Providing a searching tool of academic standard
Religions are one of the most important cultural phenomenons in the history of humanity. Whatever we may think, they have been at the heart of historical developments and shifts between civilisations. Believers and atheists alike will have the possibility to read and search the texts of the three «Abrahamic» religions online for the first time in a simultaneous manner rather than on separate websites.
Quick access through keywords
By allowing the reader to access the continuous text, that is to say what comes before and what comes next the search results, the texts are better understood and compared. As such, the tool is facilitating the creation of concordances between parallel texts and motifs and parallel stories can be easily studied. The multilingual index enables the comparison of several translations of the texts, which is a condition for the intelligibility of the proper meaning of antique and late antique literature.
«Digital humanities» means teamwork
Researchers know their needs better than anyone else. They have used digital tools throughout their studies and research and are qualified users of IT products. For this project, the researcher is mainly tasked with the norm-based indexation of the searchable terms. This in turn must be accomplished in cooperation with the computer specialist who selects the formatting in which the keyword lists must be delivered. The web developer, in close relation to the researcher, has to experiment with the help of the researcher in order to obtain the best possible result in terms of speed (loading of pages, loading results…) and of layout (fonts, colours…). The money of the project will be divided as follows: 5,000 euros for the researcher and applicant (E. Cottrell), 5,000 for the web developer, who has experience with right-to-left languages and OCR. The money collected includes the rent of a server for 15 years. Emily Cottrell is a French independent researcher based in The Netherlands. My publications are related to the early history of philosophy in Arabic. I have visited collections of Arabic books and manuscripts all over the world and am now planning to work on bridges between different traditions and religions. The web developer is a Yemenite student based in Jordan.