From Closure to Sharing: an international summer school dedicated to Afghanistan’s heritage

23 June 2026

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Inalco’s Chair for the Art and Heritage of Afghanistan was delighted to co-organise the 2nd French-Italian Summer School on 15-19 June 2026 in Paris entitled, “From Closure to Sharing: Exploring Research Data on the Heritage of Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries.” Co-organisers included the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Università de Napoli l’Orientale, Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente (ISMeO), the French Archaeological Delegation in Aghanistan (DAFA), École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), and the Digital Studies Africa, Asia, Middle East Consortium (Distam+), under the leadership of Sandra Aube (CNRS).
A group of people are taking a photo in front of a building surrounded by trees
Summer School “From Closure to Sharing: Exploring Research Data on the Heritage of Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries,” participants in front of the BNF © Inalco ‎

More than 20 students joined us from around the world, including Afghanistan, Iran, Germany, the UK, Italy and France. We explored the creation and navigation of online corpuses, such as the Invisible East Digital Corpus of manuscripts and documents led by Arezou Azad, photographic archives of the Louvre museum led by Martina Massullo, and epigraphic archives from medieval Afghanistan led by Viola Allegranzi, as well as ethical considerations and digital repatriation. Students had the opportunity to visit and receive close-up views of the holdings at the Musee Guimet, Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), and Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF).

Guest speakers at roundtable discussions included Laeiq Ahmadi (Université Paris Nanterre/PAUSE), Gil Stein (University of Chicago), Maja Kominko (Sharjah Archaeology Authority advisor), Barry Flood (New York University), Alya Karame (Orient-institute Berlin), Éloïse Brac-de la Perrière (INHA), Frantz Grenet (Collège de France), Alka Patel (Université Aix-Marseille), Neda Soltani (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Benjamin Guichard (BULAC), Francis Richard (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and Michele Bernardini (Università de Napoli, “l’Orientale”). 

For the full programme and list of speakers, see here.

A number of new books and book series were also launched during the summer school, including:

  • Arezou Azad with Pejman Firoozbakhsh, The Warehouse of Bamiyan: Economic Life in Medieval Afghanistan. Islamicate East Texts series. Edinburgh University Press, 2025.
  • Pejman Firoozbakhsh and Arezou Azad, The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids
  • Stories from a Forgotten Persian Manuscript. Islamicate East Texts series. Edinburgh University Press, 2025.
  • Alya Karame, The Forgotten Qur'ans of the Eastern Islamic World: Manuscripts of the Ghaznavid and Ghurid Dynasties, 11th-12th Centuries CE. Edinburgh University Press, 2026.
  • Éloïse Brac de la Perrière, Prisme indien : calligraphies et manuscrits dans l’Inde des sultanats. Brill, 2026.
  • 2 new book series of Edinburgh University Press, entitled “Islamicate East Texts” (series editors: Arezou Azad, Hugh Kennedy, and Teresa Bernheimer), and "Ancient and Medieval Afghanistan” (series editors: Warwick Ball and Rachel Mairs).
A man, seen from behind, is standing in front of a classroom People are looking at a manuscript at the library A group of people are looking at a manuscript in the library
Benjamin Guichard presents the digital corpus and the BULAC archives © Inalco / Viewing Manuscripts at the BNF © Inalco / Consulting Manuscripts at the BNF with Francis Richard and Michele Bernardini © Inalco‎
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