Here are some updates about Diamond-ILS, the cataloging application designed by Fr. René-Vincent du Grandlaunay back in the 1990s (initially under the name AlKindi). Thirty years later, the adventure continues! Diamond-ILS is now shared by 11 libraries or research centers, 7 of which are particularly active: IDEO, of course, which uses it for all its resources (monographs, articles, journals, on paper or electronically); the Arab Manuscripts Institute in Cairo, which, thanks to funding from the BnF, is currently cataloging a microfilm collection of manuscripts found in Yemen; the Giorgio La Pira Library in Palermo, which specializes in contemporary Muslim cultures; the Commission Léonine in Paris, for its collection devoted to the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas; the Saint Mark Foundation, which reports to the Coptic-Orthodox patriarchate in Cairo and catalogs various collections of Coptic manuscripts; the Vatican Apostolic Library, for its collection of Arabic manuscripts; and the Saulchoir Library in Paris, specializing in Christian humanities and religious studies. Each library has its own online catalog, but they all contribute to the same repository in a collaborative manner, enabling links to be established between their collections.
The LRM/RDA model, which Diamond-ILS implements natively, enables the editorial history of works (different editions and translations, publications, reprints, etc.) to be presented in a single record, as well as the cultural history of works (commentaries, refutations, sequels, etc.). Diamond’s current ambitions are manifold: integrating new types of document (archives, papyri, maps, etc.); to build up a precise, sourced repository of Arabic, Latin and Coptic works and authors; to record the relationships within and between these repositories, in order to draw up a genuine map of knowledge and heritage; to improve the display of increasingly complex data, in order to make it accessible to as many people as possible, without sacrificing its academic quality; to find new partners in cultural fields that complement the current ones (Hebrew, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Sanskrit, Chinese studies, etc.), in order to extend this cartography. ) in order to extend this mapping and highlight the richness, complexity and interconnection of human knowledge.
Diamond-ILS is currently run by the non-profit organization LRM-CS in Paris.
Anawati Chair
- Seminar at al-Azhar Center for French Language Teaching (CEF)
On April 17ᵗʰ, Mr. Seniguer Haoues, Lecturer and Director of the Diploma in Contemporary Arab World Studies at Sciences Po Lyon, led a seminar on “How to study Islam in a minority context? The French example”.
Lectures and talks
On April 19ᵗʰ, Jean Jacques Pérennès, OP gave a lecture at the Academy of Human Sciences in Baghdad, introducing a conference on the Iraqi personality. The topic of his talk was “The challenge of becoming a person between the individual and the community”.
On April 22ⁿᵈ, Alberto Ambrosio, OP gave a talk entitled “Clothing in Republican Turkey (1925-1934)”, as part of the seminar on “Aesthetics and Clothing in the Near and Middle East”, organized by Professor Ida Zilio-Grandi, at Ca’ Foscari University (Venice).
Seminars
On April 24ᵗʰ, Emmanuel Pisani, OP led the seminar on the topic “Dirāsat al-Ġazālī ʿalā yad al-mustašriqīn: al-mufāraqa al-makšūfa” [Orientalists’ studies of al-Ġazālī: the paradox revealed], with around forty Indonesian students of al-Azhar organized by the Lingkar Studi Filsafat Girinata center.
Teaching
From April 15ᵗʰ to 18ᵗʰ, Emmanuel Pisani, OP taught a 24-hour course on “The Great religious traditions” to around 40 students at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences. (ISSR) of the Catholic Institute of Toulouse.
From April 16th to 26th, Adrien Candiard, OP, gave his annual course in Islamic theology at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome.
At the end of April 2024, Jean Druel, OP, taught a total of 40 hours of Biblical Greek, for beginners and intermediate students, as part of the Master of Theology program at the Sakakini Catholic Institute of Religious Sciences in Cairo.
Radio
On April 21ˢᵗ, Dominique Avon was interviewed for a program on freedom of conscience on Radio France
Visits
On April 10th, we had the honor of receiving a visit from the Delegation of the Conference of Bishops of France, composed of: Mᵍʳ Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, Archbishop of Reims, President of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF); Mᵍʳ Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris; Mᵍʳ Matthieu Rougé, Bishop of Nanterre; Father Hugues de Woillemont, General Secretary of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF); Mrs. Céline Reynaud-Fourton, Director of International Affairs. We also had the pleasure of welcoming members of the French Catholic association Œuvre d’Orient, including: Mᵍʳ Pascal Gollnisch; Mrs. Armelle Milcent, Director of Communications; Mr. Bertrand de Margerie, Mission Officer for Egypt; Mr. Michel Petit de La Perrelle; and Mrs. Isabelle Karaiskos, Journalist at KTO.
Scholars’ House
During the month of April, we had the pleasure of welcoming to the Scholars’ House Mr. Sami Benkherfallah, a professor in medieval history at the University of Poitiers and beneficiary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship.