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The Digital Orientalist

Practical examples and theoretical reflections on the do's and don'ts of using digital tools for your study and research in African and Asian Studies.

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Author: Ephrem A. Ishac

He is a specialist in Syriac Liturgical Studies (focusing on their manuscripts and fragments), East and West Syriac Church Councils, the History of Ecumenism in the Middle East, and Syriac Digital Humanities. After one year as a Research Scholar fellow at Yale University, Ephrem is back in Austria as a Senior Postdoc - Principal Investigator for the FWF project: "Identifying Scattered Puzzles of Syriac Liturgical Manuscripts and Fragments" hosted at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Vienna.
Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (2)
Interview, New Post, Online Resources, Syriac Studies

Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (2)

This post is the second part of a conversation between Ephrem A. Ishac and David Michaelson on the state of … Continue reading Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (2)

Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (1)
Interview, New Post, Online Resources, Syriac Studies

Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (1)

Between October and November 2025, Prof. David Michelson served as a visiting fellow at the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) … Continue reading Interview with Prof. David Michelson: From Syriaca.org to the British Library and Beyond (1)

Syriac AI Manuscripts and Fragments: Reimagining Digitally the Damaged Past
AI, New Post, Syriac Studies

Syriac AI Manuscripts and Fragments: Reimagining Digitally the Damaged Past

The field of Syriac Digital Humanities continues to advance rapidly, moving from basic text recognition (as discussed in my previous … Continue reading Syriac AI Manuscripts and Fragments: Reimagining Digitally the Damaged Past

Beyond Artificial Intelligence: Human Recognition of a Syriac Fragment in Turfan
New Post

Beyond Artificial Intelligence: Human Recognition of a Syriac Fragment in Turfan

Last October 2024, I had the great privilege to be invited to give a paper at “The International Conference on … Continue reading Beyond Artificial Intelligence: Human Recognition of a Syriac Fragment in Turfan

From Vienna to the World: Launching the First Public Syriac HTR Model on Transkribus
DH in Practice, HTR, Machine Learning, New Post, OCR, Syriac Studies

From Vienna to the World: Launching the First Public Syriac HTR Model on Transkribus

Readers of The Digital Orientalist, you are among the first to know! Today’s post is dedicated to the release of … Continue reading From Vienna to the World: Launching the First Public Syriac HTR Model on Transkribus

Recent Advancements: Unlocking Syriac and Arabic Texts on Archive.org
OCR, Online Resources, Syriac Studies

Recent Advancements: Unlocking Syriac and Arabic Texts on Archive.org

For scholars and students of Syriac and Arabic, the vast digital text library of Archive.org has always held immense potential. … Continue reading Recent Advancements: Unlocking Syriac and Arabic Texts on Archive.org

Artificial Intelligence for Garshuni-Arabic on Gemini
AI, Machine Learning, New Post, Syriac Studies

Artificial Intelligence for Garshuni-Arabic on Gemini

The recent rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots like Gemini has opened up exciting new possibilities for interacting with and … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence for Garshuni-Arabic on Gemini

Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part2)
AI, DH in General, DH in Practice, Machine Learning, Online Resources, Syriac Studies

Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part2)

In my previous post (Part 1: here), I presented some preliminary tests of chatting in Classical Syriac with Google Bard (/Gemini) … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part2)

Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part1)
AI, DH in Practice, Machine Learning, Online Resources, Syriac Studies

Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part1)

Since the release of the ChatGPT, many Syriac users have been hoping that this chatbot would enable Syriac as a … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence for Syriac on Google Bard (/Gemini) – Preliminary Tests (Part1)

An Interview on DASH: Digital Analysis of Syriac Handwriting
Apps, DH in Practice, HTR, OCR, Online Resources, Syriac Studies, Textual Analysis

An Interview on DASH: Digital Analysis of Syriac Handwriting

In previous years I have posted some interviews with different projects to trace the history of the Syriac Digital Humanities. … Continue reading An Interview on DASH: Digital Analysis of Syriac Handwriting

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