arab Spring”—Some General Remarks. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2015). Of Broken Walls and Broken Illusions, or: Where do Sudanese Social Media Actors Perceive Liberating Change? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  ‘Patriarchal authority has collapsed,’ was a young intellectual’s first thought on the impact of internet use on his society. Where the outsider points to much continuity, Sudanese are convinced that their country has ‘totally changed’. To them, the experience of social change beneath the façade of superficial similarities and regime stability is fundamental. Old authorities still wield considerable power; and disrespect for the authorities is nothing new. But it remains a striking fact that this attitude is perceived by the actors themselves as a significant change, compared to the norms that they were fed by these authorities during their upbringing. This paper discusses how people in Egypt and Sudan reflect on the social changes they are experiencing.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2014). Withdrawal from Taḥrīr? Voices from the Social Media on the Fate of the Revolution, the Wall of Fear, and the Role of Individual Actors in Post-Coup Egypt. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Withdrawal from Taḥrīr? Voices from the social media on the fate of the revolution, the wall of fear, and the role of individual actors in post-coup Egypt After the polarisation of the Egyptian political scene culminated in 2013 in a military coup and violent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptians who had embraced the 2011 revolution found themselves in a limbo regarding how to assess and react to this. While Brotherhood supporters maintained an air of steadfastness, many seculars slipped into a disillusioned pessimism. Opposed to military rule as much as to the Brotherhood’s attempt to appropriate the state, they found themselves squeezed between the ‘steadfast’ but unrepentant Brothers; a population tired of disruptions to daily life and the economy; an unreformed security apparatus; and a reassertively repressive ‘deep state’. No wonder that many who had engaged in public in 2011/12 now tended to withdraw. Many activists regarded such withdrawal into perceived passiveness as dangerous and tried to fight it. But how does it look from ‘below’, from the perspective of individuals taking the decision to ‘withdraw’? In my contribution, I shall investigate this through the lens of individuals’ reflections and other traces on social media — does the retreat from ‘Taḥrīr’ (the paradigmatic symbol of street power) signify a withdrawal from public action altogether? Is it a withdrawal into the private sphere, leaving public affairs to the powers that be? Or are we witnessing a ‘post-Taḥrīr’ readjustment, conscious of a longer, and perhaps more realistic, time frame (cf. the oft-quoted comparison to the “ten years” the French Revolution took). Reading into some prominent social media accounts as well as based on interviews with rank-and-file participants in the 2011 revolution, I shall argue that the ‘withdrawal’ from public action was less pronounced than some would believe, and often understood as a tactical retreat to safeguard one’s forces from being crushed in the clash of the ‘old’ giants. Maintaining the ‘spirit of the revolution’ rather than exhausting oneself in useless street battles was the order of the day. Using individual cases, I shall present a nuanced picture of how different individuals view their own trajectory with the revolution and their own role in its future path. A leitmotif will be to ask what people say about the ‘wall of fear’ that was declared broken in 2011 – a feat that some at the time described as the one irreversible effect of the Jan. 25 revolution. How do post-revolutionary individuals set themselves up vis-à-vis reassertive authorities – political, religious, family, etc. – after having claimed to have lost fear of them?

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2014). #WhyIHateIkhwan. Islamist-secular polarization in Egyptian social media. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2014). Rāqī bi-akhlāqī, or: The Moral Turn, from Sufi Shaykhs to Facebook groups. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). #WhyIHateIkhwan. Islamist-secular polarization in Egyptian social media. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Allah.com – a Trajectory. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Islamic studies in Germany: an overview. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). #WhyIHateIkhwan. Islamist-secular polarization in Egyptian social media. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Bergseng, Anne (2013). Tror turistene vil vende tilbake til Egypt. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Til tross for avlyst sesong for Egypt som reisemål, tror ekspertene at landet igjen vil bli populært blant turister

