Fifth International Society for Arabic Papyrology Conference, Carthage, March 28-31, 2012

The fifth ISAP conference will be hosted by the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, Beït Al-Hikma(/www.baitelhekma.nat.tn) in Carthage. It will be organized by the International Society for Arabic Papyrology in cooperation with the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (Ifao) in Cairo.

The conference will start on the evening of Wednesday, March 28, and continue through Saturday, March 31. The programme will include 20-minute lectures presenting text editions or studies based on documentary material from the Islamic medieval world, workshops in which unedited Arabic documents will be presented, and evening lectures. There will also be the opportunity to visit the National Library of Tunisia (Tunis) and the National Museum of Islamic Arts of Raqqada (Kairouan), which hosts the only collection of Arabic payri in Tunisia, and important early Islamic manuscripts written on parchment.

Participants are supposed to be or become members of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology.

Summary

The fifth conference of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP) will take place at the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, Beït Al-Hikma, in Carthage.

It will bring together scholars using documentary evidence to study the history of the early Islamic world, including Arabic, Coptic, and Greek papyri, paper and other documents, as well as epigraphic and numismatic material. Participants may present their research either as 20-minute papers or within the context of workshops on Greek, Coptic, and Arabic papyrology and palaeography.

Conference Format

The Conference will include 1) text workshops and 2) sessions for the presentation of 20-minute papers and 3) evening lectures at local research institutes. Although the "official language" of the conference is English, papers and workshops may be given in English, French, German, or Arabic.

Text Workshops

These workshops will focus on a single text, or group of texts, to be circulated in advance. The texts used may be in any of the languages of the documentary sources relevant to the history of early Islamic Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world (Greek, Coptic, or Arabic). A translation of the text should also be circulated to allow for the widest possible participation. The presenter will have the first thirty minutes to introduce the text and its problems, and then the remaining hour will be spent in discussion.

Paper Sessions

There will be several sessions during which three or four 20-minute papers, followed by questions and discussion, will be read. While the topics addressed need not focus exclusively on documentary evidence, it is expected that documentary sources will be an integral and substantive part of each paper.

Abstracts and Handouts

The deadline for 400-word abstracts is November 1 2011. Please send abstracts to Sobhi Bouderbala (sbouderbala at ifao.egnet.net). If your presentation will require audio-visual equipment of any kind, please describe what is needed. Notification regarding the acceptance of proposals will be made by the end of November 2011.

Also, please send a copy of all texts and translations to be used in the text workshops by 15 February 2011. These will be made available to participants.

Registration

There will be no conference fee charged. Participants who currently have no membership should renew their membership in Carthage on the first day of the conference. Payments have to be made in cash in Euros, dollars or Tunisian dinars. If you are interested in joining ISAP, information can be found at the ISAP sign-up website.

Please send a notice of intent to participate in the Conference to one of the conference organizers, Petra Sijpesteijn (p.m.sijpesteijn at hum.leidenuniv.nl) or Sobhi Bouderbala (sbouderbala at ifao.egnet.net)

Travel Subsidies

It is hoped that the Conference will be able to offer a few awards for scholars not able to get institutional subventions for travel to Carthage.

Please let us know as soon as possible whether you will be in need for such sponsoring.

Conference Organizers

If you have any further questions about the Conference, please contact: Petra Sijpesteijn (p.m.sijpesteijn at hum.leidenuniv.nl) or Sobhi Bouderbala (sbouderbala at ifao.egnet.net).