This volume is the material achievement of an international conference entitled Autograph/Holograph and Authorial Manuscripts in Arabic Script that took place at Liège University on 10–11 October 2013. At the conference, seventeen participants gathered to share best practices and to think collectively about the issues raised by these specific manuscripts, that is, the autograph, holograph, and authorial manuscripts. Next to the necessary theoretical frame, we focused on the practical approach to the manuscripts.
Indeed, research specifically dealing with holograph, autograph, or authorial manuscripts in Arabic script is often unplanned and erratic. Nevertheless, these manuscripts raise numerous important questions of interest to a variety of disciplines, such as paleography, codicology, textual criticism, linguistics, and intellectual history (working methods and methodology). These disciplines pose questions such as:
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How can we identify handwriting with a degree of scientific confidence, beyond intuition?
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What are the discriminating criteria? Is there a method to be used/developed?
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Can these books be analyzed like other manuscripts?
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What kinds of information do their specific characteristics offer?
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How important is this category of manuscripts in an editorial process?
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When more than one authorial manuscript of the same text is available, how should we choose the one to use in an editorial process?
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What importance should we give to the status of a manuscript—fair copy, draft, copybook, notebook, etc.—and how should we classify these versions?
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How could holographs improve our knowledge of Arabic?
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What information can we deduce from different authorial versions of the same text?
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What about originality, plagiarism, or even authority?
Among these issues, paleography is particularly significant. In the field of Islamic manuscripts studies, handwriting identification is still a question of experience: experienced scholars can recognize one handwriting at first glance, but no one teaches how to do this. Paleography courses deal with the deciphering and dating of handwritings, not with the specific characteristics that are personal to the scribes, with the only exceptions being some renowned calligraphers or some handwritings in old Qurʾāns. There is no study of informal handwritings or scholars’ hands, and even fewer courses about them. Since both of us are working on a celebrated scholar—respectively al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/1442) and al-Ṣafadī (d. 764/1363)—or on a particular manuscript tradition whose origin is related to a given person—the Egyptian recension of the Thousand and One Nights—, accurate and efficient handwriting identification is crucial for our research work.
We organized this conference because we wanted to think collectively, to give space and time to questions, to share knowledge and experience, discussions, and debate, but also to cross the usual boundaries marking the various fields. Hence, the conference convened not only renowned researchers in Arabic manuscripts (literary, historical, philosophical, or encyclopedic manuscripts), but also specialists of ancient and Byzantine Greek documents, manuscripts, and papyri, and a judicial expert in handwriting identification. The latter delivered a very detailed and pragmatic speech about the methods applied in the legal community. The papers were distributed in five panels, dealing with terminology and methodology; codicology; working methods; paleography; and textual criticism, respectively. The conference discussions were extremely rich and these proceedings are their faithful reflection.
We would like to warmly thank all the participants to the conference and the members of the scientific and organizing committees: Cécile Bonmariage (Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), Yehoshua Frenkel (University of Haifa, Israel), Adam Gacek (formerly McGill University, Montreal, Canada), Retsu Hashizume (Chiba Institute of Science, Japan), Stephen Hirtenstein (Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society, UK), Caroline Macé (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium), Marie-Hélène Marganne (Liège University, Belgium), Elias Muhanna (Brown University, USA), Nobutaka Nakamachi (Konan University, Kobe, Japan), Anne Regourd (CNRS, France), Kristina Richardson (Queens College, New York), Valentina Sagaria Rossi (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy), Tilman Seidensticker (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany), Aida Shalar Gasimova (Baku State University, Azerbaijan), Suha Taji-Farouki (University of Exeter, UK), Anne-Marie Verjans (freelance researcher, Belgium), and Jan Just Witkam (formerly Leiden University, Netherlands). We also express our deepest gratitude to Professor Robert Wisnovsky (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) for sharing with us reproductions of manuscripts quoted by Adam Gacek in his article. Another special thank goes to the two anonymous reviewers whose remarks and critical comments were helpful.
Last but not least, the organization of the conference would not have been possible without the assistance and support of the personnel of Liège University Library, particularly the curator of the Department of Old Prints and Manuscripts, Cécile Oger, whose support was critical for the launch of the small exhibition of manuscripts especially organized on the occasion of the conference. It is also our pleasure to acknowledge the financial and material support of the Faculty of Humanities and the Patrimoine of Liège University, as well as the Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles), without whom this conference could not have been organized.
Frédéric Bauden and Élise Franssen