International conference Autograph/holograph and authorial manuscripts in Arabic script.

10-12 October 2013,

Université de Liège (Belgium).
 

* Call for papers *

By definition and in broad terms, an autograph manuscript is a book, document, etc., handwritten by its author. The term autograph is now often used instead of holograph which normally designates a manuscript fully handwritten by an author. An authorial manuscript can be holograph or autograph: it may have been either written by the author himself or copied by a scribe whose work was then corrected by the author. Consequently, this category of manuscripts represents a stage (preliminary or final) in the redaction of the text intended by the author for the contents as well as the language used.
 

The material characteristics of both categories of manuscripts are specific to the time and the region in which the author composed his text. Codicological and textual studies about autograph/holograph and authorial manuscripts are thus steadily-founded and favorable to insightful conclusions. Unfortunately, they have received little attention in the field of Islamic studies though there is a wealth of material available.
 

The aim of the conference is to focus on four main aspects of the research about autograph/holograph and authorial manuscripts:

– codicology: can these books be analyzed as any other manuscript is? Do their pecularities, if any, bring forward particular pieces of information?
– paleography: how can one identify a handwriting with a certain degree of scientific confidence, beyond intuition? What are the discriminating criteria? Is there a method to be used/developed?
– textual criticism: how important is this category of manuscripts in an editorial process? Which strategy to choose when more than just one authorial manuscript of the same text is available? Should one study them separately or by comparison? What importance is to be given to the status of a manuscript (fair copy, draft, copybook, notebook, etc.)? How to classify all these versions? How can the study of authorial manuscripts improve our knowledge of Arabic in linguistic terms?
– working method: what benefit can be drawn from different autograph versions of a same text? Which information can be deduced from them? Is there a specific methodology or composing process? What about originality, plagiarism, or even authority?
 

Please note that papers presenting the discovery of an autograph manuscript will be taken into account only if they approach at least one the theoretical aspect listed above. Those who wish to participate are kindly requested to send a provisional title together with an abstract of no more than 300 words to the organizing committee. The deadline for submission is 31 January 2013. A circular containing more details on the organization of the conference will be sent to those whose papers will have been accepted.
The duration of each conference paper is 30 minutes inclusive 10 minutes of discussion and questions. English and French will be the languages of the conference.
Speakers must pay for their own transportation and hotel accommodation. Liège can easily be reached by train (one hour) from the major international airport of Brussels. A conference hotel rate will be available and most hotels are within walking distance of the campus. Those wishing to attend but not to speak should register in advance to guarantee space is available.

Source: APILIST