[1]
Tuesday, May 13 & Wednesday, May 14
From Letters to Digits: The Legacy of Arabic Manuscripts in Contemporary Studies – 2nd Escorial Arabic Codicology Alumni Meeting

Organized by Nuria de Castilla (EPHE-PSL)

May 13: Collège de France, Room D2
11, place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris
May 14: Bibliothèque nationale de France Richelieu, Salle des Conférences
2, rue de Vivienne, 75002 Paris

Registration: mss.arabicscriptgmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/100064434712098/posts/1061020206055793/?_rdr

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Programme:

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

9:00 – Welcome
Nuria de Castilla (EPHE–PSL, PROCLAC, Paris)

9:30 – Session 1: Arabic Codicology
Chair: Nuria de Castilla (EPHE–PSL, Paris)

Mónika Schönléber (Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, Hungary) “Tracing the History of Manuscript Restoration: A Codicological Analysis of a 13th-Century Yemeni Codex”

Mathilde Montpetit (New York University) “Using Marginalia to Reconstruct Object Histories: The Case of El Escorial 1673”

Khaoula Trad (CSMC, Hamburg) “Beneath the Ink: Hidden Stories in West African Palimpsests”

Redhwan Karim (Markfield Institute of Higher Education) “Stylistic Features of Fourth-Tenth Century Arabic Colophons, with Particular Attention to Scribal Biographical Details”

12:00 – Session 2: From Materiality to Digital Age
Chair: N. Aboulenien (Goethe University)

Riham Aida Mokrani (EPHE–PSL, Paris) “From Hand to Machine: Capturing the Characteristics of Arabic Calligraphy”

Alicia González (University of Hamburg) “Exploring Islamic Manuscript Catalogues with Large Language Models: Building a Q&A System and Insightful Visualizations”

14:30 – Session 3: Manuscripts Collections
Chair: A. Moghdam (University of Newcastle Library)

Alison Ohta (Royal Asiatic Society, London) & Noha Abou Khatwa (American University, Cairo) “Getting to Grips with a Collection”

Ayse Cicek Unal (Yale University) “From Istanbul to El Escorial: Discovering Ottoman Turkish Heritage in the Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial”

Rawda El Hajji (Bibliotheca Arabica, SAW, Leipzig/CSMC, Hamburg) “The Corpus of Süleyman Efendi and Its Multilayered Manuscripts”

Joud Nassan Agha (CSMC, Hamburg) “Booklists as Cultural and Legal Artefacts: The Case of Khālid al-Naqshabandī’s Endowed Library”

17:00 – Session 4: Manuscripts Trade
Chair: François Déroche (Collège de France, Paris)

Lina Jabali (Tel Aviv University / EPHE–PSL / NLI, Jerusalem) “Beyond the Text: A. S. Yahuda and the Codicological Dimensions of the Islamic Manuscript Trade”

Dagmar Riedel (Columbia University, New York) “Maghribi Manuscripts in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University”

Daniel Lowe (British Library, London) “A New Fragment of the Blue Qur’an in the British Library’s Collection?”

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

9:00 – Session 5: Art History
Chair: A. Karame (Orient Institut Beirut)

Aida Alavi (University of Bordeaux–Montaigne) “The Khamsa of Mawlānā ʿAlī Āsī: Popular Magic and Public Performances in Timurid Iran”

Franziska Kabelitz (Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin) “Codicological Aspects of the Polier Albums in Berlin (Mughal Empire)”

Melis Taner (Özyeğin University, Istanbul) “Itinerant Materia Medica”

11:00 – Session 6: Transmission
Chair: K. Chakor (BnF, Paris)

Zohra Azgal (EPHE–PSL, Paris) “With Letters and Colours: Noting the Qirāʾāt in Qur’anic Manuscripts (12th–16th c.)”

Nadine Löhr (Frankfurt University) “Numbers in the Margins: Siyāq Notation as a Codicological Tool for Tracing Islamic Scientific Manuscripts”

Zsuzsanna Csorba (Avicenna Institute, Hungary) “The Transmission of Knowledge as Witnessed by Manuscripts: A Case Study of Ibn al-Amshāṭī’s Medical Works”

14:00 – Session 7: History of Manuscripts
Chair: L. Tahali (University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir)

Mathilde Boudier (University Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris) “Science, Religion and Law in a Christian Arabic Manuscript: Ambrosiana X201 sup. Reconsidered”

Alessia Zubani (Oxford University) “The Missing Manuscript: Tracing the Legacy of a Sasanian Book on Kings in the Early Islamic World”

Ghayde Ghraowi (Yale University) “Restating a Classic: The Textual Culture of the Rayḥānat al-alibbāʾ”

16:00–17:30 – Hands-On Session (only for the speakers)
With:
François Déroche (Collège de France–PSL, Paris)
Khalid Chakor Alami (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)
Nuria de Castilla (EPHE–PSL)

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[2]
Thursday, May 15 & Friday, May 16
The Book in the Islamicate World: History and Techniques

Organized by François Déroche (Collège de France)

May 15: Salle Halbwachs, Collège de France
11, place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris
May 16: Amphithéâtre Delmas-Marty, Collège de France
11, place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris

Free admission, subject to seating availability.
https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/colloque/le-livre-dans-le-monde-musulman-histoire-et-techniques
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Programme:

Thursday, May 15 – Salle Halbwachs

Morning

9:15 – Introduction

9:30 – Cl. Colini
The booklet and the multi-volume set in the history of the Qur’anic book
(with Alba Fedeli, Giuseppe Marotta, Sowmeya Sathiyamani)

10:00 – F. Déroche
Medieval Moroccan binding in light of the Escorial collection

Coffee break: 10:30 – 11:00

11:00 – M. Sahragard
A newly discovered manuscript from the Ghaznavid court scriptorium: A codicological study of a fragmentary Qur’an dated 434 AH / 1042 CE

11:30 – M. Bernardini
The donation of a Safavid Shāhnāmeh to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in 1093/1682–83 by the Kapudan-i deryā Muṣṭafā Muṣāḥib, based on documents from the Florence state archive

Afternoon

14:00 – L. Tahali
A wandering library: Attempt at a reconstruction of the manuscripts of Mulay Zaydān scattered outside El Escorial

14:30 – J. Jabbour
Avicenna at Topkapı: The Avicennian collections in the catalogue of ʿAṭūf (1502–1504)

Friday, May 16 – Amphithéâtre Delmas-Marty

Morning

9:30 – S. Fani
Strategies of the early modern international book trade: Acquisition and sales by diplomats, scholars, and booksellers in the Islamicate world

10:00 – D. Riedel
Early British collectors and the manuscript trade in India and Iran before the 1820s: The Persian collections of the Ouseley brothers

Coffee break: 10:30 – 11:00

11:00 – Chr. Rauch
Data-supported collection history: Provenance information in the Qalamos portal using the example of the Berlin collection

11:30 – S. Bağcı
Revising the Iskendernāmeh: Akkoyunlu and Safavid Turkmen manuscripts of Ottoman legendary history

Afternoon
14:00 – A. Gallop
Qur’anic art in Southeast Asia: Localising the Sulawesi diaspora geometric style

14:30 – B. Liebrentz
The Manṭiq al-waḥš and the early Arabic illustrated book

Coffee break: 15:00 – 15:30

15:30 – L. Raggetti
Abū al-ʿAlā ibn Zuhr, his library, and the ‘Galenic Book Club’: Bibliophilia, indirect tradition, and the transmission of knowledge in Islamicate scholarship

16:00 – H. Sievert
Traces of lost books: What did high-level bureaucrats read before 1840?

16:30 – Conclusions