Archives and Archival Practices: Documentary Corpora from the Islamicate World Thursday, 23 September, 03:00pm-05:30pm CEST Friday, 24 September, 03:00pm-05:40pm CEST Zoom-Meeting (original) (raw)

From the Archetypical Archive to Cultures of Documentation

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2019

This essay argues that recent theoretical literature on the archive contains critical insights for studies of Islamic documents, while also pushing to move beyond some of the core assumptions of that same literature. There is no question that the fundamental concerns of an "archival turn" are every bit as relevant to studies of Islamic societies, past and present, as they are to European-dominated ones. Yet investigating Islamic "archives" presents the challenge of coming to terms with a concept-the archive-and an attending set of assumptions and theoretical baggage derived almost exclusively from European history. To address this challenge, we propose that employing the term "cultures of documentation" offers a way of having one's cake and eating it too. In deploying this expression, we signal that there existed multitudes of textual practices and record-keeping activities in the pre-industrial Islamic world, and that it is possible to move away from "archive" as a term without abandoning the core insights and questions of the historical literature built around it.

Call for Papers, Tenth Islamic Manuscript Conference, 2014

e Tenth Islamic Manuscript Conference will be an occasion to re ect on progress in conservation, preservation, cataloguing, digitisation and research relating to Islamic manuscripts and manuscript collections during the decade since the founding of the Association and to look ahead to anticipated developments in these elds over the next ten years. e conference's special theme -Manuscripts and Con ict -will also constitute a timely opportunity to consider the above subject areas within the intensifying contexts of acute social and political instability or military con ict. Invited keynote speakers, round table sessions, poster presentations, and workshops will promote active participation in a cutting-edge discussion of these subjects.

Archival Practices in the Muslim World prior to 1500

Bausi, Alessandro et al, (eds.), Manuscripts and Archives. Comparative Views on Record-Keeping. Berlin (de Gruyter) 2018

This paper is basically a critical evaluation of the current debate on the question of why so little remains of a large body of documents from both government and cadis' offices from the pre-Ottoman Muslim world. It also tries to enlarge the regional basis of the debate by including the state of affairs in Persian-speaking lands. The focus is put on archival practices here: who stored which documents, where, and why? Archival practices included discarding and documents that were no longer required. This is closely linked to the reuse of writing materials as draft paper. A central question here is who actually kept archives and in particular whether this was an institutional task or a private matter. One new perspective is research on the physical forms of document storage (containers and buildings). The legal and social context of writing down documents and storing them is also mentioned briefly, as this also needs to be addressed by future studies. Ultimately, research on archival practices may offer better prospects of enlarging the pool of sources for the social history of the Near and Middle East than continuing to search for The Great Central State Archive.

INTRODUCTION TO ARABO-ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT CULTURE: An Intensive Course

Introduction to Arabo-Islamic Manuscript Culture is an Intensive Course organized by Qatar National Library and the Chair of Islamic History and Culture, University of Tübingen, Germany At the heart of this introductory course are manuscripts and the knowledge they contain. The course consists of six open lectures and three closed practical sessions, taking students on an exploration of Islamic intellectual heritage from its origins to the modern era. The lectures begin by tracing fundamental perspectives of heritage, along with related terms, concepts and disciplines dealing with manuscripts. After a survey of writing materials and formats, we will focus on the Arabo-Islamic manuscript tradition, outlining its textual and physical aspects. We will also discuss the cultural history of the Qur’an and Hadith documentation and authorship, as well as issues in the history of reading, learning and the transmission of knowledge, the role of libraries, the book trade, and the preparation of editions. In this course, we follow the dynamic life cycle of the manuscript and the text, starting from the origin of the work (authorship) and its manifestations and textual relations, through the production of the manuscript(s), until the reception of both in the past and present, considering the social and cultural contexts. By the end of the course, you will have the basic knowledge and context to better understand the intellectual and social contexts of Arabo-Islamic books and deal with manuscripts in Arabic language and script. The course will be delivered by Mahmoud Zaki, Manuscript Librarian at Qatar National Library, and Regula Forster, Professor of Islamic History and Culture at the University of Tübingen, with Juliane Müller, Research Associate at the Department of Oriental and Islamic Studies of the University of Tübingen, as a guest lecturer.

How Conservation Can Unveil the Story of a Manuscript. An Arabic Qurʾan Commentary from the Yemen

Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2016

Ancient items have a long and often adventurous story to tell, which forms a significant part of their historical value. Knowing how to make an artefact tell this narrative is as much a part of a conservator's job as taking care of its physical form. Manuscript Or. 78a from the Library of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana in Rome is an emblematic case. This uncatalogued and damaged specimen disclosed its rarity and value during the conservation intervention. Its story begins in 14th-century Rasulid Yemen, but presents a Mamluk-style miniature, traces of different sewings and several possession notes, unveiling its journey to join Prince Leone Caetani's collection between 1888-1911. This article retraces the steps that brought it from its original home to its present location and then to the conservator's bench, and explains the conservation and preservation decisions taken in light of the item's unique vicissitudes.