Author: Mandana Bender

New York City, April 2026 Part II: A late 15th-century Timurid-era safina manuscript. Conjugate central bifolia of reflecting, intricate sprayed stenciled designs in Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19971.91 (l–r), folios 16v=17r, 70v=71r, 73v=74r, and 77v=78r. Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this second instalment, Dr. Jake Benson examined a damaged and incomplete,… Continue reading NEW YORK, April 2026, Part II

Codicology Course at El Escorial, Spain Negar recently participated in an intensive five-day codicology course at the Real Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain. The course covered a wide range of subjects related to manuscript studies, including the physical construction of the codex, manuscript decoration, palaeography, and methods of manuscript description and… Continue reading SPAIN, June 2026

In Early March, Yih-chuen was in Beijing for research. One of the numerous highlights of her visit was a temporary exhibition on the Chinese decorated paper at the Beijing Fine Art Academy Gallery.  The exhibition featured a variety of modern and contemporary objects, including gold ink-painted examples made for the famed 18th-century Qing dynasty Qianlong… Continue reading BEJING, March 2026

December was rich with academic events in Istanbul. On her second research week, Negar took advantage of the opportunity to attend various talks and meet scholars and researchers across disciplines. During this period, she attended one of the rare public talks by Emine Fetvacı at the ANAMED Library, which focused on an Ottoman manuscript, Kalīla… Continue reading ISTANBUL, December 2025, Part II

This December, Negar stays in Istanbul for a long research trip. She started a visit to the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, whose collection of around 600 manuscripts forms a small but highly valuable corpus in the city, beautifully situated beside the Bosphorus. There, she examined several works and had a brief yet fruitful conversation with the… Continue reading ISTANBUL, December 2025, Part I

Over the summer, Yih-chuen has been exploring project-related resources and delving into catalog research in libraries. Her recent trip took her to the Bodleian Library in Oxford in October 2025, where she continued to study catalogs that are not available in Germany. So far, she has consulted over 50 catalogs in total to prepare for… Continue reading OXFORD, October 2025

The second week of the Leiden Summer School on Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World was quite productive as participants had to prepare a presentation based on their own research field. Apart from that,  one of the central highlights of this week was the introduction to the Leiden University Library catalogue and its special… Continue reading LEIDEN, August 2025, Part II

In August, Negar participated in the 7th Leiden Summer School on Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World 2025, a highly competitive program that accepts only 15 participants each year. Being selected was both an honor and a fortunate opportunity to study and do research in Leiden, where the courses brought together diverse topics, expert… Continue reading LEIDEN, August 2025, Part I

In the beginning of August, Ilse and Negar’s went  to Tashkent, the capital or Uzbekistan, for a research trip, which was a wonderful mix of cultural exploration and productive research. On Sunday, the first day of the visit, Ilse and Negar began by exploring several museums and enjoying sightseeing around the city. One of the… Continue reading TASHKENT, August 2025