Following two successful international symposia on The History of Printing and Publishing in the Languages and Countries of the Middle East, held at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz (2002) and at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (2005), we are now convening the third meeting on the same themes. This will take place in Leipzig, 24-27 September 2008, and it will form part of the 24th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI). This Symposium, however, will not be confined to printing in Arabic and Muslim languages, but will, as before, cover a range of Middle Eastern languages and scripts.

There has been a good response to our Call for Papers, and the list is now closed. We have accepted proposals for contributions on printing and publishing in Arabic, Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, Kipchak, Kurdish, Pashto, Persian, Syriac, Tatar and Turkish; and in Afghanistan, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Latin America & the Caribbean, Tatarstan, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as in the region generally. The provisional programme of the Symposium can be seen here. It provides in most cases abstracts of the papers. Full texts will also be provided as and when they are available.