Research and Training Workshop “Reading Sources in Area Studies” — Paris et en ligne, 17 mai 2022

Lire les sources en études aréales : Découverte et collecte d’informations sur les sociétés turco-iraniennes en contexte de voyage, Xe-XIXe siècles

2nd Research and Training Workshop / 2e Atelier de recherche et de formation

Tuesday 17 May 2022 / Mardi 17 mai 2022
Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne nouvelle
4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris
Salle Athéna, 09:30 – 17:30
To participate online / Pour participer en ligne

Convenors / Responsables
Maria Szuppe (CNRS / CeRMI), Camille Rhoné-Quer (Université Aix-Marseille / IREMAM), Sacha Alsancakli (INALCO / CeRMI)

• En partenariat avec l’Université de Bamberg
• Avec le soutien du GIS Moyen-Orient et Mondes Musulmans

• Program / Programme (pdf)
• Abstracts (pdf)
• Affiche (pdf)

The series of international Reading Sources in Area Studies Workshops is a part of the Historiographie hors la cour / Historiography outside the court research programme led jointly by the CeRMI and the IREMAM units of the CNRS with the support of the GIS Moyen-Orient et Mondes Musulmans. Primarily intended for advanced Master students and PhD candidates, as well as for early career scholars working on the history of Turko-Persianate societies, it is open to all interested academic participants. It focuses on discussing historical source material from the relevant areas (texts, images, objects) in the medieval and modern periods. The sessions are concerned with the diversity of source material pertaining to the Turko-Persianate world produced in the context of travel, regardeless of the origin of the traveller, their social or professional profile (merchant, pilgrim, scholar, spy…) or their motivations for travelling. The focal issue of the present workshop is the methods of acquisition of knowledge about « elsewhere », the process of the construction and the practices of preserving and transmitting this knowledge.

Talks are given in English, while discussions also leave room for exchanges in French. Knowledge of Persian is an asset, but not a prerequisite.

Le workshop du 17 mai 2022 a pour objectif de présenter les matériaux de l’historien des mondes turco-iraniens (textes, images, objets) aux périodes médiévale et moderne. Il s’agira aussi d’aborder les aspects méthodologiques et épistémologiques liés à l’exploitation de ces matériaux. Les intervenants veilleront également à fournir une remise en contexte historique des sources présentées. Le workshop s’intéresse à l’acquisition des savoirs dans le cadre du voyage, quelles que soient les motivations de celui qui l’accomplit (marchand, pèlerin, espion, etc.). Ces acteurs sont des personnes originaires du monde turco-iranien ou extérieures à ce monde. Il s’agira de s’interroger sur les modalités d’acquisition et de construction des connaissances, ainsi que les supports utilisés pour les conserver et les transmettre.

Les communications sont en anglais. La discussion peut être menée en français ou en anglais. La connaissance du persan n’est pas obligatoire mais elle est un plus.

PROGRAM

9h30     Introductory Remarks
Camille Rhoné-Quer (Aix-Marseille University, IREMAM) and Maria Szuppe (CNRS, CeRMI)

Morning session
Discussants: Christine Kämpfer (University of Bamberg) and Francis Richard (Bulac, Paris)

Panel 1. Documenting elsewhere and others in Persian written tradition

9h45     Christoph Werner (University of Bamberg)
Persian travelogues as a historiographical genre

10h15   Michele Bernardini (University of Naples “L’Orientale”)
Timurid chronicles as travelogues

10h45   Discussion

11h        Coffee break

Panel 2. Material remains and monuments in photographs and descriptions

11h15   Emanuele Giusti (University of Florence)
Travel and antiquarianism: Collecting information about antiquity in Iran, 15th-18th centuries

11h45   Martina Massullo (Bulac, Paris / CeRMI)
The Henry Viollet Archive reassessed: New insights into photographs and papers documenting medieval architecture in Iran and Central Asia (1904-1913)

12h15   Discussion

12h30   Lunch break

Afternoon session
Discussants: Francesco Calzolaio (University of Venise) and Francis Richard (Bulac, Paris)

Panel 3. Collecting and organizing information on Persia in global context

14h       Werner Gaboreau (PhD candidate – Sorbonne Nouvelle, CeRMI)
European geographical knowledge about Iran in the context of globalisation: Writing the story, filling in the maps during the 17th century

14h30   Christine Kämpfer (University of Bamberg)
What to read on Qājār Persia? The travel diaries of the German botanist Carl Haussknecht (1838-1903) and their textual sources

15h       Discussion

15h15   Coffee break

Panel 4. Observations along the way: Campaigns, routes, and itineraries

15h30   Davide Trentacoste (Sorbonne Nouvelle – University of Teramo)
From Hormuz to Aleppo – and everything in between: Analysis of a 1586 report written by an Italian traveler

16h       Sacha Alsancakli (INALCO, CeRMI)
Memory and history in a 16th-century Ottoman ghazavātnāme: Ebūbekir b. ‘Abdullāh’s memoirs on the war against the Safavids

16h30   Maria Szuppe (CNRS, CeRMI)
There, beyond, and back again: Remarks on some Early Modern journey descriptions in Persian in search for knowledge, trade, and intelligence (16th-early 19th c.)

17h       Discussion

17h15   Closing Remarks
Camille Rhoné-Quer (Aix-Marseille Université, IREMAM) and Sacha Alsancakli (INALCO, CeRMI)

For the 2021 edition of the workshop, see: Reading Sources in Area Studies: Contribution of biographical data for the social and cultural history of Turko-Iranian societies (9th-18th c.)

À retrouver sur le site du CeRMI