Conference | Training workshop
CFP: Writing Shi'ism: Manuscripts and Archives from the Medieval to the Early Modern Periods
- Date
- Tuesday 8 December 2026 - Wednesday 9 December 2026
- Location
- University Library
- Room
- t.b.a.
Call for Papers
We invite proposals for a workshop on Shiʿi manuscripts and archives from the medieval and early modern periods, to be held at Leiden University on 8–9 December 2026. The workshop aims to advance scholarly conversations on manuscript and archival production in Shiʿi communities across the Islamic world, while fostering collaboration between established scholars, doctoral researchers, librarians, archivists, and early-career academics.
The Leiden workshop will have two components: presentations in which scholars report on work in progress, and a hands-on training session focused on reading and comparing manuscripts. The training session will involve direct engagement with Leiden Library Special Collections materials.
Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic expansion in access to Shiʿi written heritage through digitisation, cataloguing initiatives, and the discovery of previously understudied collections. Yet significant gaps remain in our understanding of manuscript transmission, archival practices, and the social histories of textual production. The workshop seeks to bring together scholars working across disciplines and regions to explore these questions and to highlight lesser-known manuscript collections and archives, particularly those located outside Europe. The training workshop focuses on the question of “what is a Shii manuscript and what makes a manuscript Shii?
We welcome papers employing a wide range of methodologies, including but not limited to:
- Philology and textual criticism
- Codicology and palaeography
- Book history and manuscript culture
- Archival studies
- Digital Humanities and digital cataloguing
- Intellectual, social, and religious history
Possible themes include:
- Unexplored or understudied Shiʿi manuscript collections and archives
- Digitisation, cataloguing, and accessibility of manuscript resources
- Transmission of works in law (fiqh), legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), hadith, rijāl, biography, theology, and related disciplines
- Early modern practices of compilation, preservation, and redaction
- Anthologies (majmūʿāt), miscellanies (jongs), and other manuscript formats
- Patronage, readership, and the social contexts of manuscript production
- Manuscripts and archival materials as sources for histories of enslavement and enslaved people
- The relationship between manuscript and print cultures
The workshop will combine research presentations with a practical training session focused on reading, comparing, and analysing manuscripts. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage with Leiden’s important manuscript collections, including its new acquisition of Shii manuscripts.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of up to 300 words and a short biographical note (100 words maximum) by 15 September 2026.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 1 October 2026.
Please send submissions and enquiries to: z.azhar@hum.leidenuniv.nl
We particularly encourage applications from doctoral students and early-career researchers.
The workshop forms part of a broader initiative to strengthen the study of Shiʿi manuscripts and archives and to build a sustainable international network of scholars working in this field.
