Manuscript Cultures in Medieval Syria Towards a history of the Qubbat al-khazna depository in Damascus

The Qubbat al-khazna of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus stands as one of the most significant, albeit little known and poorly researched, manuscript repositories in the Middle East. ‘Academically discovered’ in 1900, the Qubba stands in the Mosque’s courtyard and had a function similar to that of its more famous twin, the Cairo Gheniza, i.e. a depository for worn-out books and disused documents. From this stash myriads of parchment and paper documents have emerged, mostly Muslim literary and legal texts in Arabic, from copies of the Qurʾān and theological works to pilgrimage certificates and marriage contracts. However, among them are also numerous Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian writings in a large variety of languages, including Arabic, Syriac, Christian-Palestinian Aramaic, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Greek, Latin, and Old French. The two-day workshop that will take place in Berlin (28-29 June 2018), hosted by the Freie Universität Berlin and the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, will gather scholars from different disciplines to renew the interest and the studies devoted to this rich multilingual manuscript material. The particular way of preservation of this material, a paradigmatic case of genizah-like practice in an Islamic context, offers a unique opportunity to deal with cultural life in Damascus, animated by different languages and identities, through many centuries. This international and multi-disciplinary workshop is of particular importance on account of the multilingual nature of the material and because access to this material is extremely difficult.