<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Arabic-L: Tue 18 Dec 2007<br>Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>><br>[To post messages to the list, send them to <a href="mailto:arabic-l@byu.edu">arabic-l@byu.edu</a>]<br>[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to<br><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:<br> unsubscribe arabic-l ]<br><br>-------------------------Directory------------------------------------<br><br>1) Subject:More info on Symposium Syriacum and Arab Christian Studies Conference<br><br>-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------<br>1)<br>Date: 18 Dec 2007<br>From:<a href="mailto:aram@aramsociety.org">aram@aramsociety.org</a><br>Subject:More info on Symposium Syriacum and Arab Christian Studies Conference<br><br>Xth SYMPOSIUM SYRIACUM<br>VIIIe CONFERENCE ON ARAB CHRISTIAN STUDIES<br>GRANADA, SPAIN, September, 22-27th, 2008.<br>BEYOND THE FRONTIERS<br>Life, Art and Literature of the Syriac Speaking and of the<br>Arabic Speaking Christian Communities,<br>FIRST NEWSLETTER: COMMUNICATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS<br><br>December, 2007.<br><br>TO ALL WHOM IT MIGHT CONCERN<br><br>This letter is to formally communicate to all interested persons the celebration<br>of the Symposium Syriacum and the Conference on Arab Christian Studies in<br>Granada (Spain), September 22th-27th, 2008, as agreed in Beirut in the year<br>2004, at the occasion of the celebration of the last Symposium & Conference.<br>This communication includes a call for papers both for the Symposium and<br>for the Conference.<br>Although the Symposium/Conference is been conceived as lasting six whole<br>days (from Monday to Saturday), the distribution of those days between the<br>Symposium Syriacum and the Conference of Arab Christian Studies will<br>depend on the number of papers offered.<br>Both the Symposium and the Conference are been prepared in cooperation with<br>the two institutions that hosted the previous celebration in Beyruth, i.e., the<br>CEDRAC (Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth), and the Université Saint–Esprit,<br>Kaslik, Lebanon.<br>The proceedings of both the Symposium and the Conference will of course be<br>published in the time of a year within the celebration. For the publication, we<br>are considering several possibilities, both in Europe and in the Middle East.<br>Topics<br>Needless to say, the papers accepted for the Symposium and the Conference<br>will have to keep the same academic quality and academic excellence as in the<br>previous ones, since those level and excellence have been a mark of these two<br>events from their beginning.<br>As it is clearly stated in the subtitle for both the Symposium and the<br>Conference, the topics will include anything related to the life, art or literature<br>of the Syriac Speaking Churches for the Symposium Syriacum, and the same<br>(life, art and literature) related to the Arabic Speaking Christian Communities<br>for the Conference on Arab Christian Studies.<br>Of course, the Symposium and the Conference being held in Granada, besides<br>the topics usually included in these events, which have already a long standing<br>tradition, it will be also of interest this time having some papers on the<br>“Mozarabic Christians”, and on the Christian “Moriscos”. The relationship<br>between the Mozarabs and the Christian Communities in the Middle East is a<br>most interesting topic, and a field of research almost untouched.<br>The idea of the “frontier” has been suggested, first, because Granada has been<br>and still is in many ways a frontier city. Frontier between Islam and Christianity<br>before the Christian conquest, frontier between the Castillan and the Morisco<br>communities after the conquest, frontier between the medieval world and<br>modernity in its beginnings, and frontier between modernity and postmodernity<br>now. In many ways, the destine of Granada seems to be marked by<br>this human reality of the frontier. But also, in many ways, the Syriac Speaking<br>Christians have been “beyond the frontiers” of Greek Speaking Christianity,<br>even when they lived within the Byzantine Empire, and the Arabic Speaking<br>Christian communities have been and are “beyond the frontiers” of the<br>Christian world, living in a Muslim environment.<br>Now, living “beyond the frontiers” certainly creates certain difficulties, but it<br>also offers new possibilities of expression, communication and dialogue. A<br>frontier is conceived always initially as a human division, but it can also<br>become a place for knowledge, for mutual understanding and even for union.<br>Time of the celebration and deadline for the inscription of papers.<br>As already said, the Symposium and the conference will be held from the 22th<br>to the 27th September. As in Beyruth, the Symposium Syriacum will take place<br>in the first days of the week and the Christian Arabic Conference in the last<br>part of the week. The exact distribution will be communicated when we know<br>in more detail the number of papers presented for each of the events.<br>THE DEADLINE FOR THE INSCRIPTION OF PAPERS WILL BE THE 15TH<br>OF JULLY 2008. THE DEADLINE FOR THE INSCRPTIONS OF ONLY<br>ATTENDANCE WILL BE TH 30TH OF JULY 2008.