etkinlikler

Beautiful Objects or Ordinary Books? On Manuscripts by Alevi Scribes / Janina Karolewski

Orient-Institut Istanbul

Tarih : 17-01-2018 19:00

The study of manuscripts from Alevi communities has undergone a remarkable upswing over the last decades. Increasingly, we learn more about the predominantly religious knowledge that was preserved in writing. The variety of manuscripts known so far is broad: They encompass, among others, notebooks, ritual manuals, poem anthologies, treatises, narratives, epics, certificates, and family trees. As much as they differ in content, they vary in form or layout. Granted that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, this presentation aims at taking a closer look at some of these manuscripts that will allow us to appreciate particular the techniques and strategies by means of which their scribes strove to produce appealing objects.Janina Karolewski earned an MA in Islamic Studies (with a focus on Ottoman Studies) and Political Studies from Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2007. From 2007–2011, she was a research associate at the collaborative research center “Ritual Dynamics” at Heidelberg University, working on the transfer of Alevi rituals. Since 2011, she has been a research associate at the collaborative research center “Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa, and Europe” (CSMC) at Hamburg University, working on the manuscript cultures in Alevi village communities. Her doctoral thesis on Alevi ritual manuals is currently in preparation at Heidelberg University.