Jan Just Witkam

Work in progress of Professor Jan Just Witkam

'Work in progress' contains lectures and study notes on subjects on which I am still working, but which have attained a degree of completion which makes them fit for preliminary publication.

(page continues to be under construction)
For further information, please contact.

Sicilian sweets. The useful frauds of Father Vella
Conference 'Fakes and Written Artefacts. From Antique Counterfeits to Modern Forgeries'. Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Hamburg, 28th February - 1st March 2018. (pdf).

Adriaan Reland on Islamic seals
Colloquium Adrianus Relandus (17 July 1676 - 5 February 1718), Professor Oriental Languages, University of Utrecht 1701-1718. Utrecht, 5 February 2018. (pdf).

Practice precedes theory. The example of the Mamluk Qur'an manuscripts.
Hamburg University. Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures. December 14, 2017. (pdf).

Collecting as profession.
Conference "Collecting the Muslim World", Leiden University / National Museum of Ethnology, 2-3 November 2017. (pdf).

Printed manuscripts. Lithography and the aesthetics of the Arabic book
Conference 'Mechanical Copying in Multilingual and Multiscript Manuscript Cultures: Xylography and Lithography in relation with Manuscript Production'.
Hamburg, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures: 30 June - 1 July 2017. (pdf).

De bestudering van de islam door Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936). Inleiding. Lunchlezing voor de Vereniging Officieren Cavalerie, Koffietafel 's-Gravenhage, 10 november 2016. (pdf).

The Islamic Manuscript Association's Introduction to Islamic Codicology.
Stanford University, Green Library, 3-7 August 2015
Codicology One: issues involved, writing materials 1 (pdf).
Codicology Two: writing materials 2: paper, quires (pdf).
Codicology Three: making, lay-out (pdf).
Codicology Four: palaeography, script (pdf).
Codicology Five: 1. bindings; 2. diverse subjects (pdf).

The value of old paper. Nabil Boustani Auditorium, American University of Beirut, 30 April 2015. A lecture co-organized by the Nima Jafet Library, AUB, and The Islamic Manuscript Association, Cambridge. (pdf).

Johann Gottfried Wetzstein's manuscripts with popular stories. Lecture presented at the conference "Studies on Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905). Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies". Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, 19-21 February 2015. (pdf). * This is a long version of the lecture that was actually given during the conference.

Egyptian tourism in 1880. Alphonse Camporino's illustrated travelogue. Lecture in the Dutch-Flemish Institute in Cairo, Thursday 24 April 2014. (pdf).

Working with Manuscripts. Islamicate vs. Latinate. Opening lecture of the Seminar 'Introducing Islamic Manuscripts', Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, 22 January 2014. (pdf).

Quelques idées sur l'écriture maghrébine. "Paléographie des écritures arabes d'al-Andalus, du Maghreb et de l'Afrique subsaharienne". Journée d'étude au Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat, le jeudi 28 novembre 2013. (pdf).

Mecca's First Photographers (1880-1890): Lives, Activities and Work. Lecture held on Thursday, 18 April 2013. NVIC, Cairo (pdf).

Contributions to Islamic Manuscripts Culture, the Second Alfried-Krupp Summer Course for Manuscript Culture, Leipzig, September 23-29, 2012.
- Palaeography, History of the Arabic script. Leipzig, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 (pdf).
- Lay-out. Leipzig, Thursday, 27 September 2012 (pdf).

Hajj manuscripts from Southeast Asia. Lecture held on Saturday 24 March 2012 at the Conference "Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam", British Museum, London, 22nd-24th March 2012. (pdf).

Lectures given at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology (KICT). Kuala Lumpur, March 9-13, 2012
- The Islamic collections of Leiden University Library.Tuesday, March 13, 2012. (pdf).
- Images of Mecca en Medina in Islamic manuscripts. The case of the prayer book of the Moroccan activist and mystic Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli (d. 1465) in particular. Monday, March 12, 2012. (pdf).
- Islamic Codicology and Paleography. A short survey of the issues involved. Friday March 9, 2012 (pdf).

