Intensive Course on Arabic Manuscripts and Early Qur’ans
Princeton, New Jersey (USA) June 9-13, 2014
Thanks to a number of generous grants from the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic
Project, over the last few years the Near Eastern Studies Department at
Princeton University has organized a series of short, intensive courses for
graduate students on a variety of subjects in the broad field of Islamic
studies not normally covered in the Princeton curriculum. In each case, an
internationally-recognized expert has been brought in to teach the course
over a period of five weekdays.
This year, we plan to offer such a course on Arabic Manuscripts and early
Qur’ans.
The course will take place in June, starting on Monday June 9, and ending on
Friday, June 13, 2014. The course is intended primarily for graduate
students, both from Princeton and from other universities; applicants should
have some knowledge medieval Middle Eastern history.
The instructor will be François Déroche of the École pratique des hautes
etudes in Paris, a distinguished expert on Arabic manuscripts and the
history of the text of the Qur’an who has published widely on these topics.
The first part of the course (4 days) will offer an introduction to the
material aspects of the Arabic manuscript tradition, alternating between
illustrated presentations of the various components -writing surfaces,
quires, bindings, etc.- and sessions with actual manuscripts from the
holdings of Princeton University Library –the idea being that the
participants should be able to produce a codicological description of a
manuscript at the end of the course. Although some knowledge of Arabic may
be useful, it is open to non-specialists of Oriental languages. The second
part (1 day) will be devoted to the early handwritten transmission of the
Qur’anic text (7th to early 10th century AD), emphasis being given to its
beginnings until the end of the Umayyad period: it will cover the
historical, textual, codicological and art historical aspects of the
subject.
Application process and deadlines
Applications must be emailed to Judy Schedneck (
<mailto:jschedne@princeton.edu> jschedne@princeton.edu) at the Near Eastern
Studies Department at Princeton University by February 21, 2014. The subject
line of the email should read, “Application for Arabic Manuscripts
Workshop.” Applications should comprise the following:
Letter of application with statement of interest
CV
Names, positions, and email addresses of two referees
All items should be included in a single attachment, which may be a pdf.
Successful applicants will be notified in mid-to-late March 2014 and
students accepted for the course but coming from outside of Princeton will
receive partial scholarships to help defray travel and accommodation costs.