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). al-Damer. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 119–120. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Ahmad ibn Idris. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 56–56. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Abdullah al-Tayyib. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 41–41. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Lohne, Jenny-Linn (2013). Fem drept og flere skadet etter nye kamper i Egypt. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Situasjonen i flere egyptiske byer er svært spent etter at Mohamed Morsi ble varetektsfengslet.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Shadhiliya. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 379–380. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Majadhib. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 283–284. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Uthman ibn Abi Bakr Diqna. I Kramer, Robert S.; Lobban, Richard A. & Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn (Red.), Historical dictionary of the Sudan. Scarecrow Press. ISSN 9780810861800. s. 448–449. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Republic of the Sudan was long the largest country in Africa and, according to the general consensus, also one of the least successful in many ways. This was not entirely its fault since it lay along the fault line between Muslim and Christian Africa and between the Nile Valley civilizations and African Sudanic cultures. This partly explains the long and bloody warfare waged by the Southerners to achieve independence, which they did in July 2011. So this hefty book actually covers not one but two states. This fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan does so, first, through a lengthy and detailed chronology tracing its relatively few successes and numerous failures. The introductory essay does an admirable job of putting it all in perspective. But the most informative part is the dictionary, with now over 700 entries for this fourth edition. They deal with important personalities, politics, the economy, society, culture, religion and inevitably the civil war. There are also appendixes and an extensive bibliography.

• Ohlander, Erik S.; Ballanfat, Paul; Ephrat, Daphna; Hofheinz, Albrecht & Kılıç, Mahmud Erol (2012). From the Editors. Journal of Sufi Studies. ISSN 2210-5948. 1(1), s. 1–2. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). "Born on the 25th of January". Introduction to the European premiere of Aḥmed Rashwān’s film "Mawlūd fī 25 yanāyir". Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Utvik, Bjørn Olav (2012). Egypt one year after: Military rule in guise of democracy? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  A year after people took to the streets of Egypt demanding an end to the rule of Mubarak, the question about what has actually happened since is contested. One the one hand there are those who argue that a revolution took place, ousting the old regime, and that the country is now heading towards a brighter future. On the other hand, there are others who claim that no substantial change has taken place and that the old regime is still intact. To debate these two opposing views, The Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies in cooperation with The New Middle East and The Gulf Research Unit held a seminar, featuring Albrecht Hofheinz and Bjørn Olav Utvik.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). New Media, Religion and Gender. Comment on the presentation by Mia Lövheim. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). Social Media in the ‘Arab Spring’ — field observations from Egypt. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Was the ‘Arab Spring’ a ‘Facebook revolution’? Or were social media mere tools used by revolutionaries like others before? What role did the internet play in the Arab uprisings? And beyond that: what impact do these new forms of communication have in the Arab mediascape and in society more generally? In 2011, the importance of social media was heavily and controversially debated in (mostly western) media and academia. The present paper presents results of my fieldwork in Egypt in 2011/2012 where I focused on how users themselves (not least among the rank and file) view the role of social media in and following the Arab uprisings. Interviews and participant observation suggest that • while the importance of Facebook and Twitter may have been exaggerated in early reporting, social media did play a key role in mobilizing and organizing people; • the weight of social media in the flow of information is growing; • social media’s impact on socialization may be at least as important in the long run as the immediate political role they play.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). Social Media in the ‘Arab Spring’ — the example of Egypt. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). Sosiale mediers rolle i den egyptiske revolusjonen. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). On the events in Libya. [TV]. Insu^tv. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Meringolo, Azzurra (2011). «Il web ha dato coraggio alla rivoluzione araba». [Journal]. Il Messaggero. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Il professor Hofheinz: «La rivolta era matura, i social networks l’hanno fatta crescere»

