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  • ARA4118

ARA4118 - Arabic Manuscripts

Course content

This course introduces students to assessing and reading pre-20th century handwritten texts in Arabic. This includes learning to describe the physical aspects of manuscripts (codicology); training in reading a variety of texts; a survey of major Arabic manuscript collections and both printed catalogues and online manuscript databases; and projects for physical preservation and digitization of manuscripts.

Learning outcomes

Students will

• learn to assess the arts of book making in the Arabic Islamic tradition (paper making; writing techniques and major scripts; bookbinding)
• learn to use major bibliographic tools to identify manuscripts
• get training in reading Arabic manuscript texts from a variety of periods and geographic areas
• get a basic introduction to cataloguing and digitizing techniques

Admission

Admission as a Master's student to the Program for Asian and African Studies.

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Prerequisites

Formal prerequisites

ARA2110 - Arabisk språk 3+4 or equivalent.

Recommended prior knowledge

Fluent knowledge of written Arabic (four semesters minimum) and English

Teaching

10-week seminar (2 hours/week) with class readings and intermittent lecture-style presentations by teacher and students. Students must attend a minimum of 16 out of 20 hours.

Exam information

1) Brief presentation in class (incl. a 1-2 pp. written handout / “thesis paper”) on a relevant topic to be agreed upon. The presentation will not be graded, but must be ‘accepted’ in order to be allowed to submit the term paper.
2) Term paper (semesteroppgave) (8-10 pp. à 2300 characters) on a topic to be agreed upon (either an annotated edition and translation of a manuscript text; or a study of a topic relevant to the subject of the course).
Before the final version can be submitted, it must be presented and discussed orally in class.

Assessment and grading

Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail. Read more about the grading system .

Explanations and appeals

Students can request an explanation of their grades, and can also appeal against their grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals

Evaluation of this course

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. As a student at the University of Oslo you will therefore be asked to participate in various types of evaluation of our courses, facilities and services. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, in-depth evaluation of this course, a so called "periodic evaluation".

Other information

Useful information about Master's studies at IKOS
(This information will soon be available in English).

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