Workshop/Webinar: Princeton-UCLA Arabic Manuscript Workshop

The Princeton-UCLA Arabic Manuscript Workshop will be held on August 23-27, 2021. Full details for the workshop can be found here, including signup details and a complete list of presenters. While the application process is now closed for full participation, interested readers can still sign up for the webinars online at the official website.

Description: This week-long workshop will be led by leading authorities in the historical, philological and material study of Arabic manuscripts. Co-organized by Princeton and UCLA, which house the two largest repositories of Islamicate manuscripts in North America, the workshop will equip emerging scholars with the basic tools to conduct research using original handwritten texts in Arabic script. Over the course of four days, participants will learn the basics of codicology, palaeography, and manuscript production and circulation, and receive exposure to an expansive vision of current debates in Arabic manuscript research. Topics include:

anatomy of the codex
text blocks, colophons, audition notes, owners’ notes, readers’ notes
supports, inks, bindings
scribes and other craftspeople
scripts, canonical and informal; strategies for decipherment
technical terminology
transmission practices and patterns
digital collections; contemporary ethics and best practices

Organizers: Marina Rustow (Princeton) and Luke Yarbrough (UCLA)

For questions about the application process, contact cnes@international.ucla.edu.

For questions about content, contact the organizers: Marina Rustow (Princeton) and Luke Yarbrough (UCLA).

Online Workshop: An Introduction to Arabic Manuscripts

The UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies is offering a free, intensive online workshop, “An Introduction to Arabic Manuscripts,” on August 23-27, 2021. The application link can be found here: https://ucla.in/3cmYvbP

Kitāb al-Diryāq, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Arabe 5847, f. 37r

This week-long workshop features leading authorities on the study of Arabic manuscripts. The workshop will equip emerging scholars with the basic tools to conduct research with original handwritten texts in Arabic script.

Over the course of five days, participants will learn the basics of codicology, paleography, and manuscript production and circulation, in the context of an expansive vision of current debates in Arabic manuscript research.

Topics include:

anatomy of the codex
canonical and informal scripts
colophons, audition notes, owners’ notes, readers’ notes
digital collections
ethics and best practices
scribes and other craftspeople
strategies for decipherment
supports, bindings
technical terminology
transmission practices and patterns

Enrollment is free of charge. Full participation is by application only. Others may observe via webinar.

Application deadline is 22 April 2021. Apply at https://ucla.in/3cmYvbP
All applicants are welcome, regardless of home institution; priority will be given to PhD students and untenured scholars with compelling need to use Arabic manuscripts in their research.

Co-sponsored by Princeton and UCLA, which house the two largest repositories of Islamicate manuscripts in North America.

Organizers: Marina Rustow (Princeton) and Luke Yarbrough (UCLA)

UCLA event website and list of sponsors: https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/14962

Princeton website coming soon!

For questions not addressed above or on the web page, please contact: CNES [at] international.ucla.edu

Introduction to Islamic Manuscript Culture

In May 2019, UCLA hosted a workshop on Islamic manuscripts and manuscript culture sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and co-sponsored by UCLA’s Islamic Studies Program, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and the California Rare Book School. Participants obtained hands-on experience using the Collections at the Charles E. Young Research Library.

UCLA has recently made the presentations from this workshop available to the public, as well as PDF’s of lecture material, which can be accessed here.

Qiṣṣat al-Sindbād al-baḥrī wa-l-Hindbād al-barrī, UCLA Bound Manuscript Collection, MS 170/46, fol. 10r. Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.

Topics included:

Overview: Luke Yarbrough, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (UCLA)

Session 1 – An Introduction to Codicological Studies; Writings Materials; Parchment and Paper

Evyn Kropf, Librarian for Middle East Studies and Religious Studies; Curator of Islamic Manuscripts (University of Michigan)

Session 2: Structures: The Codex and Beyond; Bindings