LAL’s contribution to cultural diplomacy, diffusion, literary exchanges, and education. Wen-chin Ouyang and Chip Rossetti lead discussion with Philip Kennedy, Sean Anthony, Julia Bray, Robert Irwin and Mohamed-Salah Omri. Focus on The Expeditions by Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, edited and translated by Sean W. Anthony, and A Treasury of Virtues by al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī, edited and translated by Tahera Qutbuddin.

LAL’s remit, ambition and complexity. Philip Kennedy and Richard Sieburth lead discussion with Roger Allen, Humphrey Davies, Marilyn Booth and Robyn Creswell. Focus on Leg Over Leg: Volumes 1-4 by Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies, and What ‘Isa Told Us, or, A Period of Time: Volumes One and Two by Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī, edited and translated by Roger Allen.

Methods and approaches to establishing the texts, linguistic difficulty, history of transmission, literary character, audience. Michael Cooperson leads discussion with Julia Bray, Joseph Lowry, and Devin Stewart.

LAL’s importance to comparative literature and ways of reading. Marina Warner leads discussion with Dominique Jullien, Ros Ballaster, Wen-chin Ouyang and Matthew Reynolds. Focus on The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volumes One and Two by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, edited and translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler; and The Principles of Sufism by ʿĀʾishah al-Bāʿūnīyah, edited and translated by Th. Emil Homerin.

Different genres embraced by LAL and modes of writing. Julia Bray and James Montgomery lead discussion with Beatrice Gruendler and Shawkat Toorawa. Focus on Two Travel Books by Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī and Ahmad Ibn Faḍlān, edited and translated by Tim Mackintosh-Smith and James Montgomery; Consorts of the Caliphs, edited by Shawkat M. Toorawa and translated by the Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature; and The Life and Times of Abū Tammām by Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī, edited and translated by Beatrice Gruendler.

Overview of the project, difficulties, ideals, scope, historical context. Speakers: Philip Kennedy leads discussion with Geert Jan van Gelder, Ferial Ghazoul, and Joseph Lowry. Focus on Classical Arabic Literature, edited and translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder, and The Epistle on Legal Theory by Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shāfiʿī, edited and translated by Joseph E. Lowry.