Subject: Course on palaeography of early Qur'anic scripts
Introduction to the Palaeography of Early Qur'anic Scripts The Islamic Manuscript Association Course Series University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK 11-13 May 2015 The Islamic Manuscript Association <URL:http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/home.aspx> in cooperation with the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation <URL:http://www.thesaurus-islamicus.li/index.htm> and Cambridge University Library <URL:http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk> is pleased to announce a short course entitled Introduction to the Palaeography of Early Qur'anic Scripts, which will be held at the University of Cambridge 11-13 May 2015 and followed by a one-day symposium on the codicology and palaeography of early Qur'an manuscripts on 14 May 2015. This three-day course will introduce participants to the codicology and palaeography of Qur'an manuscripts made during the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties between the seventh and early eleventh centuries CE. The possible survival of Fatimid manuscripts will also be examined. The course will begin with a description of the historical context in which early Qur'an manuscripts were produced, as well as the discovery of the four major deposits that comprise most of the surviving evidence of these manuscripts: Damascus, Kairouan, Fustat (Cairo), and Sanaa. This will be followed with a brief overview of Islamic codicology, knowledge of which is essential in order to reconstruct the original codices from the extant fragmentary manuscripts. Finally, the course will survey the various early Qur'anic scripts, with a focus on those used in Umayyad and Abbasid Qur'an manuscripts; and participants will learn to identify and read Hijazi scripts and Abbasid script styles B, C, and D by working with actual manuscripts from Cambridge University Library and images from collections in Berlin, Birmingham, Kairouan, Paris, and Tubingen. The day after the course, participants are invited to attend the Symposium on the Codicology and Palaeography of Early Qur'an Manuscripts. Please be advised that course participants do not need to register for the Symposium. The course will be taught by Prof. Frana�ois Deroche, holder of the Chair of History of the Qur'an: Text and Transmission at the College de France and one of the leading scholars of Islamic codicology and palaeography, whose works, including Catalogue des manuscrits arabes, The Abbasid Tradition, and Qur'ans of the Umayyads: A Preliminary Overview, have revolutionised the typology of early Qur'anic scripts. The course is limited to twelve persons for pedagogical and security reasons. All instruction will be in English, but a good reading knowledge of Arabic is required. Further details, including the programme and registration form, can be found at <URL:http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/courses/introduction-to-the-palaeography-of-early-quranic-scripts.aspx> Thanks to the generosity of the Barakat Trust, the Association is very pleased to be able to offer a scholarship for a senior Muslim conservator, codicologist, librarian, art historian, curator, researcher, or any other scholar or specialist of Islamic manuscripts who resides in the Islamic world. <URL:http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/courses/introduction-to-the-palaeography-of-early-quranic-scripts/barakat-trust-scholarship.aspx> The scholarship is offered on a competitive basis and all eligible and interested persons are invited to apply via the registration form by Sunday, 26 April 2015. Davidson MacLaren Executive Director The Islamic Manuscript Association *** Conservation DistList Instance 28:43 Distributed: Saturday, April 11, 2015 Message Id: cdl-28-43-007 ***Received on Friday, 10 April, 2015