Asterisms: The Relations among their Verbal, Numerical, and Visual Representations across Cultures in Research and Public Outreach, An International Conference, Princeton, Institute for Advanced Study, 14-15 February 2024, Sponsor: Sabine Schmidtke (IAS), Convenor: Sonja Brentjes (MPIWG, IAS), Funding for this event provided by the Otto Neugebauer Fund

Within the format of the Mainz History Talks, a series of three workshops organized by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (JGU) with the overarching title “Mainz-Princeton Symposia: Reflections on Byzantium from a Global Perspective” will take place from 2022 to 2025. These Mainz-Princeton Symposia will seek to situate conceptions of Byzantium within a “global” context by examining the relevance of Byzantium, with each of the three gatherings dedicated to a specific regional or chronological milieu and reflecting upon Byzantium from a global perspective. As a culture and polity geographically spanning three continents and chronologically bridging Antiquity and the Renaissance, Byzantium meant entirely different things to its neighbors at different points in its history. Moreover, beyond examining actual connections between Byzantium and other cultures, leading experts of various disciplines participating in these conversations will be called upon to reflect upon Byzantium and to describe what is Byzantium’s relevance in a general sense as a foil or a point of reference for them, for their approach to global history and their fields more broadly. The second of these three workshops, which will take place from June 28th to 30th, 2023 on the grounds of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, will focus on Byzantium and the Islamicate world. The invitees represent a broad swathe of Byzantine Studies as well as fields touching upon the history of the premodern Middle East. Among other questions, the workshop participants will examine to what extent Byzantium can be understood as part of a broader premodern history of the Islamicate world, even though, despite the empire’s manifold political and cultural connections with that region, it is more often associated with western Latin Europe as well as the Slavic world. Other queries which the gathering’s attendees will attempt answer is what extent does Byzantium figure within conceptions of the premodern Islamicate world, in the sense of a shared cultural space, and what form future cooperation between Byzantine Studies and fields covering the premodern Middle East should take and to what degree disciplinary boundaries are here justified or rather a hindrance.

The colophon, the ultimate or “crowing touch” paragraphs of a manuscript, provides readers with a the historical context in which the scribe produced the manuscript. At its basic essence, the colophon gives us the “metadata” of the manuscript: who was the scribe? When and where was the manuscript pro-duced? For whom was it produced and who paid for it? But colophons are far more rich. They are literary works on their own right, having a style and rhetoric independent of the main literary text of the manuscript. In addition, colophons provide historical facts otherwise lost to histories: wars, earthquakes, religious events, etc. The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars from various disciplines to study colophons in Middle Easter manuscripts in various languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian,* Hebrew, Persian, and Syriac. Scholars interested in participating may send via email a proposal between 750 and 1,000 words. Pro-posals are to focus on the colophon (i.e. not a study of the main literary text of the manuscript). Com-parative analyses across traditions is encouraged but not required. Submission deadline is January 15, 2020. Submissions are to be sent via email directly to George A. Kiraz at [email protected]. Scholars are expected to fund their travel to/from and accommodation in Princeton. The Institute will provide meals and a conference celebratory dinner. Speakers will be invited to contribute to a collected volume on an agreed-upon theme.

Maktabat al-Khānjī Archive Workshop II, Cairo, 13–14 May 2026 (program)

A one-day symposium for Etan Kohlberg, eminent scholar and teacher, great friend and colleague, revolving around the topic of “Medieval (and Premodern) Muslim Scholars at Work”, evoking the title of Etan’s seminal monograph of 1992 on Ibn Ṭāwūs.

The inaugural symposium of the Persian Manuscripts Association, celebrates the 600th anniversary of the first manuscript produced at the royal library-atelier of the Timurid Prince Baysunghur (1399-1433) in Herat. Prince Baysunghur, Before and After: Timurid Manuscripts in Context, is a two-day international symposium, held on 5-6 November 2021, and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Baysunghur’s patronage of manuscript production is significant for exhibiting a high artistic refinement in the arts of the book, but the patron was also actively involved in the scholarly aspect of the works to be reproduced. He commanded editions and the preservation of texts in a variety of fields, notably history, ethics and literature. This symposium brings together scholars and international experts in a number of disciplines to explore the connoisseurship and patronage undertaken by the prince, the aesthetic of his atelier’s output, their antecedents in the Jalayirid period, and the production of literary editions in his library.

Call for Proposals: This interdisciplinary workshop examines the prologue as a distinct textual and material space within Middle Eastern manuscript cultures — the threshold at which authors, scribes, translators, and patrons speak in their own voice before the main text begins. The event seeks to explore how prologues negotiate authority, intention, and audience, and how they shape the reception of the works they introduce. Topics may include the rhetorical conventions of prologues (invocations, dedications, statements of purpose, captatio benevolentiae); prologues as sites of authorial and translatorial self-presentation; the relationship between prologues, colophons, and other paratexts; prologues added, altered, or omitted across copies and translations; the use of prologues to stake claims of “orthodoxy,” patronage, or lineage; comparative and cross-confessional approaches to introductory conventions; and the afterlife of prologues in print editions and modern scholarship. This across-discipline workshop aims to cover manuscripts in various languages, including, but not limited to, (Judeo-)Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and (Judeo-)Persian, in addition to the ancient languages of Egypt and Mesopotamia. All time periods are of interest. Our workshop series gives speakers ample time to present (30 to 45 minutes depending on submissions), as well as ample sessions of discussion (30 minutes each). The purpose is to provide a space where scholars can engage with each other and learn from different disciplines. Junior scholars are encouraged to submit. Date: April 15–16, 2027 Venue: University of Salzburg, Faculty of Catholic Theology, Department of Biblical Studies and Ecclesiastical History (Universitätsplatz 1, 5020 Salzburg Conveners: George A. Kiraz, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Sabine Schmidtke, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Yury Arzhanov, University of Salzburg Titles and abstracts (750–1000 words) should be submitted by January 1, 2027, to Sabine Schmidtke at [email protected]. Scholars are expected to fund their travel to/from and accommodation in Salzburg. Meals will be provided. Speakers will be invited to contribute to a proceedings volume. All contributions will undergo a double-blind peer-review process. For Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions (MEMaT), a multidisciplinary project that aims to study various aspects of manuscript production, utilization, and transmission history, see http://www.ias.edu/hs/islamic-world/memat.

