Rediscovering the Islamic Classics with Ahmed El Shamsy

UChicago Center for Middle Eastern Studies

“When you change medium of intellectual exchange, what happens to the content?” asks Professor Ahmed El Shamsy. In this episode of Ventures, El Shamsy discusses his forthcoming book Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition. The book examines the era when the printing press was adopted throughout the Arab world. He looks at the people and forces responsible for translating classic literature into the modern vernacular of print, and asks what happens when a society transitions from a manuscript culture to a print culture. Interview by Firas Alkhateeb. Check out El Shamsy’s new book here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174563/rediscovering-the-islamic-classics Ideas and opinions expressed in the episode belong to the participants, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Chicago Center for Middle Eastern Studies.