CSMC Newsletter

In terms of research, it is uncharted territory; in terms of logistics, it is one of the most complex ventures ever undertaken at the CSMC: The aim of the ‘Palm Leaf Manuscript Profiling Initiative’ (PLMPI) is to determine the provenance of historical palm leaf manuscripts from Tamil Nadu on the basis of their material properties. Because the valuable manuscripts cannot be taken out of the country, a mobile laboratory is needed to implement this research approach. For this reason, we developed and built a Container Lab that was shipped to India in summer 2024. The filmmakers Hoppenhaus & Grunze followed the entire process with the camera, from the construction of the containers to their commissioning in Puducherry, and talked to our researchers and their Indian and French colleagues about the idea behind the Container Lab and how it is proving itself in its the field. The result is not only an insightful science documentary, but also a lesson about teamwork across the borders of countries and academic disciplines.

In the early 19th century, German explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen discovered significant Qur’an fragments at the Mosque of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ in Fusṭāṭ, now Cairo, and sent them to Gotha, where they are housed in the Gotha Research Library. Similar fragments are dispersed globally, with some located in Copenhagen, the Vatican, and Paris. At the CSMC, Alba Fedeli wants to reconstruct their histories and connections of these fragments through in her project titled ‘What is in a Scribe’s Mind and Inkwell’, combining historical, philological, and material science methods. Recently, she and her colleagues Claudia Colini and Giuseppe Marotta from the CSMC’s Mobile Lab returned from a field trip to Gotha where they undertook a detailed material analysis using techniques like XRF and Raman spectroscopy. Insights into this research will soon be shared in the Gotha Manuscript Talks (see below).

This spring, the Gotha Manuscript Talks, an online series organised by the Gotha Research Library in cooperation with Konrad Hirschler at the CSMC, returns with lectures on four Wednesday evenings from 5 March to 7 May, which will be delivered by Nick Posegay (University of Cambridge), our colleague Alba Fedeli (University of Hamburg), Nir Shafir (University of California, San Diego), and Paul Love (Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane), respectively. All talks are open to the public and start at 6:15 pm.

Manuscripts in West African languages written with the Arabic alphabet have hardly been researched to date. They fall between the chairs of Islamic Studies on the one hand and African Studies on the other. And there are hardly any researchers with the necessary range of skills in philology, Arabic studies, and the sometimes very different West African languages such as Kanuri, Kanembu, or Hausa to be able to study the sources in depth. A notable exception is Dmitry Bondarev, who has been associated with the CSMC since 2012 and has played a key role in establishing its research focus on West Africa. In February 2025, he was named Professor of African Studies by the University of Hamburg. This is a title that the university awards to researchers who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements and who have been teaching independently at the UHH for at least three years.

Focusing on typography as a script-based practice, ‘Shifting Scripts: Contemporary Arabic and Persian Graphic Design’, a conference organised jointly by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MK&G) and the CSMC, will explore the intersections of Arabic and Persian graphic design with cultural, political, and artistic narratives. From 24 to 26 April 2025, the conference will provide a unique platform for engaging with Arabic and Persian script from both academic and design perspectives and investigate how contemporary graphic design can be understood within the broader fields of design research and the humanities, with a particular focus on the SWANA region. In addition to panel discussion and talks, the event is also accompanied by two workshops to foster a transdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, students, and designers.

The ERC project on ‘The Development of Literacy in the Caucasian Territories’ (DeLiCaTe), which is affiliated with the CSMC, explores the development of specific alphabetic scripts among three distinct ethnic groups in the Caucasus since the early 5th century CE: Armenians, Georgians, and the so-called ‘Caucasian Albanians’. Most of the oldest extant written documents of the three languages have survived in palimpsest form. Today, material analysis and AI tools allow for deeper insights into this material than ever before. This March, a major workshop at the CSMC brings together specialists in the three manuscript cultures as well as experts from material analysis and computer science to discuss the latest advancements in this field, especially when it comes to dating and determining the provenance of the manuscripts. It is held in hybrid format and open for everyone to attend.

The work of Russian-Israeli artist Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson blurs the boundaries between different languages, scripts, and identities become blurred. Until the end of March, she is Artist in Residence at the CSMC. In our interview, she talks about why script and language play such central roles in her work, why she prefers to place art in public spaces rather than in galleries, and why she is content for her works to disappear after a while.