Avicenna's copyists at work. Lecture held at the conference "Prince of Physicians. Avicenna's Legacy in the Islamic World and the West", organized by the 'Leids Universitair Centrum voor de studie van Islam & Samenleving' (LUCIS), in cooperation with the Scaliger Institute. Leiden, Monday 16 January 2012 (pdf).

The neglect neglected. To point or not to point, that is the question. Lecture held at the conference "Codicología e historia del libro manuscrito en caracteres árabes", Madrid, 27-29 May 2010 (pdf).

Unusual Childhoods in Medieval Islam. On Ibn Tufayl's Hayy b. Yaqzan. Lecture given on Friday, 8 January 2010 in the conference 'Binds, Bonds, and Bands', organized by the Department of French, University of Victoria, B.C., a joint event with Help-UVic REACH (Research on Early Childhood) (pdf).

Beyond the codex. Codicology in scholarship. Lecture given at the Codicology Workshop of TIMA (The Islamic Manuscript Association), Cambridge, September 11, 2009 (pdf).

The didactics of palaeography. Lecture given at the Codicology Workshop of TIMA (The Islamic Manuscript Association), Cambridge, September 8, 2009 (pdf).

Ahmad Rami's translation of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Lecture given at the Conference "The Legacy of Omar Khayyam, Mathematician, Philosopher, Astronomer and Poet", Leiden, July 6-7, 2009; Cambridge, July 9-10, 2009 (pdf).

Reading the Fihrist. Ordering the content in tables, as illustrated by some Persian manuscripts. Lecture held on September 23, 2008, at the Summer-School on Persian Codicology, Vienna (Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences), 22-26 September 2008 (pdf).

Het verzamelen van Arabië. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje en Mekka. Lecture held (in Dutch) by Prof. Jan Just Witkam in the National Museum of Ethnography, Leiden. Sunday 2 December 2007. (pdf).

Silver is silver, books are gold. Scientific manuscripts from Aleppo in the collections of Leiden University Library. Lecture held by Prof. Jan Just Witkam (Leiden University) at the celebration of the fourth centenary of the Consulate of the Netherlands in Aleppo, Syria. Aleppo, Friday 2 November 2007 (pdf).

The battle of the images. Images of Mecca en Medina in the prayer book of the Moroccan activist and mystic Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli. Course "The Islamic Book, from manuscript to modern media". Leiden, 10 October 2007 (pdf).

Yunani tibb. Greek-Islamic medicine in India and Pakistan. Paper presented by Prof. Jan Just Witkam at the Third Islamic Manuscript Conference of TIMA. Cambridge, 28 August 2007. (pdf).

Import and absorption. Some aspects of the Arabic manuscript literature in South-East Asia. Paper presented by Prof. Jan Just Witkam at the 4th International Conference 'Translated Manuscripts', Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Alexandria, Thursday 31 May 2007 (pdf).

The audio-visual dimension. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje's documentation of sights and sounds of Arabia. Lecture held by Prof. Jan Just Witkam at the Workshop 'Scholarship in action. Views on life and work of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936)'. Leiden, Friday 16 February 2007 (pdf).

Orientalist Studies in The Netherlands. Historical Legacy and Contemporary Paradigm. Lecture held at the Departments of History and Civilization and Political Science of the International Islamic University Malaysia "Garden of Knowledge and Virtue". Kuala Lumpur, Friday 4 August 2006 (pdf).

Written in wax. Some early Islamic opinions about Qur'anic phonography. Paper presented by Prof. Jan Just Witkam at the European Science Foundation exploratory workshop 'Corpus Coranicum. Exploring the Textual Beginnings of the Qur'an'. Berlin, 6-9 November 2005 (pdf).

150 years of Acehnese books in Leiden University Library. Presentation by Prof. Jan Just Witkam (Scaliger Institute, Leiden), 9 June 2005 (pdf).