<br>The place of the meetings<br>The meetings will take place in the provisional See of ICSCO (International<br>Center for the Study of the Christian Orient), a little institution recently created<br>by the Archbishop of Granada, which when it is developed would be by now<br>the only Center in Spain which wants to develop this kind of studies about the<br>Christian traditions in the Middle East. This building, which is now also the see<br>of the Seminary of Granada, has been recently restored, it is close to the center<br>of the city, and has the possibility of hosting around 90 people in nice<br>individual rooms (more people if some would willing or would prefer to share<br>their room with some other person, since all rooms can be converted into<br>double rooms). It has also nice classrooms and other facilities (kitchen and a<br>wide dining room, cafeteria, library, wi-fi connections, etc), which will make,<br>we hope, a pleasant place for our meetings.<br>The price<br>The inscription to the Symposium and Conference will be around 60 € pro day.<br>This price will include attendance to the lectures, room and board. In the case of<br>double rooms, the price will be around 50 € pro day and person. These prices<br>will not include the visit to the Alhambra (25 €), and the excursion to Cordoba<br>(60 €). We will try to lower those numbers as much as possible, through<br>obtaining some sponsorship or some other kind of help.<br>In the next newsletter, that you will receive in the middle of January, we will<br>include the exact prices with all kinds of details and with the forms of<br>inscription, both for papers and for attendance.<br>For any stay before or after the Congress, the organization will help as much as<br>possible with the necessary informations, but it should be paid apart<br>In the case that there will be more people attending the meetings than the<br>rooms available in the building of the Seminary, we will have the possibility of<br>offering other religious houses or certain hotels nearby, including of course<br>transportation back and forth, although the meals will always take place in the<br>Seminary building. The assignation to the Seminary or to the other places will<br>follow an exact order of inscription to the Symposium and/or the conference.<br>Eventual variations for the price of room and board due to the use of these<br>other places will be communicated in the next newsletter. The hotels will of<br>course be quite more expensive.<br>During the Symposium will take place, for those who want, of course, a visit to<br>the Alhambra Palace in one of the evenings (at a time when there are no<br>tourists), and eventually a visit to the Cathedral and the so-called “Royal<br>Chapel”, where the tomb of the Catholic Kings is kept.<br>We will also give the opportunity to visit the “Sacromonte Abbey”, in front of<br>the hill of the Alhambra, an abbey built in the end of the 16th century to host<br>the “libros plúmbeos” or “led-books”, so named because they are a number of<br>arabic texts written on led plates on the beginnings of Christianity in Granada...<br>and attributed to the first Century! These writings were found at the end of the<br>16th century next to certain tombs, allegedly belonging to the first Christian<br>martyrs of Granada, including that of the first bishop of the city, Kekilios,<br>supposed to be an arab cured by the Lord and then companion and disciple of<br>St. James. No need to emphasize that these books are a forgery, and so were<br>also declared by the Church authority very early, although their very writing<br>sheds a very interesting light on the difficult relationship between the<br>“Moriscos” and the Christian Castillan community (that is really the Sitz im<br>Leben of the books). The books, clearly written by some “moriscos”, have never<br>been studied to my knowledge from the perspective of the Christian Arabic<br>literary tradition.<br>Once the Abbey will be restored (it is in grand need of that restoration, specially<br>after a fire that destroyed its residence in the year 2000), it will become the See<br>of ICSCO, as a place where regular courses and research on the Christian<br>communities in the Middle East will be held permanently.<br>Finally, both at the beginning and the end of the Symposium/Conference, a trip<br>to Cordoba will be offered, in order to visit the place of the old Ummayad<br>mosque (today, the Cathedral of Cordoba), and perhaps also the little museum<br>of the Roger Garaudy Foundation. Cordoba is only two hours and a half from<br>Granada, so that the trip can be easily done in a day.<br>FINALLY, IF YOU KNOW OF ANY PERSONS THAT COULD BE<br>INTERESTED IN THESE EVENTS, PLEASE SEND THEM THIS LETTER, OR<br>CONTACT US AT: <a href="mailto:symposium08@icsco.org">symposium08@icsco.org</a><br>Our web page is: <a href="http://www.icsco.org/">www.icsco.org</a><br>WE ARE AT YOUR DISPOSAL. SINCERELY YOURS<br>+ Javier Martínez<br>Archbishop of Granada<br>President of ICSCO<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>End of Arabic-L: 18 Dec 2007<br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></body></html>