During the last years, Arabic papyrology has continued to contribute significantly to Arabic and Islamic studies: we now dispose of a number of high standard editions of documents; scholars working on the Islamic World up to the 16th century counterbalance literary tradition with documentary evidence; and cooperationwith Demotic, Greek, and Coptic papyrology, as well as with Genizah Studies has steadily improved.

The Seventh International Society for Arabic Papyrology Conference (ISAP VII) in 2018 will both provide a platform to show the state of the art, and a purview of the many kinds, genres and languages of Early Islamic documents (including Arabic, Coptic, and Greek papyri, inscriptions and coins) within the wider historical context of the time's manuscript production. For this, we will have access to the very rich holdings of the Berlin Papyrus Collection and the Manuscript Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. About one third of the contributions will be devoted to this wider perspective.

The conference will start on the morning of Tuesday, 20 March 2018, and continue through the morning of Friday, 23 March, 2018. The program will include 20-minute presentations and an evening lecture, as well as workshops in the Berlin Papyrus Collection and the Manuscript Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. Conference languages will be English, German, French and Arabic. However, all lectures will be given in English.