History of philosophy in the Islamic World: a collection of podcast episodes

The series of podcasts on the history of philosophy in the Islamic World is one of the collections constituting the “History of philosophy without any gaps“, a website created and maintained by Dr. Peter Adamson (Professor of philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). The website includes approximately 260 episodes of which 76 focus on a variety of topics in the history of philosophy in the Islamic World. The episodes can be browsed and accessed by period (Classical philosophy, Later antiquity) or by geographical area (the Islamic World, India).

Philosophy in the Islamic World History of Philosophy without any gapsAs described on the website, in the episodes about philosophy in the Islamic World “Peter examines the thought of Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophers, writing in Arabic, Hebrew and Persian, from the 9th century down to modernity. Islamic theology (kalam) is also considered. Major figures covered include al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Averroes, Ibn ‘Arabi, Suhrawardi, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, and Mulla Sadra, but as always considerable attention is devoted to lesser-known figures and movements.”

The website also links to a blog, and a series of links including RSS feeds for podcast episodes in the different collections.

The website is in English.

Digital Vatican Library

Started in 2010, this massive digitization project of the Vatican Library aims to scan the entire library’s collection of manuscripts (80,000 codices), as well as other materials such as incunabula. The Vatican Library’s collection include a number of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

In August 2016, 5267 manuscripts and 658 incunabula were accessible on DigiVatLib:

Digitized Manuscripts (Vat.turc.) DigiVatLibAs explained on the “About” page, “DigiVatLib is based on the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) technology, making digital materials easily accessible and usable.”

The DigiVatLib book reader not only allows users to zoom, browse and ‘turn pages’, but also to compare digital objects from different IIIF repositories of other digital libraries. It is possible to search, and discovery the digital collections using the simple and advanced search features. The guided navigation (‘faceted search’) relies on metadata elements to refine queries. The next release of DigiVatLib will include enhanced search functions,  digital galleries, and a news section.

The interface is available in English, Italian and Japanese.

Ali Jahanshiri’s Persian grammar, vocabulary and verb conjugator

Ali Jahanshiri’s website offers resources for learning Persian in six different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Basic resources include grammar lessons, a phrasebook and vocabulary, as well as articles on Persian language. Programs for Persian language include a verb conjugator, and guidelines for setting up and using applications such as a Persian word builder or a Persian phonetic keyboard layout that can support Persian language learning.

As shown on the screenshot below, the website in multilingual:Ali Jahanshiri's web site - Persian grammar, vocabulary and verb conjugator

 

Codicologia: glossaires codicologiques

Codicologia is an online tool providing multilingual vocabulary for the description of manuscripts which aims to support manuscripts catalogers, critical editors, and more widely anyone interested in manuscripts. Launched in 2011, the website is the result of the merging of three existing databases:

  • Vocabulaire codicologique, an index of French terms used to describe manuscripts, with a translation in English, Italian, and Spanish, established in 2003 based on the work of Denis Muzerelle published in 1985 (Paris : Editions CEMI, 1985)
  • Lexicon, a work by Philippe Bobichon focusing on the manuscripts page layout in various linguistic and cultural traditions (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Roman and Arabic ) published in 2008. (Paris : IRHT, 2008 ; Ædilis, Publications pédagogiques, 5)
  • المعجم الكوديكولوجي العربي, a glossary compiled by Anne-Marie Eddé (Paris1 University), Marc Geoffroy (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Marie-Geneviève Guesdon (Bbibliothéque Nationale de France), in collaboration with Youssef Baratli

Glossaires Codicologiques

The glossary can be interrogated by Theme, browsed by Index, or fully searched. At the time of our visit, however, the Index page was not accessible and the Index feature only available via the search box located at the top right corner of each page. An additional Help tab explains in great detail how to best use Codicologia. And the Colophon page is under construction.

Gathering the works of prominent scholars in the field of manuscripts edition, this website is a wonderful tool for manuscripts specialists. The website interface is fully bilingual French-Arabic.