Konrad Hirschler
Freie Universität Berlin
Philology and Multiple-Text Manuscripts in the Middle Period
Unwieldy, often of shabby appearance and difficult to categorise, multiple-text manuscripts have remained on the margins of modern scholarly interests. However, they were clearly a highly popular format to transmit texts in the Middle Period.
Taking the case study of manuscripts from Mamluk Damascus, Konrad Hirschler investigates the textual logic underlying the composition of such multiple-text manuscripts. Why and when did scholars decide to bind specific texts into one single volume? What were their criteria for ex- and inclusion? To what extent is it useful to examine multiple-text practices under the angle of philological concerns?
Konrad Hirschler is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin since 2016 and was previously Professor of Middle Eastern History at SOAS (University of London). His research focuses on Egypt and Syria in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (c. 1200-1500) with a focus on social and cultural history. Over the last years, he has primarily worked on the history of reading, of the book and of libraries in the Syrian lands. Konrad Hirschler is the author of, amongst others, Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library (2016) and The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices (2012).