Day 3

Paper Abstract: Cataloguing: this includes cataloguing Berber manuscripts in Morocco, analysing outputs and methods of completed catalogues, and commenting on them. Covered catalogues include the Arabic and Berber Manuscripts Catalogue of King Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation, Casablanca (2005), the Berber Manuscripts Catalogue of the National Library in Rabat (2015), the Guidebook to Berber Manuscripts and Documents, Royal Institute of Berber Culture (2015), and the Catalogue of the Berber Manuscripts in the Library of Leiden by Nico van den BOOGERT, Leiden, (2002).
Publication: due to academic and cultural reasons, the recent years saw a surge in the publication of Berber manuscripts in Morocco. Many books were edited, using contemporary methods of editing, and published in the fields of theology (Quran interpretation, Hadiths, faith, jurisprudence, Sufism, etc.), literature (poetry, travel journals, stories, proverbs, etc.), languages (dictionaries), and history (news bulletins and periodicals). The paper will shed light on these Berber publications both quantitatively, by counting and evaluating them, and qualitatively, by analysing the methods in which they were edited and studied. These manuscripts can be divided into two categories: 1) original Berber works, and 2) translated works from Arabic to Berber. The second category includes many works, and is referred to by Sous scholars in southern Morocco as “Mushallahat”, meaning works written in Sous Berber.

It is to be noted that a lot needs to be done in terms of cataloguing Arabic-script Berber manuscripts in Morocco, as the catalogues mentioned above cover only a small part of Berber works, and the larger part of those works are unknown, lost or hidden in private libraries (individuals, scholar families, schools, zawiyas, etc.). In addition, in terms of editing, no guidebook or manual is available yet to guide editors on how to edit and publish these works or study their codicology. These are issues that need to be considered to come up with suitable solutions.

Paper Abstract: The paper examines the history of the sixteenth-century intellectual and professional network that originated around the activities of the Medici Oriental Press in Rome. Starting in 1584, the Press financed expeditions to collect prestigious manuscript editions in North Africa, Ethiopia, and the Middle East (including al-Idrīsī’s Descriptive Geography, Ibn Sīnā’s Canon, and a series of Arabic grammars) based on their perceived aesthetic qualities and the benefits of their content. Additionally, it recruited experts from the region who would collaborate with orientalists and printers in Rome to produce books visually similar to manuscripts that were then to be sold across the Ottoman provinces. My paper reconstructs the journey of such texts and individuals, from the selection and collection of the manuscripts, through the production of Arabic type-fonts and printed editions, to the Press’ attempts to sell the final products.

On an empirical level, my paper sheds light on the history of a largely unexplored transregional network of material circulation and knowledge production, uncovering a space of multilingual and multi-sited collaboration and exchange. Moreover, from a methodological perspective, I problematize the power structures involved in the Medici project. The paper thus retraces how specific notions of aesthetic and pedagogical value attached to the manuscripts affected their printed renditions, and what preconceptions there existed with regards to the taste of these works’ imagined consumers from North Africa and the Middle East, as well as of manuscript readers more generally, when confronted with such early and virtually unprecedented instances of Arabic printing.