The Signed Manuscripts Conference will take place 26-28 April 2005 in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Conference Center. Conference sessions will be held daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. 

The main topics of the conference revolve around the following issues:

1- Manuscripts originally written by renowned authors in the history of Arabic heritage. The manuscripts are held to be of value, be they rough drafts or finished versions of a particular work. Graphological attestation and collation of manuscripts through the identification of idiosyncratic handwritings will also be carried out. Examples of these manuscripts are:

• Al Maqrīzī's al Khutat (Kitāb al-Mawā‘iz wa al-I‘tibār bi-Dhikr al-Khutat wa al-Āthār), the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has a draft version and a finished one written by the author himself. It also holds a number of other manuscripts by the same author, such as his al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr.

• Ibn ‘Arabī's al-Futūhāt al-Makkiyya. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina holds two copies written by the author himself; the first was written in Damascus, the second in Konya. The latter has a number of additions missing in the former.

2- Scholars' Ijazas in their works or other scholars' works. Signed Readings by renowned scholars on famous masterpieces without constraining oneself with problems of dating. Of the latter type we may mention: al-Bīrūnī's handwriting in his famous work Tahdīd Nihāyāt al-Amākin li-Tashīh Masāfāt al-Masākin, and commentaries and annotations by Rifā‘ah al-Tahtāwī and his mentor Sheikh Hasan al-‘Attār in a number of manuscripts currently preserved and archived in Suhag along with a number of other manuscripts they wrote themselves.

3- The circulation of Arabic books through our knowledge of its copying locations mentioned in the manuscripts colophons. Tracing the life circle of a given work, and how it was posthumously transferred and read throughout the whole world of Islam. A case in point is the routes which Sibawih's al-Kitāb took after the death of its author, and the so many different and variegated versions of this work that resulted from its departure from place to another. 

4- Original "Ma‘ājim al-Šiyūkh", successively signed by their respective authors provided the manuscripts are original and authentic. Tracing back the seminars where those Ma‘ājim used to be written with the intent of providing a clear view of former scholarly life along bygone centuries. Of these Ma‘ājim we may mention that by Imam Murtadā al-Zabīdī (d.1205 AH.) preserved in Alexandria University's General Library, and the one by Imam Ahmad bin-Siyām al-Damanhūrī, the then Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, (d.1191 AH.) (Egyptian National Library)

5- Identifying the personality and psychological distinction of those renowned figures through their written records, be they their original manuscripts, or their signatures (Ijazas, Readings) on the works of other scholars. According to the latest advances in graphology, we will try to unravel the nature of each of those scholars and the age they lived in. A case in point is Ibn Taymiya's al- Rasā’il wa al-Masā’il, where we can notice that in spite of the fact that Ibn Taymiya belongs to a relatively recent era (he died in 727 AH.) he adhered to the writing methods of his precursors. His writing, likewise the early writings in Arabic heritage, is undotted, undiacritized, and unsparingly economical as to indentation and margins. Does this have to do with Ibn Taymiya's Salafī doctrines? And can his totally economical writing style be ascribed to the circumstances of this era – an era of too much turmoil and insecurity? But, in the meantime, how does this conform with the fact that Ibn Taymiya is one of the most prolific authors in the history of Islam?
Another example is Imam ‘Abdul-Wahhāb al-Ša‘arānī's Tanbīh al-Mughtarrīn of the early tenth century of the Hegira. This manuscript is dotted, beautifully written, and decorated. al-Ša‘arānī' is famed for his debonair lifestyle and also for being a courtier (two traits totally antithetical to his Sufi disposition). There are other works by the same author, he himself wrote in the same style and method characteristic of Tanbīh al-Mughtarrīn.

6- Correspondences "Rasā’il" of famous figures in the history of Islam. These correspondences, however, are not to be considered unless they are signed by their authors. Age of the correspondence is not an issue here, for coming across an old piece of correspondence, despite our definite knowledge of their existence and plethora, is exceedingly hard. Examples for these correspondences are: al-Nafazāwī's reply to al-Damanhūrī's questions to Egyptian Sheikhs (Egyptian National Library); Qurrah bin-Šurayk's correspondences with his agents in Egypt (a collection of messages on papyri, in the Vienna Museum)

Signed manuscripts do not have to be millenary (over 1000 years of age), nor do they have to be on paper (they could be on papyri or parchment). Only the stature of its writer/scribe that matters, regardless of its date.
The proceedings of the conference will include a number of exemplary signed manuscripts tackled during the conference, scanned or digitally photographed, in order to grant contemporary readers the opportunity to feast their eyes on such signed treasures of our heritage.