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Torgersen, Hans Henrik (2011). Revolusjonen, del 2. [Journal]. Verdens Gang. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Mohammed, Ferhad (2011). (on the significance of South Sudan’s independence for the future of non-Arab people in the Arab states). [Internet]. Gulan Media. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Reichmuth, Christoph (2011). Sieg der Frommen trifft Tourismus. [Journal]. Neue Luzerner Zeitung. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Der Rückhalt in der Bevölkerung für die Protestbewegung schwindet, sagt ein Islamexperte. Das Ergebnis der Wahlen könnte im Land einiges umwälzen.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht; Akerhaug, Lars & Skevik, Erlend (2011). Øyenvitne til VG Nett: Folk løper forbi med sårede. [Internet]. VG Nett. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Den første Facebook-revolusjonen? [Internet]. ABC Nyheter. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Revolusjonen i Egypt er utvilsomt en folkets revolusjon, men uten mediene ville ikke gnisten kunnet spre seg.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Mikkelsen, Sigurd Falkenberg (2011). NRK P2 Kulturnytt: [om sosiale mediers rolle i demonstrasjonene i Egypt]. [Radio]. NRK P2. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Kuttet hele internett: Egyptiske myndigheter har sperret befolkningens tilgang til internett i påvente av demonstrasjoner etter fredagsbønnen. [Internet]. ABC Nyheter. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Die Welt schaut zu – Islamwissenschaftler über das Internet in der arabischen Welt. [Radio]. Deutschlandfunk: Informationen am Morgen. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In Ägypten sei das Internet nicht die Ursache für die Proteste, sagt Albrecht Hofheinz, Islamwissenschaftler an der Universität Oslo. Welch große Bedeutung die Regierung dem Medium beimesse, sehe man an der Unterbrechung der Leitungen.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Schmalband: Ägypter nutzen das Internet per Modem. [Internet]. golem.de: IT-News für Profis. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Die ägyptische Regierung hat die Abschaltung der Mobilfunknetze auf Druck der Wirtschaft wieder aufgehoben, SMS funktioniert aber weiter nur sehr schlecht. Die Internet Service Provider sollen sich bereithalten, um den Betrieb wieder aufzunehmen.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Tangenes, Anders Havdal (2011). Håp om frihet og fremtid: opptøyene i Egypt. [Journal]. Under Dusken. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  I Egypt er arbeidsløsheten ti ganger høyere blant de med universitetsutdanning enn blant de uten. Da er det ikke rart at studentene sto øverst på barrikadene i protest mot Hosni Mubaraks regime.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2011). Korrespondenten: Sosiale medier i Tunisias folkerevolusjon. [TV]. TV2. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht & Wiedemann, Charlotte (2010). Portrait Abdelkader Haidara: Aus den Sandlöchern in die digitale Bibliothek. [Internet]. qantara.de. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Vergessen, geraubt, wiederentdeckt: Im westafrikanischen Timbuktu existieren seit Jahrhunderten Tausende islamische Handschriften in Familienbesitz. Für den Schutz und die Aufarbeitung des Erbes dieser alt-afrikanischen Bibliotheken engagieren sich Privatleute wie Abdelkader Haidara.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2010). The elusive quest for revolution: What about the 'next generation'? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Research on the impact of the Internet in the Middle East has been dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the hope for ̳revolutionary‘ change and the admission that regime stability in the region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with the new and with the latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term socio-cultural developments. This paper is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study more seriously the social and cultural effects of Internet and mobile phone use; to find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and how these dynamics are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2010). Dynamics of internet use in the Arab-Islamic world. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). Jāmiʿat Ōslō wa’l-dirāsa fīhā. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). Midtøsten ruster opp. [Journal]. Universitas. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). “Den nubiske apekatt”. [Radio]. NRK P1 “Her og nå”. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). Response to Fredrick Bäck, Islamic groups on the internet in Finland. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). Contested authority? Reflections on the niqāb debate. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2009). Identity • Authority • History: Facets of Muslims’ Internet use. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The presentation highlights three aspects that are important to pursue in greater earnest if we want to advance our understanding of how Muslims make use of ICT. First, Muslims are human beings with multiple, negotiated, and performed identities. Consequently, we must make analytical room for the fact that Muslims, including Islamists, do not only act as Muslims. This may be a truism, but in practice it appears that our research often focuses too exclusively on the religious dimension of actors in the religious field, and thus risks to over-simplify a more complex reality. Secondly, we need more seriously to investigate the dynamics between users/crowds and authorities in the new media. These media have posed a challenge to established religious, political, and social authorities, but also provided them – like any other user – with new opportunities. The rise of Web 2.0 has given new life to the idea of ‘wise crowds’ performing better than old hierarchical systems. In reality, however, individuals, crowds, and both new and old authorities interact in complex ways to juggle for position within the field of contestation (religious or otherwise), and to use this position to define and redefine normative and dogmatic content. To find out in exactly what ways the new media are a factor – and not merely an arena – of this struggle to reconstruct Islam should be the focus of more in-depth and long-term work both in the field and with texts. Thirdly, as we realise that authorities have had to struggle for influence also in the days preceding Internet, cell-phone and satellite TV, we must take a step back from the screen to gain a wider historical perspective. Many of the developments that are attributed to the impact of the ‘new media’ are comparable to developments that happened much earlier, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the Muslim world, the roots of these developments predate colonial encroachment and cannot therefore be reduced to being the outcome of a confrontation with (Western) modernity or a reaction to it. Placed in such a wider historical horizon, the Internet may loose some of its ‘revolutionary’ mystique – which may be just what is needed to gain a more sober understanding of how Muslims use it.