Christian Lange
In Five Senses
Science
Synopsis
Five Senses
Many people, including Muslims, have a uniform, static image of Islam. However, there is enormous diversity in how Islam is experienced across different regions and periods.
In Five Senses, Islamic scholar and Arabist Christian Lange takes us on a journey through the multifaceted nature of Islam. He does so based on his research into the five senses: the windows through which we listen, see, hear, smell and feel the world. Strolling through the fragrant streets of Fez, Morocco, Lange shares his personal motivation for this unique, long-term project and his mission as a non-Muslim to bring East and West closer together. What is it like to step into another person’s world?
Credits
- Character
- Christian Lange
- Director
- Aiman Hassani
- Country
- Morocco / The Netherlands
- Duration
- 18 min
- Year
- 2025
- Co-producer
- Basalt Film
By studying classical texts, Christian Lange researches the various ways in which Muslims have experienced Islam throughout history, revealing a dynamic and multifaceted picture.
Christian Lange
Christian Lange (1975) researches Islam in all its historical diversity and complexity. He is a pioneer in digital humanities, combining the study of Islamic texts with the latest insights from sociology, religious studies, philosophy, and anthropology.
Lange considers the human embodied and imaginative experience of Islam as the most important way to understand it. His research topics include Islamic views on Sharia law, the afterlife and the five senses. Lange goes beyond the arabocentric perspective by also studying the religious experience of Muslims in South-East Asian, Persian and Turkish territories. This approach reveals a colorful, dynamic and multifaceted picture, challenging the one-dimensional view of Islam that sometimes dominates public debate.
The Dutch government has made far-reaching cuts to higher education which are severely affecting Lange’s work, among other things. Who in the future will form the bridge between East and West?
Acclaims
• Professor and Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Utrecht
• Author of various books on Islam, including Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions (2016), Mohammed. Perspectieven op de Profeet (2017) and Islamic Sensory History (2024)
• Winner of the Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research 2021
- SCREENINGS & REACH
Director
Aiman Hassani
Director Aiman Hassani works with a variety of media, from documentary and fiction film to animation and games. Both as maker and advisor, he is committed to diversity and inclusion. He is known, among others, for the documentary Teekay de Salto Koning (2023), about a breakdancer from Eindhoven, and the short film Khata (2019), about male prostitution in Rotterdam. In 2024, he was selected for Berlinale Talents.