The object of this lecture series is to bring together scholars and librarians engaged with collections of correspondences and/or include related projects that use appropriate digital tools to map and analyze such corpora. It is hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (NES@IAS) and María Mercedes Tuya (Digital Scholarship@IAS).

Most scholars who employ manuscripts in their research tend to focus on the literary content itself. But what about the role of the scribe who typically remains at the periphery of research? How can we, in the words of the NT textual critic James Royse, “virtually look over the scribe’s shoulder” to understand the process by which our manuscripts were produced. The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars from various disciplines to study the individuals who produced our manuscripts and how they shaped the transmission of literary texts they copied. This workshop will focus on Middle Eastern manuscripts written in Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Coptic and other languages.

Throughout the history of Christianity, various systems have been used to divide the text of the New Testament Gospels. The oldest systems originated in Late Antiquity and were developed in the Greek manuscript tradition. Examples include the Eusebian cross-reference system, the divisions attested in Codex Vaticanus, and chapters first attested in Codex Alexandrinus. Once the New Testament Gospels were transferred into new cultural spheres and languages, elements of some old systems were preserved or adapted while new ones were introduced. The analysis of the various systems of division in the Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic manuscript traditions is still in its infancy. During the panel workshop, we will present examples of some of the most widely attested division systems in these manuscript traditions, focusing on manuscripts with the continuous text of the New Testament Gospels (or some of them).

This interdisciplinary workshop aims to explore the rich and complex role of biblical manuscripts within Middle Eastern cultures, past and present. The event seeks to highlight the diverse scribal practices, transmission histories, and cultural interpretations that have shaped the reception of the Bible across the region.

“The Visual Scribe: Tables and Diagrams in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Workshop,” Institute for the History of Knowledge in the Ancient World at Freie Universität Berlin, April 10-11, 2025, convenors: Sonja Brentjes, George A. Kiraz, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Sabine Schmidtke

Call for Proposals The “Oriental” Book Trade in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: An International Workshop Convenors: Vincent Engelhardt (Leiden University) & Sabine Schmidtke (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ) Date and Venue: Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), University of Hamburg, 29-30 April 2027 The expansion of Oriental Studies beyond the Middle East, together with the spread of the printing press within the region, created a growing demand for manuscripts and printed books in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and related languages across North Africa, West Asia, Europe, the United States, and Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In response, the number of book traders grew considerably. Some operated from Europe—among them Otto Harrassowitz, S. Calvary & Co., and Paul Haupt—while others were based in the Middle East, such as Isaac Benjamin Yahuda, Muhammad Amin al-Khanji, Farajallah Zaki al-Kurdi, and Riza Nasrullah. These two groups worked in close interdependence. Western traders generally relied on partners in the region, while their Middle Eastern counterparts depended on intermediaries who could correspond with Western institutions and sustain ties to the academic world beyond the Middle East. Many Middle Eastern traders also operated printing presses and dealt in manuscripts—activities that some Western traders shared as well.The workshop foregrounds the activities of these book traders at the intersection of manuscripts and printed books. It ultimately questions the very distinction between handwritten and printed books at the time. This workshop invites case studies of such publishers, traders, and intermediaries, examining their networks, business practices, and/or contributions to the transregional circulation of knowledge. We welcome contributions from scholars at all career stages and from a range of disciplinary perspectives. We intend to publish a selection of the papers in a peer-reviewed volume, and we encourage contributors to prepare their work with eventual publication in mind. Submission details Please send an abstract of no more than 400 words, together with a short biographical note (approximately 100 words), to [email protected]. Deadline for proposals: 30 October 2026 Notification of acceptance: by 30 November 2026 The working language of the workshop is English. A limited amount of funding is available to support travel and accommodation for participants who require it; please indicate any such need when you submit your proposal.

Yemen’s war and humanitarian crisis are in the news, but very little is known about the rich cultural heritage of the southwestern corner of Arabia throughout history. Also largely unknown are Yemen’s geographic and economic diversity or their impact on recent events. Yemen’s diversity owes much to conquest, trade, and migration between Yemen and Christian Ethiopia, Sassanian and Islamic Iran, Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt, Ottoman Turkey, the African coast and Southeast Asia. In this panel experts on different periods of Yemeni history and its diverse contemporary contexts probe beyond current politics to share their insights and discuss potentials for future scholarly research on Yemen.

YEMEN UNDER THE RULE OF IMAM YAHYA (1904-1948): A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SOURCES WORKSHOP CONVENORS: Sabine Schmidtke (IAS Princeton), Marieke Brandt (ÖAW/AAS), Valentina Sagaria Rossi (IAS Princeton), Jan Thiele (CSIC Madrid) A workshop supported by the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation