[Bilimsel Haber] CfP: Symposium Syriacum / Conference on Arab-Christian Studies (Granada, Spain - September, 22-27, 2008)

[Onur Inal]

Xth SYMPOSIUM SYRIACUM
VIIIe CONFERENCE ON ARAB CHRISTIAN STUDIES
GRANADA, SPAIN, September, 22-27th, 2008.
BEYOND THE FRONTIERS
Life, Art and Literature of the Syriac Speaking and of the Arabic
Speaking Christian Communities,
FIRST NEWSLETTER: COMMUNICATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS

December, 2007.

TO ALL WHOM IT MIGHT CONCERN

This letter is to formally communicate to all interested persons the
celebration of the Symposium Syriacum and the Conference on Arab
Christian Studies in Granada (Spain), September 22th-27th, 2008, as
agreed in Beirut in the year 2004, at the occasion of the celebration of
the last Symposium & Conference.

This communication includes a call for papers both for the Symposium and
for the Conference. Although the Symposium/Conference is been conceived
as lasting six whole days (from Monday to Saturday), the distribution of
those days between the Symposium Syriacum and the Conference of Arab
Christian Studies will depend on the number of papers offered. Both the
Symposium and the Conference are been prepared in cooperation with the
two institutions that hosted the previous celebration in Beyruth, i.e.,
the CEDRAC (Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth), and the Université Saint
Esprit, Kaslik, Lebanon.

The proceedings of both the Symposium and the Conference will of course
be published in the time of a year within the celebration. For the
publication, we are considering several possibilities, both in Europe
and in the Middle East. 

Topics 

Needless to say, the papers accepted for the Symposium and the
Conference will have to keep the same academic quality and academic
excellence as in the previous ones, since those level and excellence
have been a mark of these two events from their beginning. As it is
clearly stated in the subtitle for both the Symposium and the
Conference, the topics will include anything related to the life, art or
literature of the Syriac Speaking Churches for the Symposium Syriacum,
and the same (life, art and literature) related to the Arabic Speaking
Christian Communities for the Conference on Arab Christian Studies. Of
course, the Symposium and the Conference being held in Granada, besides
the topics usually included in these events, which have already a long
standing tradition, it will be also of interest this time having some
papers on the Mozarabic Christians, and on the Christian Moriscos. The
relationship between the Mozarabs and the Christian Communities in the
Middle East is a most interesting topic, and a field of research almost
untouched. The idea of the frontier has been suggested, first, because
Granada has been and still is in many ways a frontier city. Frontier
between Islam and Christianity before the Christian conquest, frontier
between the Castillan and the Morisco communities after the conquest,
frontier between the medieval world and modernity in its beginnings, and
frontier between modernity and postmodernity now. In many ways, the
destine of Granada seems to be marked by this human reality of the
frontier. But also, in many ways, the Syriac Speaking Christians have
been beyond the frontiers of Greek Speaking Christianity, even when they
lived within the Byzantine Empire, and the Arabic Speaking Christian
communities have been and are beyond the frontiers of the
Christian world, living in a Muslim environment.

Now, living beyond the frontiers certainly creates certain difficulties,
but it also offers new possibilities of expression, communication and
dialogue. A frontier is conceived always initially as a human division,
but it can also become a place for knowledge, for mutual understanding
and even for union. Time of the celebration and deadline for the
inscription of papers. As already said, the Symposium and the conference
will be held from the 22th to the 27th September. As in Beyruth, the
Symposium Syriacum will take place in the first days of the week and the
Christian Arabic Conference in the last part of the week. The exact
distribution will be communicated when we know in more detail the number
of papers presented for each of the events.

THE DEADLINE FOR THE INSCRIPTION OF PAPERS WILL BE THE 15TH OF JULLY
2008. THE DEADLINE FOR THE INSCRPTIONS OF ONLY
ATTENDANCE WILL BE TH 30TH OF JULY 2008.

