She has focused her research on Bible reception among Christian Arabic speakers, translation techniques, manuscript studies, and the interaction between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Dr Lindgren Hjälm currently has a research project (financed by the Swedish Research Council) connected to the British Library called, “A Christian Bible in a Muslim Context”, where she works with Christian Arabic texts. She is also part of a research programme at Uppsala University (financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond) called ‘Retracing Connections. Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian and Old Slavonic (c. 950 – c. 1100)’.
Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer | Stockholm School of Eastern Christian Studies
Senior Lecturer Miriam Lindgren Hjälm
Miriam has a PhD from Uppsala University and did her post-doc at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
More information
Education
Docent Miriam Lindgren Hjälm has an MA in Oriental Studies from Uppsala and a one-year master's degree from the Hebrew University. She completed her PhD thesis in Semitic Languages at Uppsala University in 2015. Her thesis, Christian Arabic Versions of Daniel (Brill: 2016), focused on translation techniques and manuscript descriptions in Arabic versions of Daniel. The methods used in translation were based on a study of Judaeo-Arabic translations by her supervisor, Prof. Meira Polliack (Tel Aviv University). In 2015 she moved to Munich (Ludwig Maximilian University) and joined the German-Israeli Biblia Arabica project, where she developed her work on locating, systematising and analysing Arabic Bible translations (https://biblia-arabica.com/).
Teaching
Dr. Lindgren Hjälm has previously taught Hebrew at Uppsala University and at Ludwig Maximilian University, and has taught other Semitic languages, such as Syriac and Arabic, as well as courses relating the history and cultures of the users of these languages.
She currently teaches courses in Biblical Studies, including Bible Reception, and in History of Religion, especially Judaism and Islam.
Publications and Presentations
1.1 Monographs and Catalogues
(1) Christian Arabic Versions of Daniel: A Comparative Study of Early MSS and Translation Techniques in MSS Sinai Ar. 1 and 2 (Biblia Arabica 4; Leiden: Brill, 2016).
(2) A Catalogue of Christian Arabic Bible Translations at the British Library (Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 23; Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2024) (288 pp).
https://doi.org/10.33063/
1.2 Editor of Edited Volumes
(1) Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims, edited by Miriam L. Hjälm (Biblia Arabica 5; Leiden: Brill, 2017).
(2) The Third Lung: New Trajectories in Syriac Studies: Essays in Honour of Sebastian P. Brock, edited by Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Miriam L. Hjälm, and Robert A. Kitchen (Eastern Christian Studies 33; Leiden: Brill, 2023).
(3) Strangers in the Land: Traveling Texts, Imagined Others, and Captured Souls in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions, edited by Miriam Lindgren Hjälm and Marzena Zawanowska (Studies on the Children of Abraham 11; Leiden: Brill, 2024).
2. Peer-reviewed Articles
2.1 Articles in Journals
(1) With R. Vollandt. “An Early Copy of the Pentateuch and the Book of Daniel in Arabic (MS Sinai—Arabic 2): Preliminary Observations on Codicology, Text Types, and Translation Technique,” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 1 (2013): 43–68.
(2) “The Christian Arabic Book of Daniel: Extant versions, canonical constellations, and relation to the liturgical practice, with an Appendix of ‘The Song of the Three Young Men,’” Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 12 (2015): 115–178.
(3) “The Changing Face of the Arabic Bible: Translation techniques in early renditions of Ezekiel,” Open Theology 2, issue 1 (2016): 832–848.
(4) “Scriptures beyond Words: ‘Islamic’ Vocabulary in Early Christian Arabic Bible Translations,” Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 15 (2018): 49–69. Open Access: https://www.uco.es/revistas/
(5) “A Paleographical Study of Early Christian Arabic Manuscripts,” Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 17 (2020): 37–77. Open Access: https://www.uco.es/revistas/
(6) “Qurʾānic Intertextuality in Early Christian Arabic Bible Translations,” The Bible Translator 74, no. 3 (2023): 313–330. https://journals.sagepub.com/
(7) with Camilla Adang, “ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Bājī’s (d. 714/1314) Critique of the Pentateuch and the Plurality of Christian Bible Recensions,” Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 21 (2024): 1–28.
(8) with Meira Polliack, “Revisiting Biblical Studies in Light of Reception Theory: Christian and Jewish Arabic Sources on Psalms 110 and 137,” Religions 16 (2025), 1218. https://doi.org/10.3390/
(9) “‘Inhabiting the Word of the Other’: Linguistic Hospitality, Early Christian Arabic Psalters, and the Functions of Bilingual Manuscripts,” Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin 11 (2025): 91–115. file:///Users/miriamhjalm/
2.2 Articles in Collective Volumes
(1) “The Major Prophets in Arabic: The authorship of Pethiōn revisited in light of New Findings,” in Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims, edited by Miriam L. Hjälm (Biblia Arabica, 5; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 448–483.
(2) “Introduction,” in Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims (Biblia Arabica, 5; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 1–8.
(3) “The Hazy Edges of the Biblical Canon: A Case Study of the Wisdom of Solomon in Arabic,” in The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone, edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso, Matthias Henze, and William Adler (Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 569–587.
(4) “Universal Wisdom in Defence of the Particular: Medieval Jewish and Christian Usage of Biblical Wisdom in Arabic Bible Treatises,” in Wisdom on the Move: Late Antique Traditions in Multicultural Conversation: Essays in Honour of Samuel Rubenson, edited by Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Thomas Arentzen, Henrik Rydell Johnsén and Andreas Westergren (Leiden: Brill; Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 161, 2020), pp. 224–246.
