Presentation

Given the rich calligraphic tradition of the Arabic script and its evolution through history, it is remarkable that the Cairo edition of the Qur’an appears to break with this calligraphic tradition in a number of cases. Because of its wide dissemination, this typeset edition seems to have become the image of the sole, uncreated timeless text of the Qur’an, as sometimes is claimed by conservative Muslim theology. Because of this, the complex textual history of the Qur’an manifested in such a rich cultural heritage of textual variations and manuscripts unfortunately gets sidelined and neglected. It is precisely the aim of the project to counter the ahistoric character of the Cairo edition and to contribute to a reevaluation of its text in its position as the standard edition of the Qur’an in Islam.

During the workshop, specialists in Arabic palaeography, codicology, and the Qur’an will discuss issues related to the transmission of the Qur’anic text. The workshop is conceived as an interdisciplinary event bringing together scholars from the field of palaeography, Qur’anic studies, manuscripts, Islamic sources and evolution of Arabic script. All these different fields of study bearing on the textual history of the Qur’an will be linked with knowledge about computer technology to bridge the gap that still exists between philological knowledge and computer techniques. The desired outcome of a data base prototype to serve as a scientific tool in Qur’anic studies will be discussed during the workshop. The data base prototype will be crucial for the larger project on the Qur’an in its textual and manuscript tradition.

The submitted project aims at using modern computer techniques to analyse the Qur’an. For this purpose it is necessary to bring together specialists in the oldest manuscript traditions, scholars of palaeography as well as scientists familiar with modern technology. One of the outcomes will be the creation of a data-base model to analyse the Qur’an historically. The proposed workshop is linked to a project (Bergsträsser memorial series : The Qur’an in its manuscript and textual tradition) to produce a Qur’anic text documented by the oldest available evidence (manuscripts and variant readings) on the Qur’an, thus offering a historical perspective on the central document of Islam. The use of modern computer techniques in this field is of crucial importance for the evaluation of the various historical scripts. A database allows further research to handle complex information structures. The issue of computer technology and philological research is central for the development not only of Qur’anic but also of Oriental studies in general, since it critically reviews the computer tools provided by the industry which at present are still incapable of dealing with the cultural heritage of Arabic script and literature.

PROGRAMME

Corpus Coranicum (6-9 novembre 2005)