Hôtel de Lauzun, Paris
| 14–16 November 2023
14–16 November 2023

Texts as Living Objects

Conference
© Thorsten Probst

Reconsidering Dhayls as a Means for the Study of Authorship and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Age

The conference “Texts as Living Objects” at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris from November 14th to 16th, organised by Philip Bockholt and Sacha Alsancakli, aimed to examine how texts remained relevant throughout the pre-modern and modern periods in the Islamic world, with a focus on the phenomenon of dhayl (pl. dhuyūl) in Arabic, or ẕayl/ẕeyl in Persian and Turkish. As a prominent feature of Islamic manuscript transmission, the term dhayl refers to the act of continuing the narrative of a given text, typically a historical chronicle, up to the time of the amendment.

In addition to the fruitful discussions at the conference venue, the Hôtel de Lauzun, a Parisian city palace from the 17th century, the participants had the opportunity to see a selection of dhayl manuscripts in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

© Philip Bockholt
© Philip Bockholt
© Philip Bockholt
© Philip Bockholt
© Philip Bockholt

Programme

Tuesday, November 14

17:00 –17:30 Welcome & Introduction

  • Maria Szuppe (CNRS/CeRMI)
  • Sacha Alsancakli (Paris) & Philip Bockholt (Münster)

17:30 Keynote

  • Christoph U. Werner (Bamberg): Adding Supplements to Tradition: Reflections on Persian Historiography

18:30 Reception

Wednesday, November 15

10:30 –11:30 Panel I: History I (discussant: Marc Toutant)

  • Maria Szuppe (Paris): Two Ẕayls to a Topographic Guide of Holy Places in Timurid Herat

11:30 –12:00 Coffee break

12:00 –13:00 Panel II: History II (discussant: Maria Szuppe)

  • Philip Bockholt (Münster): A Total Flop after a Bestseller: the Ẕayl-i Ḥabīb al-Siyar by Amīr Maḥmūd
  • Melis Taner (Istanbul): Recontextualizing Soḳolluzāde Ḥasan Paşa’s Universal History

13:00 –14:00 Lunch

14:00 –15:30 Panel III: History III (discussant: Ani Sargsyan)

  • Josef Ženka (Prague): It is Time to let it Go and Start Again: Was Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s Iḥāṭa the Final Blow to Andalusi Ṣila Histories?
  • Sacha Alsancakli (Paris): Relics or Revival? On Ẕayls of Bidlīsī’s Sharafnāma Produced in the Ardalān Emirate
  • Roy Marom (Tel Aviv): Continued Pasts: Samaritan Toleda Extensions and Self-Reflections on History

15:30 –16:00 Coffee break

17:00 –19:00 Visit of the BnF

19:30 Dinner

Thursday, November 16

10:30 –11:30 Panel IV: Biography & Geography (discussant: Renaud Soler)

  • Zeynep Tezer (Florence): Genre-Specificity and Cross- Referencing in Nevʿizāde ʿAṭāʾī’s Ḥadāʾiḳu’l-Ḥaḳāʾiḳ fī Tekmīleti’ş-Şeḳāʾiḳ
  • Fikret Turan (Istanbul): Ẕeyl Works of Şeyḫī Meḥmed b. Ḥasan in Ottoman Turkish and his Cihānnümā-yı Avrūpā on the Geography and Peoples of Europe and the New World

11:30 –12:00 Coffee break

12:00 –13:00 Panel V: Lexicography & Adab (discussant: Aïda El Khiari)

  • Colinda Lindermann (Berlin): Acknowledging the Addition? The Dhayl in Arabic Lexicography
  • Johannes Stephan (Berlin): Co-Writing Tales: An Appendix to an Eighteenth-Century Kalīla wa-Dimna Manuscript

13:00 –14:00 Lunch

14:00 –15:00 Panel VI: Encyclopaedia (discussant: Hülya Çelik)

  • Guglielmo Zucconi (Vienna): Knowledge Compiled, Knowledge Circulated: The Shifting Shapes of the Majmaʿ al-Gharāʾib

15:00 –15:30 Coffee break

15:30 –16:30 Panel VII: Law (discussant: Justine Landau)

  • Hakkı Arslan (Münster): Dhayl-Literature in Islamic Law – Supplements to al-Marghinānīs (d. 1196) al-Hidāya fī Sharḥ al-Bidāya as a Case Study

16:30 –17:00 Concluding discussion

19:00 Dinner