Qur’anic Manuscript Conference

Die Central European University hält vom 4.-6. Mai 2017 eine die ‚Qur’anic Manuscript Conference‚ ab.

Das Programm:

Thursday, 4 May

5:30 – 6:30 PM  Keynote Address by François Déroche (Collège de France)
Location: CEU, Nador 15, Auditorium B

6:30 – 7:30 PM Reception

Friday, 5 May

9:00-11:00 AM Session 1. Marginalia in Arabic Papyrology and Epigraphy: From the Perspective of Dated Documents

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

The documentary evidence of dated Arabic papyri played an important role in the last century for supporting the dating of early Qur’ānic manuscripts. The session focuses on new elements featured in papyri and epigraphic materials and their role in comparison with undated manuscripts from the beginning of Islam, although they seem to be neglected in the recent discussions regarding dating.

Panel Speakers
Eva Mira Youssef-Grob (Asien-Orient-Institut, University of Zurich)
Frédéric Imbert (Institut français du Proche-Orient – Ifpo Beirut)

11:00 – 11:20 AM  Coffee Break

11:20 – 12:40 AM    Session 2. The Textual Transmission of the Qur’an: The Qirā’āt Context

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

The session explores the characteristics of the later qirā’āt tradition as the comprehension of the relationship between qirā’āt and manuscript texts is essential in understanding the context of early undated Qur’anic fragments.

Panel Speakers
Silini Naila (Université de Sousse, Tunisie)
Shady Nasser (Harvard University)

12:40 – 1:40 PM  Lunch

1:40 – 4:00 pm  Session 3. Overview – Current Qur’anic Manuscripts projects

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

Overview of the most recent projects in the field of Qur’anic manuscript studies, focusing on the materiality of these artefacts. The overview aims to present and discuss both collaborative and individual projects.

Panel Speakers
Michael Marx (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften)
Efim Rezvan (Kunstcamera, St. Petersburg)
Morteza Karimi-Nia (Islamic  Azad University of Tehran)

4:00 – 4:20 AM  Coffee Break

4:20 – 6:40 pm   Session 4. Policy and Politics of Access to material and immaterial objects

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

Access to manuscripts is the essential condition for realising projects such as this, but not all libraries have the same policies on availability and online access. This session is concerned with three different cases: the Cambridge Digital Library, and two examples of projects which seem to have been unsuccessful: the Italian project for cataloguing and studying the new manuscripts discovered in the Great Mosque of Sana’a in 2007 and the project of Sergio Noja Noseda.

Panel Speakers
Yasmin Faghihi (Cambridge University Library)
Huw Jones, Cambridge University Library)
Mario Boffo (Italian Ambassador to Yemen)
Monsignor Pier Francesco Fumagalli (Biblioteca Ambrosiana)

Saturday, 6 May

9.00-11.10 AM Session 5. Perspectives on Digital Encoding

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

Digital editing, digital philology or the new philology is a revolutionary approach to textual philology, not only because of the technical possibilities it affords, but also because it represents a radical change in approaching texts, textual variations and processes of entextualisation seemingly better in conformity with the historical conditions of textual composition and circulation of the Qur’an and vary many other texts. Example of documentary editions/databases and phylogenetic analysis of Qur’anic manuscripts will be illustrated.

Panel Speakers
Huw Jones (Cambridge University Library)
Alba Fedeli (CEU)
Andrew Edmondson (University of Birmingham)

11.10-11.30   Coffee Break

11.30-1.30 PM  Session 6. Roundtable. Prospects in Perspective: Implications and impact of the material evidence

Location: Nador 15, Room 103

The session aims to consider the implications and impact of the material evidence for Qur’anic studies at large.

Josef van Ess (University of Tübingen)
François Déroche (Collège de France)
Walid Saleh (Toronto)
Aziz Al-Azmeh (CEU)

1:30-2:30 PM   Lunch

2:30 PM Closing Remarks