Medieval manuscripts and their migrations: Using SPARQL to investigate the research potential of an aggregated Knowledge Graph

Although the RDF query language SPARQL has a reputation for being opaque and difficult for traditional humanists to learn, it holds great potential for opening up vast amounts of Linked Open Data to researchers willing to take on its challenges. This is especially true in the field of premodern manuscripts studies as more and more datasets relating to the study of manuscript culture are made available online. This paper explores the results of a two-year long process of collaborative learning and knowledge transfer between the computer scientists and humanities researchers from the Mapping Manuscript Migrations (MMM) project to learn and apply SPARQL to the MMM dataset. The process developed into a wider investigation of the use of SPARQL to analyse the data, refine research questions, and assess the research potential of the MMM aggregated dataset and its Knowledge Graph. Through an examination of a series of six SPARQL query case studies, this paper will demonstrate how the process of learning and applying SPARQL to query the MMM dataset returned three important and unexpected results: 1) a better understanding of a complex and imperfect dataset in a Linked Open Data environment, 2) a better understanding of how manuscript description and associated data involving the people and institutions involved in the production, reception, and trade of premodern manuscripts needs to be presented to better facilitate computational research, and 3) an awareness of need to further develop data literacy skills among researchers in order to take full advantage of the wealth of unexplored data now available to them in the Semantic Web.

Moscow Travel Guide for Voltaire

The manuscript “Description of the city of Moscow” from the Voltaire Library has been subjected to special study for the first time. In this essay, the ancient Russian capital is presented as a vast and crowded city, the distinctive feature of which is the abundance of churches and monasteries. The description of the city is conducted according to the historically formed parts: the Kremlin, Kitay-gorod, White City, Earthen City. The description is based on the “Plan of the Imperial city of Moscow” by I. Michurin (1739). The most likely the author of this kind of guidebooks is I. C. Taubert.

THE HAN RIVER AS THE CENTRAL AXIS AND THE PREDOMINANCE OF WATER: QUESTIONING THE CLAIM OF “NO CHU-RELATED TRAITS” IN THE VIEW OF TERRESTRIAL SPACE IN THE RONG CHENG SHI MANUSCRIPT (FOURTH CENTURY B.C.E)

The description of the “Nine Provinces” (Jiu zhou 九州) found in the Rong Cheng shi 容成氏 (Mister Rong Cheng?, late fourth century b.c.e.) manuscript from the Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips Collection (Shangbo cangjian 上博藏簡) is the only manuscript version of it known to date. Its discovery immediately raised the question of its relation to the cluster of descriptions on the “Nine Provinces” transmitted from the late Warring States to the early Western Han periods. There is general consensus that the manuscript description of the “Nine Provinces” has close affinity with the transmitted descriptions, as well as with a wide spectrum of transmitted early Chinese texts in general. It is distinguished by the eclectic combining of known spatial concepts, rather than manifesting any radically new or specifically Chu traits. In this study I reassess this impression with respect to the reference to the Han River in the manuscript, which up to now has been noted only in passing as an unsolved puzzle. I argue that the Han River is referred to here as the central axis that divides terrestrial space into southern and northern halves, something that implies a shifting of the mapped area to the South and thus conveys a Chu view of space. Together with philological analysis of the descriptions of terrestrial space, I apply an innovative method of investigation of these descriptions through landmarks, using as a visual aid traditional Chinese historical maps. In addition, I explore the predominance of waters as the distinguishing feature of the representation of terrestrial space in the Rong Cheng shi manuscript and demonstrate its difference from the structuring of terrestrial space proceeding from mountains to waterways to be seen in the majority of transmitted early Chinese texts.

Kitāb Seribu Masā’il Salinan dari Banten: Sebuah Konstruksi Sejarah Proses Islamisasi Nusantara

