Texts as Living Objects: Dhayls and Knowledge Transmission in the Islamic World

Texts as Living Objects brings together nine contributions on dhayls (supplements) and textual transmission in the Islamic world. Integrating case studies of texts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Samaritan Hebrew, and spanning a wide geographical and chronological scope, the volume proposes a renewed definition and understanding of dhayls as cultural and historical phenomena. Rather than examining supplementation in isolation, the volume also considers other forms of textual modification, such as commentary and translation, with which the production of supplements often overlapped. This approach underscores the dynamic yet persistent nature of authorship and knowledge production in the Islamic world and sheds light on the remarkable stability and cohesiveness of a plurisecular written production and its cultural milieu. Contributors Sacha Alsancakli, Philip Bockholt, Colinda Lindermann, Nadine Löhr, Roy Marom, Zeynep Tezer, Fikret Turan, Christoph U. Werner, and Guglielmo Zucconi.