Workshop: Workshop on Libraries, Manuscripts, Readers and Patrons in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Islamicate World, The Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program and Houghton Library, May 5-7, 2025

This paleography workshop examines Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish from the late medieval and early modern periods. We will work on selected manuscripts from the Houghton Library at Harvard during the workshop and digital copies from various Islamic manuscripts. We will read short excerpts from the manuscripts in various scripts, naskh, taʾlīq, and nastalīq. The students will emerge learning basic paleographical skills relevant to the manuscripts. Additionally, during the workshops, the students will have the opportunity to examine the material aspects of the manuscripts, such as bookmaking, bindings and tadhhībs, and other metatextual markings on the manuscripts (medallions of royal scriptoria, ownership records, copy dates, seals, and notes of the librarians that allows the researcher to situate the books in the larger intellectual contexts. We will look at diverse types of manuscripts in the forms of majmūʾah, risālah, and fawāʾid collections.

A few selected readings in English will be provided to be read before the workshop.

The workshop is open to graduate students preparing for the research at the manuscript libraries.

Participation is by application and is limited to 15 graduate students.

Applications will be accepted until April 6, and applicants will be notified whether they have been admitted by April 14.

For application details, see here.