Spring 2024New Edition of the Gotha Manuscript Talks

20 February 2024

Photo: Princeton Library

A book from al-Jazzar's library. Princeton Library, MS Garrett 3415Y, fol. 2a.

The Gotha Manuscript Talks are back with three lectures in March and April 2024. The series of talks in Islamic Studies is a cooperation between the Gotha Research Library and the CSMC and is taking place for the sixth time.

On 20 March, Alya Karame (Collège de France), an expert on Islamic Art and material culture, will talk about the journey of the ‘Sulayhid Qur’an’, which was copied in the 11th century and which unfolds stories of connections and belonging within and beyond a short-lived dynasty in which a woman rose to a position of political prominence.

On 10 April, Guy Barak (New York University) talks about the intricate task of classifying al-Jazzar’s library with a suitable adjective: commonly used terms such as ‘Islamic’, ‘Ottoman’, ‘Medieval’, ‘Mamluk’, ‘Syrian’, ‘Palestinian’, et cetera, all seem to conceal as much as they reveal about the library.

Finally, on 24 April, Adam Sabra (University of California) takes a close look at the library of Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ibn Muḥammad al-Bakrī, one of the leading religious scholars of his time, who died suddenly and mysteriously in 1604.

The Gotha Manuscript Talks are organised by the Gotha Research Library in cooperation with Konrad Hirschler of CSMC. The series started in 2021. Previous editions included ‘Scattered, Looted, Vandalized, and Destroyed: Manuscripts and Violence’ (spring 2022), ‘Thinking Manuscript Provenance Beyond Europe’ (fall 2022), and ‘Local Manuscript Brokers: Between Preserving and Selling Literary Heritage’ (spring 2023), and an open-themed series of talks in fall 2023.

• Download the programme of the Gotha Manuscript Talks Spring 2024 series (PDF)

All lectures take place on Wednesday evenings and start at 6:15 pm.