This brief paper discusses one of the classical literary texts of Islamic Nusantara entitled Kitab Seribu Masalah (the book of a thousand problems). This study uses a philological and textual approach to reveal the relationship and linkage between text and context, which then leads to efforts to produce interpretations related to the history of the Islamization process in the archipelago. This research is conducted to answer three problems, namely: How the KSM manuscript description, what is the content of the text, and how the context behind the birth of the work.From the idea side, Kitab Seribu Masalah contains dialogue between two people: First, the figure of Muhammad saw. in the manuscript is described as an end-time prophet of God's messenger, who calls to believe in Him. He is believed to have abundant knowledge from Allah swt., so that it can answer various problems that are considered and faced by Humans. Second, the figure of Abdullah ibn As-Salam of the Tribe of Thamud illustrated as a clever Jewish clergyman, very pious to the contents of the Torah, Gospel, Zabur and earlier books. He is so trustworthy and has a large fanatic followers of up to seven hundred people. The dialogue at least explores the problem of the relationship between God and His Messenger, regarding cosmological issues, about eschatology, testing the intelligence of the end-time prophet, the puzzle, the meaning of numbers, and others.Keywords: Kitab Seribu Masalah, Hikayat, 'Abdullah bin Salam, Islamization of the Archipelago Tulisan singkat ini membahas salah satu teks klasik Islam Nusantara yang berjudul Kitab Seribu Masalah. Penelitian ini menggunakan pende­katan filologis dan tekstologis untuk mengungkap hubungan antara teks dan konteks, yang kemudian bermuara pada usaha-usaha memproduksi interpretasi-interpretasi terkait sejarah proses Islamisasi di Nusantara. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab masalah kandungan isi naskah KSM, dan konteks yang melatarbelakangi lahirnya, serta kaitannya dengan proses Islamisasi Nusantara.Penelitian ini berkesimpulan bahwa terdapat 13 buah naskah yang berjudul Kitāb Seribu Masā’il atau Hikayat Seribu Masalah. Dari tiga belas naskah tersebut, 9 naskah ada di PNRI Jakarta dan 4 naskah ada di Universitas Leiden, Belanda. Ketiga belas naskah yang dimaksud adalah naskah ML 19, ML 59, ML200, ML 442, W 82, W 83, W 84, W 85, W 86, KL.26, 6064 D, OPH 72, dan Cod. Or. 1960. Setelah melakukan perban­dingan akhirnya peneliti memilih naskah ML 19 sebagai obyek untuk dila­kukan penyuntingan dan edisi kritis.Dari sisi ide, Kitāb Seribu Masalah berisi dialog antara Nabi Muhammad saw. dan Abdullah bin Salam. Abdullah bin Salam adalah seo­rang tokoh dari Suku Tsamud yang diilustrasikan sebagai seorang pendeta Yahudi yang cerdik-pandai, alim akan isi Taurat, Injil, Zabur dan kitab-kitab terdahulu. Ia begitu dipercaya dan mempunyai banyak pengikut fanatik hingga lebih dari tujuh ratus orang. Dialog tersebut berisi masalah relasi Allah dan Rasul-Nya, kosmologis, eskatologis, ujian kecerdasan Nabi, teka-teki, arti bilangan, dan lain-lain.Kata Kunci: Kitāb Seribu Masā’il, Hikayat, ‘Abdullah bin Salam, Islamisasi Nusantara

A Manuscript Description in Kraków of the ‘Trivulzio Museum’ in Milan

An early nineteenth-century manuscript is preserved in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. This document in Italian, entitled ‘Breve Descrizione del Museo Trivulzio’, describes the contents of a collection of an aristocratic family in Milan, as seen shortly after the death of its builder – Don Carlo Trivulzio (1715-1789). The author compares it to a published text in French by Aubin-Louis Millin, and publishes up-to-date descriptions of the engraved gems evoked in the manuscript. Thanks to various sources, five of those seven cameos and intaglios can also be illustrated together for the first time.

The Adverb; by Sayid Hasan Al-chourri (1322 AH)

There are many manuscripts in the science of the Arabic language, which were writing by Kurdish scholars through the ages, and they were located in the House of local and international manuscripts, waiting for expert achievers to revive the manuscripts by achievement, and publication as wanted by the authors.We have chosen a grammatical manuscript from among those manuscripts,called the (Risalat Al-Zarf):its about ( The Adverb) by the Kurdish scholar: (Sayid Hasan al-chourri, who died in 1322 AH), and we have seen that it deserves achievement, in order to serve this heritage and its author because they represent the history of the Kurdish scientific, intellectual, and civilization.That the Kurdish scholars had a prominent role in the grammatical lesson along the history of the Arabic language.This grammatical letter dealt with the subject of ( The Adverb) in Arabic grammar, in short and concise manner, the most important collection of ( The Adverb), which is not found in this wonderful form, in solid and clear terms in presenting its articles, examples and explanations. The research plan is as follows: Introduction, Preface, Three parts, and Conclusion. Preface: In order to provide an overview of the issue of (The Adverb) in Arabic grammar, The first part: The biography of (Al-Chourriy) and its scientific literature.The second part: Achievement of the manuscript: description of copies, and our work in the achievement, and describe the topics of the (The Adverb).And the third part: The text achieved, and finally the conclusion of the most important results, and then sources and references.