The place of the meetings

The meetings will take place in the provisional See of ICSCO
(International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient), a little
institution recently created by the Archbishop of Granada, which when it
is developed would be by now the only Center in Spain which wants to
develop this kind of studies about the Christian traditions in the
Middle East. This building, which is now also the see of the Seminary of
Granada, has been recently restored, it is close to the center
of the city, and has the possibility of hosting around 90 people in nice
individual rooms (more people if some would willing or would prefer to
share
their room with some other person, since all rooms can be converted into
double rooms). It has also nice classrooms and other facilities (kitchen
and a
wide dining room, cafeteria, library, wi-fi connections, etc), which
will make, we hope, a pleasant place for our meetings.

The price

The inscription to the Symposium and Conference will be around 60 euros
pro day. This price will include attendance to the lectures, room and
board. In the case of
double rooms, the price will be around 50 euros pro day and person.
These prices will not include the visit to the Alhambra (25 euros), and
the excursion to Cordoba
(60 euros). We will try to lower those numbers as much as possible,
through obtaining some sponsorship or some other kind of help. In the
next newsletter, that you will receive in the middle of January, we will
include the exact prices with all kinds of details and with the forms of
inscription, both for papers and for attendance.

For any stay before or after the Congress, the organization will help as
much as possible with the necessary informations, but it should be paid
apart In the case that there will be more people attending the meetings
than the rooms available in the building of the Seminary, we will have
the possibility of offering other religious houses or certain hotels
nearby, including of course transportation back and forth, although the
meals will always take place in the Seminary building. The assignation
to the Seminary or to the other places will follow an exact order of
inscription to the Symposium and/or the conference. Eventual variations
for the price of room and board due to the use of these other places
will be communicated in the next newsletter. The hotels will of course
be quite more expensive. 

During the Symposium will take place, for those who want, of course, a
visit to the Alhambra Palace in one of the evenings (at a time when
there are no tourists), and eventually a visit to the Cathedral and the
so-called Royal Chapel, where the tomb of the Catholic Kings is kept. We
will also give the opportunity to visit the Sacromonte Abbey, in front
of the hill of the Alhambra, an abbey built in the end of the 16th
century to host the libros plúmbeos or led-books, so named because they
are a number of arabic texts written on led plates on the beginnings of
Christianity in Granada... and attributed to the first Century! These
writings were found at the end of the 16th century next to certain
tombs, allegedly belonging to the first Christian martyrs of Granada,
including that of the first bishop of the city, Kekilios, supposed to be
an arab cured by the Lord and then companion and disciple of St. James.
No need to emphasize that these books are a forgery, and so were also
declared by the Church authority very early, although their very writing
sheds a very interesting light on the difficult relationship between the
Moriscos and the Christian Castillan community (that is really the Sitz
im Leben of the books). The books, clearly written by some moriscos,
have never been studied to my knowledge from the perspective of the
Christian Arabic literary tradition.

Once the Abbey will be restored (it is in grand need of that
restoration, specially after a fire that destroyed its residence in the
year 2000), it will become the See
of ICSCO, as a place where regular courses and research on the Christian
communities in the Middle East will be held permanently. Finally, both
at the beginning and the end of the Symposium/Conference, a trip to
Cordoba will be offered, in order to visit the place of the old Ummayad
mosque (today, the Cathedral of Cordoba), and perhaps also the little
museum of the Roger Garaudy Foundation. Cordoba is only two hours and a
half from Granada, so that the trip can be easily done in a day.

FINALLY, IF YOU KNOW OF ANY PERSONS THAT COULD BE INTERESTED IN THESE
EVENTS, PLEASE SEND THEM THIS LETTER, OR
CONTACT US AT: symposium08 at icsco.org
Our web page is: www.icsco.org
WE ARE AT YOUR DISPOSAL. SINCERELY YOURS
+ Javier Martínez
Archbishop of Granada
President of ICSCO
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