Studies on the materiality and history of the manuscript book in the Arab-Islamic world provide a better understanding of a tradition that spans eighteen centuries - printing only having begun to play an effective role at a late date. We are therefore dealing with an enormous heritage, scattered over a geographical area that stretches from the shores of the Atlantic to the archipelagos of the Pacific, from the steppes of Central Asia to the African coasts of the Indian Ocean. Without claiming to exhaust the richness and diversity of a field that is the subject of much research, the colloquium offers a few glimpses, highlighting some of the approaches that characterize current studies.
The symposium is supported by The Hugot Foundation and the Max van Berchem Foundation.
