Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions

Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions (MEMaT) is a multidisciplinary project which aims at studying various aspects of manuscript production, utilization, and transmission history. The project is a collaboration between Sabine Schmidtke (IAS) and George A. Kiraz (IAS and Beth Mardutho). It brings together specialists with expertise in a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The activities are focused on holding workshops and publishing books on the topic.

Upcoming Events:

Workshop:

April 15-16, 2027: Prologues in Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Workshop. Conveners: George A. Kiraz, (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Sabine Schmidtke, (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), and Yury Arzhanov, University of Salzburg

This interdisciplinary workshop examines the prologue as a distinct textual and material space within Middle Eastern manuscript cultures — the threshold at which authors, scribes, translators, and patrons speak in their own voice before the main text begins. The event seeks to explore how prologues negotiate authority, intention, and audience, and how they shape the reception of the works they introduce. Call details.

Publications:

Kiraz, G. A., Schmidtke, S., & Treiger, A., Reconstructing the Disiecta Membra of Köprülü, Mehmed Âsım Bey, 1 bis. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2026

The Formulaic Machine: Generative AI, Academic Writing, and the Recovery of Voice, by George A. Kiraz, Institute for Advanced Study, May 2026

Conference report: The Visual Scribe: Tables and Diagrams in Middle Eastern Manuscripts (Berlin, 10–11 April 2025), Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin: 11 pp. 291-293

Literary Snippets: A Colophon Reader, (2024, Gorgias Press), edited by George Anton Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Literary Snippets: Colophons across Space and Time, (2023, Gorgias Press), edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions, Volume 23 (2021) in the series Texts and Studies (Third Series) [Gorgias Press], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Writing in My Own Script: Allographic and Garshunographic Systems in Late Antiquity. Part Two = Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 8 i (2020) [Leiden: Brill], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Writing in My Own Script: Allographic and Garshunographic Systems in Late Antiquity. Part One = Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 7 ii-iii (2019) [Leiden: Brill], edited by George A. Kiraz, Senior Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies, and Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies

Islamic Studies

Manuscript Traditions

Near Eastern Studies

Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions

Events:

Upcoming

Past

Upcoming Events:

Workshop:

April 15-16, 2027: Prologues in Middle Eastern Manuscript Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Workshop. Conveners: George A. Kiraz, (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Sabine Schmidtke, (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), and Yury Arzhanov, University of Salzburg

Publications: