June 1, 2026 Dataset Open Access

Hirschler, Konrad; Aljoumani, Said

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  <identifier identifierType="DOI">10.25592/uhhfdm.18718</identifier>
  <creators>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Hirschler, Konrad</creatorName>
      <nameIdentifier nameIdentifierScheme="ORCID" schemeURI="http://orcid.org/">0000-0002-6012-7711</nameIdentifier>
      <affiliation>Universität Hamburg</affiliation>
    </creator>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Aljoumani, Said</creatorName>
      <nameIdentifier nameIdentifierScheme="ORCID" schemeURI="http://orcid.org/">0009-0004-8306-8621</nameIdentifier>
      <affiliation>Universität Hamburg</affiliation>
    </creator>
  </creators>
  <titles>
    <title>Audition Certificates Platform (ACP)</title>
  </titles>
  <publisher>Universität Hamburg</publisher>
  <publicationYear>2026</publicationYear>
  <subjects>
    <subject>CSMC</subject>
    <subject>UWA</subject>
    <subject>RFE</subject>
    <subject>Archiving Artefacts</subject>
    <subject>E14</subject>
    <subject>Reading the Scholarly Archive in the Pre-Ottoman Arabic Middle East</subject>
    <subject>Arabic</subject>
    <subject>manuscript notes</subject>
    <subject>Egypt</subject>
    <subject>Syria</subject>
    <subject>9th century CE</subject>
    <subject>10th century CE</subject>
    <subject>11th century CE</subject>
    <subject>12th century CE</subject>
    <subject>13th century CE</subject>
    <subject>14th century CE</subject>
    <subject>15th century CE</subject>
  </subjects>
  <contributors>
    <contributor contributorType="DataCurator">
      <contributorName>Engelhardt, Vincent</contributorName>
      <affiliation>Leiden University</affiliation>
    </contributor>
    <contributor contributorType="Researcher">
      <contributorName>Efer, Thomas</contributorName>
      <nameIdentifier nameIdentifierScheme="ORCID" schemeURI="http://orcid.org/">0000-0002-8376-3884</nameIdentifier>
      <affiliation>Universität Leipzig</affiliation>
    </contributor>
    <contributor contributorType="DataCollector">
      <contributorName>AlMaiman, AbdulRahman</contributorName>
    </contributor>
    <contributor contributorType="DataCollector">
      <contributorName>عبد الله باوزير</contributorName>
    </contributor>
  </contributors>
  <dates>
    <date dateType="Issued">2026-06-01</date>
  </dates>
  <language>ar</language>
  <resourceType resourceTypeGeneral="Dataset"/>
  <alternateIdentifiers>
    <alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="url">https://www.fdr.uni-hamburg.de/record/18718</alternateIdentifier>
  </alternateIdentifiers>
  <relatedIdentifiers>
    <relatedIdentifier relatedIdentifierType="DOI" relationType="IsPartOf">10.25592/uhhfdm.13524</relatedIdentifier>
  </relatedIdentifiers>
  <version>v6.0</version>
  <rightsList>
    <rights rightsURI="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</rights>
    <rights rightsURI="info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess">Open Access</rights>
  </rightsList>
  <descriptions>
    <description descriptionType="Abstract">&lt;p&gt;The CSMC&amp;#39;s ACP is the first major open-access project to unlock the potential of a key documentary genre of Arabic manuscript culture.&amp;nbsp;Audition certificates (سماع,&amp;nbsp;طبقة السماع or&amp;nbsp;إجازة) are notes written on a codex to document the authorised transmission of the text from teacher(s) to student(s). In concrete terms, the text was read aloud (by the teacher or one of the students), and at the end of the reading session, a member of the reading group added the audition certificate to the book. By virtue of their participation, all students now had the right to act as teachers in future reading sessions.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Audition certificates are brimming with data and can include: the name of the teacher(s), student(s) (including highlighting those coming late or leaving early), the reader, the writer of the certificate, the book&amp;rsquo;s owner; in addition to the date of the reading, the place of the reading and many other surprises (such as a writer recording the birth of his son during the reading session in the room next door).&amp;nbsp;These certificates contain a wealth of historical data, particularly on individuals who are not found in many other sources. They are thus a source of outstanding importance for fields such as social history, history of ideas, economic history, urban history, historical topography, and biographical studies. It goes without saying that, especially when viewed in comparative perspective with other world regions, such as Latin Europe, this copious material represents a considerable resource for broadening our understanding of Middle Eastern societies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Over the last few years, ACP team members have worked on the holdings of selected libraries (such as Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, Biblioth&amp;egrave;que nationale de France, Syrian National Library, Aşir Efendi Library Istanbul, Leiden University Libraries, Khalidi Library/Jerusalem, Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial and King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies). Still, we cannot claim to have identified all the audition certificates in the manuscript books on their shelves. We will continue to collect additional materials to expand this first large-scale, fully searchable corpus of audition certificates.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.audition-certificates-platform.org/"&gt;https://www.audition-certificates-platform.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Version 1.0 (launched 26.10.2023) contained 3524 annotated Audition Certificates (369 locations, 42.089 person annotations);&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;version 2.0 (launched 15.03.2024) contained 4035 annotated Audition Certificates (399 locations, 49.275 person annotations);&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;version 3.0 (launched 19.10.2024) contained 4643 annotated Audition Certificates (430 locations, 58.468 person annotations);&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;version 4.0 (launched 06.06.2025) contained 5143&amp;nbsp;annotated Audition Certificates (470&amp;nbsp;locations, 64.791&amp;nbsp;person annotations);&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;version 5.0 (launched 01.12.2025) contained 5560 annotated Audition Certificates (483 locations, 71.084 person annotations);&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;version 6.0 (launched 01.06.2026) contains 6109&amp;nbsp;annotated Audition Certificates (513 locations, 76.634 person annotations).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <description descriptionType="Other">The research for this project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.</description>
  </descriptions>
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