Middle Eastern Manuscript Tranditions

Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions

Events:

Upcoming

April 10-11, 2025: The Visual Scribe: Tables and Diagrams in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Workshop. 

Past

May 2024, Misattributions and Forgeries in Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions Workshop.

May 2023, Multilingual Manuscripts in Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions Workshop

June 2021, Colophons in Middle Eastern Manuscripts 

April 2021, Simtho: The Syriac Thesaurus Launch

May 2019, Scribal Habits in Middle Eastern Manuscripts

June 2018, Dots, Marginalia and Peritexts in Middle Eastern Manuscripts

June 2016, 'Allographic Traditions' among Arabic-speaking Christians, Jews and Samaritans

Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions (MEMaT) is a multidisciplinary project which aims at studying various aspects of manuscript production, utilization, and transmission history. The project is a collaboration between Sabine Schmidtke (IAS) and George A. Kiraz (IAS and Beth Mardutho). It brings together specialists with expertise in a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The activities are focused on holding workshops and publishing books on the topic.

Upcoming Workshop - Call for Proposals: 
April 10-11, 2025: The Visual Scribe: Tables and Diagrams in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Workshop. Conveners: George A. Kiraz (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Mathieu Ossendrijver (Freie Universität Berlin), Sabine Schmidtke (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) and Sonja Brentjes (Independent Scholar).


 

Publications:

Literary Snippets: A Colophon Reader, (2024, Gorgias Press), edited by George Anton Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Literary Snippets: Colophons across Space and Time, (2023, Gorgias Press), edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies 

Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions, Volume 23 (2021) in the series Texts and Studies (Third Series) [Gorgias Press], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Writing in My Own Script: Allographic and Garshunographic Systems in Late Antiquity. Part Two = Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 8 i (2020) [Leiden: Brill], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Writing in My Own Script: Allographic and Garshunographic Systems in Late Antiquity. Part One = Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 7 ii-iii (2019) [Leiden: Brill], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Islamic Studies
Manuscript Traditions
Near Eastern Studies