The Ismaili Special Collections Unit (ISCU) organised a first of its kind symposium entitled Before the Printed Word: Texts, Scribes and Transmissions on the manuscripts housed at Äñ´ó´óÓ°Ôº. The symposium attracted over twenty scholars from around the world. Many of the papers presented at the symposium were the result of ongoing endeavours by the Äñ´ó´óÓ°Ôº to accelerate the study of different aspects of the Äñ´ó´óӰԺ’ manuscript collection.
The two-day symposium began with a welcome address by the Äñ´ó´óÓ°Ôº Co-Director, Dr Farhad Daftary, who emphasised the importance of the Äñ´ó´óӰԺ’ manuscript collection. Dr Wafi Momin, Head of the Ismaili Special Collections Unit, provided an overview of the Äñ´ó´óӰԺ’ role in preserving and studying manuscript sources and other memorabilia items. The lively discussions during the panel presentations covered a breadth of topics, including, discoveries of manuscripts – their study and textual analysis, colophons, reading culture, role of scribes, contexts of transmission, esoteric interpretations, codicology, as well as new perspectives from the Alamut period in light of the discovery of new manuscripts.
The research areas covered by the symposium were reflective of the manuscript collection housed at the Äñ´ó´óÓ°Ôº, which includes over 3,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Indic scripts, and covers various time periods including the Fatimid and Alamut times.
