Date: September 4–8, 2017

Venue: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK

The Islamic Manuscript Association—in partnership with the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, Cambridge University Library, and the University of Cambridge’s HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies and Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies—announces its eleventh annual Cambridge-based Introduction to Islamic Codicology course, which will be held from 4 to 8 September 2017.

This intensive five-day course will introduce the study of Islamic manuscript codices as physical objects, or the archaeology of the Islamic book. Daily illustrated lectures will provide an overview of writing supports, the structure of quires, ruling and page layout, bookbinding, ornamentation, tools and materials used in book making, and the palaeography of book hands. Participants may choose to register for hands-on sessions during which they will examine Islamic manuscripts from Cambridge University Library and complete a series of practical exercises on manuscript description.

The course will be taught by Professor François Déroche, holder of the Chair of History of the Qur’an, Text and Transmission at the Collège de France, and Professor Nuria Martínez de Castilla Muñoz, Professor of the Codicology and History of the Manuscript Book in the Islamicate World, École Pratique des Hautes Études, both leading scholars of Islamic codicology and palaeography.

All instruction will be in English. The course does not require a knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or other languages spoken in the Muslim World, and is suitable for art historians, bookbinders, codicologists, conservators, curators, and anyone else working with Islamic manuscripts.

The full course, including lectures and hands-on sessions, is limited to twelve persons for conservation and security reasons.

Source: The Islamic Manuscript Association