Dear all,

Here follows a call for paper for a workshop organised in May in Marseille and Online. Please feel free to reach out for any queries or submissions.

Young Researchers’ 2nd Indo-Persian Workshop: Writing in the Indo-Persian World  May 23-24th

Writing in the Indo-Persian world

The practice of writing is an essential one in South Asian history, one that perhaps goes back to the very first civilization found therein, the Indus Valley Civilization. Over the centuries, the technical, economic, social and the cultural shifts brought about by the inclusion of South Asia in the Persianate and Islamicate cosmopolises has had profound impact on South Asian writing. From scriptural change to material cultural evolution, from palmleaf manuscripts in brahmi-derived scripts to Persian texts on bound paper, the story of writing in South Asia is a pregnant one, with a lasting impact to this day. A reflection on the practice of writing in South Asia goes beyond the linguistic aspect of it all but rather brings into the light important questions such as the readership and the economy behind book exchange and production. Furthermore, when considering the Persian language, such a reflection puts to the fore an important yet often neglected fact: that South Asian readership and textual production in Persian largely outweighed the Iranian.
Writing does not exist in a vacuum: manuscripts, and especially manuscripts produced for the elite, are often decorated and illustrated. A reflection on writing will therefore necessarily also cover topics such as calligraphy, illumination, bookbinding, paper-production as well as the data contained in manuscripts in and around the text, mobilizing disciplines such as palaeography, codicology, and diplomatics.

We welcome contributions from Master, Doctoral and Postdoctoral researchers that deal with any topic relating to writing, reading and text production in South Asia from the perspective of History, Philology, Codicology or Art History in the period defined by Richard M. Eaton as Persianate India (1000-1750).

Paper Submission:

Abstracts are to be submitted to the following email address: raffaello.deleon-jonesdiani@ehess.fr. They should not exceed 500 words and are to be submitted by March, 17th. Once approved, we kindly ask participants to write and submit a 5000 to 7000 words long paper by April, 30th.

Young Researchers’ 2nd Indo-Persian Workshop: Writing in the Indo-Persian World


Organised by:
Victor Baptiste (EPHE) and Raffaello De Leon-Jones Diani (EHESS-CESAH)
With collaboration by Inayatullah Din (EHESS-CESAH) and Lingli Li (EHESS-CESAH and Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen)

in Marseille (Campus La Vieille Charité, 2 Rue de la Charité, 13002 Marseille, France) and Online

Raffaello De Léon-Jones Diani
Doctorant à l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Centre d'Études Sud Asiatiques et Himalayennes (CESAH)