Xth SYMPOSIUM SYRIACUM
VIIIe CONFERENCE ON ARAB CHRISTIAN STUDIES
GRANADA, SPAIN, September, 22-27th, 2008.
BEYOND THE FRONTIERS
Life, Art and Literature of the Syriac Speaking and of the
Arabic Speaking Christian Communities,
FIRST NEWSLETTER: COMMUNICATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS

December, 2007.

TO ALL WHOM IT MIGHT CONCERN

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