Christopher D. Bahl - Böcker

In this essential new work, Christopher D. Bahl departs from the established historiography on trade, shipping, and pilgrimage to argue for the emergence of Arabic learning as a crucial form of transoceanic mobility from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. From Egypt to the Hijaz, Yemen and further on to Gujarat and the Deccan, networks of manuscript circulation created shared social and cultural spaces across the early modern western Indian Ocean, in which South Asia was a key node of connection. Largely unstudied Arabic manuscripts from collections in eight different archives offer a new source base to explore the region as a hub of Arabic scholarly culture, while marginalia and notes provide an empirical treasure trove for the study of social spaces and cultural practices. This is the first book to trace these truly transoceanic encounters between scholars, sultans, scribes, readers, and librarians.

“This is a tour de force of sophisticated global erudition.”  —Filippo de Vivo, University of Oxford, UK“In its wide global range and rich variety of studies, this expertly edited volume provides an unprecedented view into the scribal practices of diverse cultural traditions in the early modern period.”  —Johanna Drucker, University of California, Los Angeles, USA“This volume finally gives the colophon the place it deserves. We see scribes and printers at work in Thailand, the Deccan, Delhi, Damascus, Antwerp, and Timbuktu.” —Konrad Hirschler, University of Hamburg, Germany“In this cross-disciplinary endeavor, ten authors tell lively and exciting stories of historical scribal practices.” —Verena Klemm, University of Leipzig, GermanyThis book is the first to chart the global diversity of colophons between 1400 and 1800. The volume presents a new approach to scribal cultures that expands traditional definitions. Moving from the paradigm of codicological information towards a thorough interpretation of the wider social worlds of colophons in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, this volume uncovers the fascinating cultural history of early modern scribes. Chapters examine how those engaging in the composition and distribution of colophons shaped scribal identities, group cultures and bookish communities in a world in which manuscripts mattered. Authors build on approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, codicology, history, and philology to offer a new conceptual framework that studies colophons as scribal practices embedded in their changing social and cultural worlds. As a new contribution to the history of the book, this volume’s global approach pushes the boundaries of what constitutes a colophon.