Speaker：
Professor Frederic Bauden (Chair Professor of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies, University of Liege)

Title：
Towards an Archaeology of Scholarship in Premodern Islam: Investigating the Working Method of Scholars

Date：
May 11, 2015 (Monday) at 18:00-19:30

Venue：
Room 304, 3rd floor,Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (Tobunken), the University of Tokyo

Abstract：
The process of writing in all its complexity, i.e. since an author hits upon the idea of writing a book on a given subject, until the moment when the work is published and distributed, is one of the least understood and studied concepts of scholarship, whatever the field considered, and as such certainly constitutes one of the most exciting challenges for the researcher. Though thousands of autograph manuscripts have been preserved in Islam, the issue of the production of texts has drawn little attention from scholars working in the field of Middle Eastern studies. Some of these manuscripts represent essential witnesses of the working method of their authors as they correspond to one of the various stages of their work: preparatory texts, summaries of other sources, common-place books, drafts, fair copies. The scrutiny of these categories of manuscripts allows a reconstruction of the modus operandi of premodern authors. By digging into the layers of the witnesses of an author’s production, like an archaeologist, the searcher is able to better approach the question of the writing process in Islam.

The lecture will be in English. Open to public and no registration required.

Contact person： Kazuo Morimoto,morikazu[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp