Islamic Manuscript Studies

"The Islamic Manuscript Association is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting Islamic manuscript collections and supporting those who work with them. It was formed in response to the urgent need to address the poor preservation and inaccessibility of many Islamic manuscript collections around the world."

UK-based cultural foundation whose mission is "To survey, preserve, study and publish the Islamic written heritage, as well as assist and promote the research in its fields."

"مرکز پژوهشی میراث مکتوب در سال 1372 ش به قصد حمایت از کوشش های محققان و مصححان و احیا و انتشار مهمترین آثار مکتوب فرهنگ و تمدن اسلامی و ایرانی با نام «دفتر نشر میراث مکتوب» با کمک وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی تأسیس شد..."

“The Persian Manuscripts Association (PMA) is an international academic organisation dedicated to the support and promotion of research on Islamicate manuscripts of the vast Persianate world. This includes Iran and all regions that historically participated in or interfaced with persophone culture, from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to India and China in the east.”

"...dedicated to the study of the material technology of Persian manuscripts. Our goal is to investigate the intricate materials utilized in historical Persian manuscripts, shedding light on the methods and techniques derived from historical recipes mainly between the Taimurid to Qajar dynasties of Persia (15th-19th centuries). Accompanied by images captured during the reconstruction process following the historical recipes, we aim to provide an immersive exploration into the material heritage of Persian manuscripts."

"معهد المخطوطات العربية جهاز خدمات علمية متخصص من أجهزة المنظمة العربية للتربية والثقافة والعلوم (إحدى منظمات جامعة الدول العربية)، يُعنى بالتراث العربي المخطوط بمختلف أصعدته؛ جمعًا وإتاحةً، صيانةً وترميمًا، فهرسةً وتعريفًا، دراسةً وتوظيفًا."

"وضع هذا المركز منذ ميلاده مجموعة من الأهداف تتلخص في الآتي: يسعى المركز إلى تنشيط مجال البحث العلمي، والإسهام في الحفاظ على الخصوصيات الدينية والثقافية لبلادنا، من خلال الاهتمام بالمجالات المتصلة بإحياء التراث وتحقيق المخطوطات..."

State institution (within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) particularly concerned with preservation, documentation, and engagement with the historical manuscript collections of Turkey, but also with supporting research on these works and their related manuscript cultures.

"Based on the work of the DFG-Reasearch Group 963 - "Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Afrika" (2008-2011) the Centre for the Studies of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) is engaged in fundamental research, investigating from both a historical and comparative perspective, based on material artifacts, the empirical diversity of manuscript cultures. It will establish a new paradigm that is distinct from the research on manuscripts undertaken until now, which has been limited in its approach by region and discipline. On one hand, the cultural dependency of what has usually been considered given will particularly be brought into question, and on the other hand, universal categories and characteristics of manuscript cultures will be delineated, as one possible result of the comparative research."

Cooperative network dedicated to academic dialogue in the field of oriental manuscript studies. History: "The program, scheduled for the years 2009-2014, aims at facilitating cross-cultural academic dialogue and active exchange in the field of Oriental manuscript studies with the focus on the Mediterranean and North African cultural areas....Not only specialists working in different cultural fields but also those dealing with different subdisciplines of manuscript studies will combine their expertise working in five internationally composed research teams 1: codicology and palaeography, 2: philology/text criticism, 3: digital approach to manuscript studies, 4: cataloguing, 5: manuscript preservation). In a series of workshops, meetings and conferences, common approaches will be achieved that will serve as standard for contemporary and future Orientalists and manuscript scholars. Relevant by-products of the RNP will include a series of publications, digital databases and a textbook in Oriental manuscript studies. The aims set can only be achieved through a Europe-wide co-operation."

"La base de données Ex(-)Libris ex Oriente (ELEO) est destinée à permettre l'étude des éléments paratextuels liés à la transmission du livre en Islam.... Sera mise en ligne dès que la base contiendra un nombre significatif de marques (environ 10.000)"

"The Bibliotheca Arabica project is dedicated to centuries of this written tradition that have not thus far received sufficient attention from scholars. By combining literary and manuscript studies, the project aims to gain new insights into Arabic literature from 1150 to 1850 CE. Ways of production, transmission, and reception of texts will be analysed with a transregional perspective that will go beyond the famous cultural centres, namely Egypt and Syria. Together with the works of literature themselves—including religious and scientific texts—focus is placed on individuals, such as authors who wrote on specific topics, readers who made use of certain works, owners who collected the manuscripts into libraries, and scholars who commented on various works and ensured their transmission through time and across regions. Recording and cross-linking names and activities in a digital research platform will create a resource for exploring the local and translocal dynamics that shaped cultural life. To this end, the project’s online database will integrate specific information from manuscript catalogues (such as titles, names, institutions, locations, and dates), as well as notes from within the manuscripts themselves (such as readers’ and owners’ entries, colophons, and selected annotations)."

"The mission of the Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI) is to make accessible information on all Islamic manuscripts in the exact sciences (astronomy, mathematics, optics, mathematical geography, music, mechanics, and related disciplines), whether in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or other languages."

"a multidisciplinary project which aims at studying various aspects of manuscript production, utilization, and transmission history."

"The Manuscript Migration Lab is an interdisciplinary hub where scholars and students investigate the complex lives and afterlives of the rare books and manuscripts held by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University."