2021 Virtual Conference
Arabic-Script Manuscripts in Africa
The Islamic Manuscript Association and Bibliotheca Alexandrina —in partnership with the library’s Manuscripts Center and the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation—organized the conference Arabic-Script Manuscripts in Africa, which was held remotely via Zoom at Bibliotheca Alexandrina from 12 to 16 September 2021.
The conference comprised five panels featuring original, current research on the Arabic-script manuscript cultures of North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the care and management of manuscript collections across the continent:
Panel 1, First Session: Historical Traditions of Arabic-Script Manuscripts in AfricaPanel 1, Second Session: Historical Traditions of Arabic-Script Manuscripts in Africa
Panel 2: Manuscript Libraries and Written Heritage Centres in Africa
Panel 3: African Arabic-Script Languages
Panel 4: Cataloguing, Editing, Research and Publishing
Panel 5: Preservation, Conservation and Digitization
Additionally, the conference included five workshops corresponding to the themes of the panels. The organizers will publish presented papers in an edited volume of proceedings.
For more information, please visit the conference’s website (asmiaconference.org), and YouTube channel (Arabic-ScriptManuscripts in Africa), and see its Facebook (@Arabic-Script Manuscripts in Africa) and Twitter (@ASMIACONFERENCE) accounts.
Islamic Manuscript Conference Series: Introduction
The Islamic Manuscript Association's conferences have been held at the University of Cambridge every summer since 2005 in partnership with the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation and the University’s Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, now renamed the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies. Each conference gathers a large number of people from around the world to share current scholarship on Islamic manuscripts, particularly Islamic codicology and disciplines related to the care and management of Islamic manuscript collections, as well as to discuss the problems experienced by those working with Islamic manuscripts and to propose constructive and sustainable solutions.
Conferences have also featured technical training sessions; these have included an introduction to pest management in libraries and museums and the demonstration of a vacuum packing machine for the recovery of disaster-damaged manuscripts.
Past Conferences:
| 2016 | |
| 2014 | |
| 2013 | |
| 2012 | |
| 2011 | |
| 2010 | |
| 2009 | |
| 2008 | |
| 2007 |
New Techniques and Technologies for Conservation and Digitisation |
| 2006 | |
| 2005 |
Conservation, Cataloguing, Accessibility, Copyright, and Digitisation |