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). Policy Brief: Broken Walls: Challenges to Patriarchal Authority in the Eyes of Sudanese Social Media Actors. 7Letras. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  From “Arab Spring” to “Arab Winter”—this narrative, focused on the political reestablishment of unbridled authoritarianism, misses the bigger picture. After a year of frustrated silence, social media actors re-emerged from disengagement “because there’s much more to the story than what may seem evident. Progress within the political maybe stunted. But “[...] thanks to demographic trends and exponential technology, the cultural and societal is hastening.” What role does technology play here? This brief summarizes views of Sudanese users on the impact of the internet in their country, after their own attempt at joining the “Arab Spring” was crushed in 2013.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2016). Broken Walls: Challenges to patriarchal authority in the eyes of Sudanese social media actors. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2015). Withdrawal from Taḥrīr? Voices from the social media on the fate of the revolution, the wall of fear, and the role of individual actors in post-coup Egypt. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This report presents results of a critical survey of how ‘revolutionary’ individuals in Egypt assessed the fate of the revolution and their own trajectory in it, a year after the military deposed president Mursī. Based on an analysis of social media and online interviews, it focuses on those who spearheaded the 2011 ‘revolution’ and who use the term ‘revolutionaries’ as self-description, in contrast to the other major forces: the Muslim Brothers (MB), the supporters of the old regime, and the military. I argue that among long-standing activists, ‘withdrawal’ from public action was less pronounced than some would believe, and often understood as a tactical retreat to safeguard one’s forces from being crushed in the clash of the ‘old’ giants. Maintaining the ‘spirit of the revolution’ rather than exhausting oneself in useless street battles was the order of the day. On the surface, the ‘deep state’ has managed to reassert itself, through cooption of the media and harsh repression of any opposition. Paradoxically, this shows how afraid the old regime is of the power of new ideas. It is thus all the more important for those who are not susceptible to direct persecution to support forums for alternative visions and free debate in Egypt. Outside actors such as Norway should • help to keep open spaces—physical and virtual—for alternative information flows, like the ‘Tahrir Lounge’ supported by the German Foreign Ministry; • monitor and publicly criticise attempts to restrict such spaces and hold Egyptian authorities accountable for such restrictions.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2014). #WhyIHateIkhwan. Islamist-secular polarisation in Egyptian social media. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2013). Social Media in the 'Arab Spring': The Example of Egypt. University of Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Was the ‘Arab Spring’ a ‘Facebook revolution’? Or were social media mere tools used by revolutionaries like others before? What role did the internet play in the Arab uprisings? And beyond that: what impact do these new forms of communication have in the Arab mediascape and in society more generally? In 2011, the importance of social media was heavily and controversially debated in media and academia. To gain insight into how users themselves view the role of social media in the recent events, I did fieldwork in Egypt in autumn 2011 and spring 2012. Interviews and participant observation suggest that 1. while the importance of Facebook and Twitter may have been exaggerated in early reporting, social media did play a key role in mobilising and organising people; 2. the weight of social media in the flow of information is growing; 3. social media’s impact on socialisation may be at least as important in the long run as the immediate political role they play.

• Hofheinz, Albrecht (2012). Social Media in the ‘Arab Spring’ — the example of Egypt. The New Middle East. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Was the ‘Arab Spring’ a ‘Facebook revolution’? Or were social media mere tools used by revolutionaries like others before? What role did the internet play in the Arab uprisings? And beyond that: what impact do these new forms of communication have in the Arab mediascape and in society more generally? In 2011, the importance (or not) of social media was heavily and controversially debated in (mostly western) media and academia. To gain insight into how users themselves view the role of social media in the recent events, I did fieldwork in Egypt in autumn 2011 and spring 2012. Interviews and participant observation suggest that 1) while the importance of Facebook and Twitter may have been exaggerated in early reporting, social media did play a key role in mobilising and organising people; 2) the weight of social media in the flow of information is growing; 3) social media’s impact on socialisation may be at least as important in the long run as the immediate political role they play.

• Myrvold, Pernille; Moubarak, Mary Boulos & Hofheinz, Albrecht (2010). RAPPORT utarbeidet til Universitets- og høgskolerådet (HRS): Sammenligning av bruken av bokstavkarakterer for emnene ARA103 (UiB) og ARA1120 (UiO) høsten 2010. Universitets- og høgskolerådet (UHR). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

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