(5) “From Palestine to Damascus to Berlin: Early Christian Arabic texts from the Qubbat al-khazna in the Violet collection,” in The Damascus Fragments: Towards a History of the Qubbat al-khazna Corpus of Manuscripts and Documents, edited by Arianna D’Ottone Rambach, Konrad Hirschler, and Ronny Vollandt (Beirut: Ergon Verlag, 2020), pp. 245–264.
(6) “The Four Kingdom Schema and the Seventy Weeks in the Arabic Reception of Daniel,” in Four Kingdom Motifs before and beyond the Book of Daniel, edited by Andrew Perrin and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Themes in Biblical Narrative, 28; Leiden: Brill, 2020), 251–274. Open Access: https://brill.com/view/book/
(7) “Psalms to Reason, Psalms to Heal. The Scriptures in Early Rūm Orthodox Treatises” in The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King, edited by Marzena Zawanowska and Mateusz Wilk (Themes in Biblical Narrative 29; Leiden Brill: 2021), 239–272.
(8) “Biblical Theology, Scholarly Approaches, and the Bible in Arabic,” in Narratives on Translation across Eurasia and Africa: From Babylonia to Colonial India, edited by Sonja Brentjes in cooperation with Jens Høyrup and Bruce O’Brien (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2022), 135–156.
(9) “Transposed and Thriving: Bible Reception in the Prophetologion,” in Why We Sing: Music, Word, and Liturgy in Early Christianity. Essays in Honour of Anders Ekenberg’s 75th Birthday, edited by Barbara Crostini, Carl-Johan Berglund, and James Kelhoffer, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 177 (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 435–463. Open Access: https://brill.com/display/
(10) “Lost and Found: Christian Arabic Membra Disjecta in the Mingana Collection,” in Lost and Bound: Reconstruction Techniques in Fragmentary Manuscripts of the Jewish and Christian Tradition, edited by Israel Muñoz Gallarte & Marzena Zawanowska (Editorial Sindéresis: Madrid, 2022), 125–148.
(11) with Peter Tarras. “Early Christian Arabic Colophons from the Palestinian Monasteries: A Comparative Analysis,” in Literary Snippets: Colophons Across Space and Time, edited by George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2023), 119–168. Open Access https://www.gorgiaspress.com/
(12) with Peter Tarras “Early Christian Arabic Colophons from the Palestinian Monasteries: Edition with Translation and Commentary,” in Literary Snippets: A Colophon Reader, edited by George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2024), 49–99. https://www.degruyter.com/
(13) “Blessed Is the One Who Kills Infants: “The Other” in Eastern Christian Reception of Psalm 137” in Strangers in the Land: Traveling Texts, Imagined Others, and Captured Souls in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions, edited by Miriam Lindgren Hjälm and Marzena Zawanowska (Leiden: Brill, 2024), pp. 15–39. Open Access: https://brill.com/display/
(14) with Marzena Zawanowska, “Strangers in the Land Travelling Texts, Imagined Others, and Captured Souls in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions in Late Antique and Mediaeval Times: an Introduction,” in Strangers in the Land: Traveling Texts, Imagined Others, and Captured Souls in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions, edited by Miriam Lindgren Hjälm and Marzena Zawanowska (Leiden: Brill, 2024), pp. 1–12.
(15) “The Bible in the Ḥiǧāz and the Qur’an in Early Arabic Bible Translations,” in Muḥammad’s Ḥiǧāz in Focus: Philological Contributions, edited by Ayşe Başol, Daniel Birnstiel and Miriam Djahani (Islam im diskurs 10; Berlin: EB-Verlag 2025), 149–186.
2.3 Overview Articles in Encyclopedia
(1) “1.2.12 Arabic Texts,” in The Textual History of the Bible, vol. 2A: The Textual History of the Deutero-canonical Texts: Overview Articles. Edited by Frank Feder and Matthias Henze. Leiden: Brill, 2020, pp. 483–495.
(2) “1.1.10 The Arabic Canon,” in The Textual History of the Bible, vol. 2A: The Textual History of the Deutero-canonical Texts: Overview Articles. Edited by Frank Feder and Matthias Henze. Leiden: Brill, 2020, pp. 280–298.
(3) With M. Polliack. “Arabic, Research History,” in The Textual History of the Bible, vol. 3: A Companion to Textual Criticism. Edited by A. Lange (general editor); M. Henze (volume editor). Leiden: Brill, 2022. 10.1163/2452-4107_thb_COM_
(4) “3.3.15.1 Arabic Palaeography,” in The Textual History of the Bible, vol. 3C: A Theory and Practice of Textual Criticism: Preview. Edited by Armin Lange (Gen. ed.), Russel E. Fuller, Armin Lange (vol. ed.), Edmon L. Gallagher, Miriam L. Hjälm, Mika S. Pajunen. Leiden: Brill, 2025, 9–22. https://brill.com/fileasset/
Research
Dr Hjälm’s current research project is entitled “A Christian Bible in a Muslim Context” which is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2017–01630). The aim of the project is to study various aspects of “Bible Theology” in early Christian Arabic texts, including bible commentaries and the development of the biblical canon. In addition, she is interested in Jewish-Christian relations under Islam and how such contacts are expressed in polemical and exegetical tracts (https://www.swecris.se/betasearch/details/project/201701630VR?lang=en)
In addition, she is involved in the project “Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds” sponsored by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, at Uppsala University, where she, among other things, works on rewritings of biblical stories in Theodore of Edessa. (https://www.rj.se/en/anslag/2019/retracing-connections-byzantine-storyworlds-in-greek-arabic-georgian-and-old-slavonic-c.-950–c.-1100/).