Throughout the nineteenth century, the British in India feared a vast conspiracy of "Wahhabi" Muslim fanatics that threatened their imperial interests. While the British discourse on so-called Indian Wahhabis has received significant attention from academics, the same is not true of an Indian Muslim discourse on Wahhabis. A closer analysis of the latter not only helps...
Watermarked papers, which served as media for Islamic manuscripts (codices and documents), were imported from Europe at least since the 13th century. The study of trade in papers brings us, therefore, to Global history. This presentation will focus on recently published research on late production papers which were dispatched to the Yemeni and Ethiopian market...
John of Litharb is a fairly well-known Syriac author from the turn of the seventh-and-eighth centuries, who participated in a robust circle of intellectual Christian theologians, historians and philosophers. Although he is known to have authored several important works, due to the accidents of manuscript transmission, only one very short letter of his was thought...
Come hear papyrologist Dr. Naïm Vanthieghem discuss the use of documents, particularly papyri, in the field of Islamic Studies. This informal talk is designed with graduate students in mind and will include ample time for discussion, Q & A, and even trying your hand at deciphering documentary sources. Dr Vantheighem brings experience working directly on...
After Arab armies conquered Egypt in the mid-seventh century, the country's linguistic landscape changed only gradually. Greek, preeminent for centuries as a language of high culture and governance, faded as Arabic advanced to fill these niches. Coptic, which until then had functioned largely as a vernacular, became in its turn a language of culture and...
This free workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to Islamic manuscripts and manuscript culture, using the extensive holdings of the Special Collections at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library. It is intended for advanced students and scholars with backgrounds in Islamic studies and/or manuscript studies. Sessions will be devoted to such topics as parchment and...
Copies of the book will be available for sale from the ASUCLA Bookstore at this event. To RSVP, please click here.
A panel of experts will discuss the ongoing human rights crisis in Xinjiang and the challenges faced by the Uyghur people through the lenses of history, international relations, and social justice advocacy. Jessica Batke is a Senior Editor for ChinaFile. She is an expert on China’s domestic political and social affairs, and served as the...
The linguistic evolution of Egypt has been studied at some length, and with the invaluable evidence offered by the papyrological sources it has been possible to make very fine and detailed observations on the chronology and distribution of linguistic change. The different linguistic balance established by the Egyptian language with the two imperial languages that...
This week-long workshop features leading authorities on the study of Arabic manuscripts. The workshop will equip emerging scholars with the basic tools to conduct research with original handwritten texts in Arabic script. Over the course of five days, participants will learn the basics of codicology, palaeography, and manuscript production and circulation, in the context of...
