January 19, 2017 – From 29 to 30 September 2017 the 5th Simone Assemani Symposium on Islamic Coinage will take place in Rome. Read the following call for papers by the organizers Bruno Callegher and Arianna D’Ottone Rambach:
The Proceedings of the 4th Simone Assemani Symposium have been published, and it is now time to think about the next meeting.
In recent years, Islamic numismatics has known a renewed vitality, due to the publication of corpora, collection catalogues, essays on the chronology of mint-output and mint activity (see the ‘Survey of Numismatic Research’ presented in Taormina at the occasion of the XV International Numismatic Congress, but also the review by Arianna D’Ottone Rambach that has appeared in ‘Comunicazione’).
However, we believe that coin finds and hoards from archaeological contexts are one of the aspects least studied in the field of Islamic numismatics. Whilst it is a well-established trend of research in Ancient and Medieval numismatics, the study and the analysis of the function of Islamic coins in archaeological contexts deserve more attention. Therefore, the theme to which the next edition of the Simone Assemani Symposium will be dedicated is:
Islamic coins in archaeological context: coin finds, coin circulation
Themes of research linked to this topic include:
1. Islamic coins in archaeological excavations;
2. Coin use and coin circulation;
3. Mint production and coin circulation;
4. Coin hoards;
5. Mints and monetary areas.
As usual, a special panel will be devoted to new researches about Assemani. This panel is entitled ‘Assemani and his cultural environment: contacts, correspondents and letters’. Moreover since the interest of letters between numismatists, as a valuable source for the history of the discipline, has been highlighted by the project ‘Fontes Ineditae Numismaticae Antiquae’ (FINA) – devoted to Classical numismatics until 1800, there is the need to develop a parallel project: ‘Fontes Ineditae Numismaticae Orientalis’ (FINO). Therefore a special session of the 5th Simone Assemani Symposium will welcome contributions dedicated to manuscripts (letters and codices), to the reception of printed book, to networks of collectors, to the history of Oriental collections in European coin cabinets, and to the perception of Oriental coins in Europe.
Presentations will preferably be given in English, though Italian and French are also accepted, and must not exceed 30 minutes.
There are no participation fees, but we can unfortunately not help with travel-expenses: journey and accommodation must be paid by the participants themselves. We are in the process of looking for sponsors, and/or research subventions, in order to render your stay more pleasant (e.g. a common meal and coffee breaks). We expect the symposium to be held over two days, but await your replies.
Please fill-in the PDF form available online if you wish to participate at the Symposium (* indicate mandatory fields), before the end of June 2017, and send it via email to Bruno Callegher or Arianna D’Ottone Rambach.
Conference submissions must be sent in PDF format. Please, make sure to include your name, your institution, the title of your paper, and (if applicable) the names of the other co-presenters.