Research Conversations Trinity Term 2019

Professor Alain Fouad George will be in conversation with Professor Marilyn Booth about his research on the history of Islamic calligraphy. This core field of Islamic art has received relatively little attention  in modern scholarship, although this situation is now beginning to change. The conversation will review some of the key prospects and challenges facing its study across different periods from the rise of Islam to modern times, and how a history that takes into account its evolving forms along with its social context and glimpses of its theoretical underpinnings might gradually emerge.

Dr Bradley Marsh will be in conversation with Professor Stefano Zacchetti about his research on the biblical revision created by the Syriac Orthodox polymath Jacob of Edessa (d. 708 CE). The research focuses on Jacob's revised Book of Daniel, specifically his editorial techniques and use of both Syriac and Greek manuscript sources. The conversation will highlight the implications of some of the finds the research has uncovered thus far both for the history of biblical transmission and for the historical exegesis of the Book of Daniel.