Our knowledge about the Prophet’s life depends to a significant extent on the biographical tradition known as the Sira, and especially on the text of Ibn Ishaq (d. 767).

Perhaps surprisingly, although we often make reference to Ibn Ishaq’s text, we do not have a copy of his original book. Instead, we have a fragile record, consisting of many different and often partial versions, transmitted by dozens of different authorities over the course of eight or more centuries.

In this lecture, Dr. Sarah Savant outlines how emerging technology can help us to collect and study pieces of this fascinating and complex literary record. She will argue specifically that algorithms that arise out of sequence alignment in genetics, the removal of duplicates in web-crawls and search engines, and anti-plagiarism software can put scholarship on a new footing.

These algorithms detect the “reuse” of texts, including that of Ibn Ishaq, through networks across the Middle East. Based on a preliminary dataset measuring reuse across more than 6,000 books, she proposes that not only can digital technology improve our knowledge about Ibn Ishaq’s original text(s), its sources and transmission, but it can provide evidence for a general field of “textual forensics” that considers the origins and development of any of the earliest written works in Arabic.

Date: 12 September 2018

Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Language: English, with interpretation into Arabic provided

Target Audience: Digital Humanity Scholars, Islamic Scholars, Librarians and Cultural Heritage Professionals, Students  

Seats are limited. To register, please click the button below.