Understanding textual content of manuscripts across traditions

The Project Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea at the University of Hamburg (with the financial support of the Akademie der Wissenschaften Hamburg) is pleased to announce the International Conference dedicated to Understanding textual content of manuscripts across traditions at the University of Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut, 1-2 October 2026.

Describing the intellectual content of a manuscript (in any language or tradition) requires a clear strategy for addressing the textual complexity inherently present in this medium. Where do we draw the boundaries between texts, dividing the content into distinct textual units? Should a text be delimited based on its material inscription, linguistic coherence, communicative function, or interpretability? What features indicate that we are dealing with a specific textual unit? How can we consistently and clearly identify, classify, and relate textual units and layers both within and across traditions? Are all possible versions merely manifestations of a single underlying text, or does a certain degree of variance justify regarding a version as a text in its own right? How should non-literary texts transmitted through manuscripts be treated? What are the implications for a culturally and historically situated literary text when it is transmitted across regional and temporal boundaries?

In manuscript studies, these questions are not purely theoretical. Our understanding of a text or textual unit influences how we handle manuscripts in our research, how we edit and interpret their content, and how we conceptualise the cultures that produced these texts. Employing consistent approaches is crucial for creating reliable catalogue descriptions and, even more so, for establishing an authoritative list of all documented texts.

Building on experiences from (re)cataloguing manuscripts within a digital environment—such as linking data in the project ‘Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea’—and from developing reliable text repertoires like Clavis Aethiopica, this conference invites an interdisciplinary dialogue about the conceptual, practical, and technological implications of working with pre-modern manuscripts and texts in any language tradition.

Scholars at all stages of their academic careers are encouraged to submit abstracts addressing these questions and related topics:

•  The internal logic of transmitting and classifying texts and textual units across diverse written cultures;
•  The definitions of textual units within specific fields and how these influence cross-disciplinary and cross-boundary research;
•  How titles, languages, and naming conventions can respect local usage while maintaining data reusability and recognisability;
•  Ways in which multidisciplinary and multilingual research environments can best link traditions while respecting their internal differences;
•  The implications of these decisions for digital infrastructure and data management.

While the goal is not to establish a single, binding definition, we hope that the papers and discussions will foster a shared understanding that can serve as a reference point for our disciplines—or, alternatively, reveal the productive necessity of multiple, context-specific approaches.

Conference proceedings will be published as a monographic issue of the Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin.