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Statutes of
the International Congress for Asian and
North African Studies
Con(;r4;s international des £tudes sur
l'Asie et l'Afrique du Nord
(Revised by the Consultative Committee and Adopted at the Final Plenary Session
of the 31st Congress, 7th September, 1983)
Article I
The Congress shall normally meet at an interval of not more than five years.
Article II
Each Congress shall be organized by a Committee composed of nationals of the country in
which its session is to be held. The committee shall be free to increase or reduce the number of sections into which the Congress shall be divided; it shall regulate at free will the date of the meeting, the duration of the sessions, the course of the proceedings, and all the material details of the reception.
Article III
1. When each Congress meets, a Consultative Committee shall be organized consisting
of from 25 to 30 scholars representing, in an appropriate manner, the several regions and fields of study usually covered by the Congress, it being understood that no more than two scholars may be appointed from any one country in addition to the President and the Secretary-General.
2. The President and Secretary-General of the Congress then in session shall be the
Chairman and Secretary of the Consultative Committee.
3. The Consultative Committee shall decide upon questions affecting the Congress that
may arise during the sessions of the Congress when meeting.
4. The Bureau of the International Union for Oriental and Asian Studies shall be
responsible for insuring continuity between two Congresses.
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5. The duties of the Bureau of the International Union for Oriental and Asian Studies in
respect of the International Congress shall include, but shall not be necessarily limited
to: (a) action upon the venue of the forthcoming Congress if no decision has been
reached at the Congress just concluded in accordance with the provisions of Article
VI of the Statutes of the International Congress for Asian and North African Studies;
(b) consideration of questions brought before it concerning the scope and general
character of the forthcoming Congress, with the making of recommendations to the
Organizing Committee of the forthcoming Congress; (c) arranging for a new Congress to convene, if for any reason a situation should arise affecting the continued existence of the Congress.
Article IV
The Organizing Committee shall designate from amongst the languages of the country in
which the Congress is held one or more languages as the official language or languages of
the Congress. This or these languages shall be used in recording the proceedings of the
sittings.
The use of other languages in discussion shall be optional, subject to the decision by the
president of each section.
Article V
The President of each section shall control its sittings: he shall regulate the order of work, fix the duration of papers to be read, guide or stop the discussions, except that, in case of dispute, he may refer it to the Consultative Committee.
Article VI
Each Congress shall in its plenary session designate the country in which the next Congress shall take place; it shall choose from amongst the countries that have made proposals through
their delegates, or from amongst those which the Consultative Committee may designate
provisionally. The Congress can in no case hold two consecutive sessions in the same
country.
Article VII
After the closure of each Congress, the Organizing Committee of that Congress shall retain
only such local powers as are necessary for settling the obligations of that Congress.
V Foreword
In publishing the "Proceedings of the XXXIInd icanas" the Organizing Committee and the Secretary General as also the Vice-Secretary General complete their task and fulfil their com¬
mitment. In order to give as exact a picture as possible of the Congress, the Proceedings include the Programme, too, but of course as it actually took place according to conveners' records. Thanks to the kind cooperation of the participants it has been possible to achieve almost ideal completeness as regards the documentation of the papers read at the Congress.
In by far the most cases only summaries of the papers are included, but in some the limit of
600 words has not been observed by the authors, and in other cases we were even obliged
to publish the full text of the paper. This unevenness is regretted: It is not deliberate, but nor could it be avoided as it has ultimately been brought about by a change of opinion on the part of the Organizing Committee during the Congress itself and by the inability to inform all the conveners in time.
It should also be noted that as a rule the text of the abstracts is printed here without any major alterations. Only glaring printing errors have been corrected. The transcription has in
general not been standardized, and it has also seemed advisable to keep the English as it is
used by the participants themselves.
The undersigned feel that they should last but not least apologize for the long delay in
bringing out the "Proceedings". Many difficulties had to be overcome in order to reach this goal. Suffice it to say that getting the necessary subsidy towards the printing costs was not
as easy as expected and that members of the Organizing Committee took their time before
returning the proofs of the abstracts of their sections. However, the undersigned consider it more important, nay a most pleasant obligation, to express their deep gratitude to all those without whose help the camera ready copy of the Proceedings could not have been prepared,
viz. to Mrs. Agnes Janietz, Miss Silja Behnken, Miss Barbara Bomhoff, Mrs. Josette
Haferkom-Schwab, Miss Rita Langer and Mr. Burkhard Quessel.
It is no less a pleasant obligation to thank the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" for their
substantial financial support and the Franz Steiner Verlag for their unique publishing
expertise.
Albrecht Wezler Emst Hammerschmidt
