 |
 |
Dear , We would like to kindly remind you about our upcoming public lecture, which will take place on Wednesday 6th March 2013, starting at 18.00. The lecture will be given by Charles Stewart, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University's Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, entitled The Manuscripts of Timbuktu and Islamic Writing in West Africa; from the veneration of objects to the object of their veneration. Please note that there will be an informal reception before the lecture, starting at 17.30. There will be refreshments and snacks; we would be obliged if you could RSVP to the invitation so that we can cater for you. Further details regarding the program of the evening are provided in the attached invitation. We do hope that you can join us and look forward to seeing you. Kind regards, Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation requests the pleasure of your company and guest at a public lecture entitled The Manuscripts of Timbuktu and Islamic Writing in West Africa From the veneration of objects to the object of their veneration by Professor Charles Stewart Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University's Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa To be held on Wednesday 6th March 2013, at Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation 22A Old Court Place, Kensington, London W8 4PL Synopsis "Timbuktu" is something of a metaphor for a long tradition of Islamic learning and writing in West Africa that is subsumed (and sometimes lost) in the fabled name of the northern Malian city. This was well illustrated in the recent crisis in Timbuktu when international alarm was rightly sounded over the possible destruction of manuscripts. The much larger manuscript repositories of this literary tradition in Mauritania, and the equally important collections in Niger and Nigeria, for instance, had no part of the story. These many manuscript collections, separated by multiple national borders, of course represent a single Islamic scholarly heritage (that is, in part, linked to Timbuktu). But this can only be demonstrated by examining the most commonly found teaching texts found in manuscript collections across West Africa. This lecture will look at this 'core curriculum' used during the last 300 years and ask how we can move from venerating the manuscripts that have preserved it to understanding the intellectual achievements these manuscripts contain. Charles Stewart is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University's Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa. Professor Stewart has written widely on Islam in West Africa in the 18th through 20th centuries. He is the author of Islam and Social Order in Mauritania: A Case Study from the Nineteenth Century and the founder of the Arabic Manuscript Management System, a bilingual database of over 20,000 Arabic manuscripts from West Africa. The programme of the evening: 17.30 - 18.00 Reception and networking 18.00 - 18.10 Welcoming words 18.10 - 19.30 Lecture by Professor Charles Stewart on The Manuscripts of Timbuktu and Islamic Writing in West Africa; from the veneration of objects to the object of their veneration 19.30 - 20.00 Discussion 20.00 Closing of the event Dress code: not applicable Refreshments: from 17.30 to 18.00 Invitation: for you and a guest RSVP: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>