Manuscript collections & catalogues

Beit al-Qur’an is a private museum dedicated to Islamic art and to Quaranic manuscripts (over 500) from different periods and geographic origins.  For more information see an article published in Saudi Aramco World.

The basic collections of in Sarajevo consist of manuscripts in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. They amount to 10,000 codices. The archives hold documents related to the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period of the Ottoman rule. It also has an important collection of 1,400 vakufnamas, and 86 sigils (court records and protocols) from the Sharia Court in Sarajevo. The site gives an access to an online catalogue, which does not contain all information given in the printed one.Orijentalni Institut U Sarajevu
Après la destruction de sa collection de 5263 manuscrits en 1992, l’Institut Oriental conserve actuellement 101 manuscrits, 52 ayant été sauvés de l’incendie, les autres acquis par achat ou don.

Présentation de la collection de 3300 manuscrits chrétiens, dont les deux tiers sont en grec et les autres en arabe, syriaque, géorgien, slavon ou encore d’autres langues …  Le site se consulte en anglais, en arabe ou en grec.Collection of 3300 christian manuscripts of which two-thirds are in Greek, and the rest in Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, etc.() Réseau des manuscrits arabes qui donne accès par une riche gamme de critères a des descriptions de manuscrits conservés dans sept bibliothèques d’Egypte, dont Dar al-Kutub et al-Azhar.

est le catalogue des archives et des manuscrits conservés dans les bibliothèques universitaires françaises (pas encore la BULAC), de grands établissements nationaux d’établissements de recherche (Institut de France, Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, etc.). Les notices proviennent en grande partie du Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France dont la publication a commencé au 19^ème siècle, il ne faut donc pas s’attendre à y trouver des caractères arabes ou une translittération normalisée. La recherche par langues rapporte 372 réponses pour l’arabe, 201 pour l’hébreu, 68 pour le persan, 53 pour le turc ottoman, 8 pour l’arménien. is the union catalogue of archives and manuscripts held in the French university libraries (Bulac is not yet included) and other important national research institutions (Institut de France, Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, etc.).  The records are mostly from Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France whose publication began in the 19th century. Thus one may not find original characters or standardised transcritptions.  Presently search by languages posts 372 items for Arabic, 201 for Hebrew, 68 for Persian, 53 for Ottoman Turkish and 8 for Armenian.***Concernant les manuscrits, le CCFR (Catalogue Collectif de France) regroupe dans une base “Manuscrits” le Catalogue général des manuscrits , BNF Archives et Manuscrits, le Répertoire des manuscrits littéraires français du XXe siècle (Palme). La recherche par langues ne propose qu’arabe et hébreu parmi les langues du Proche-Orient.CCFR (Catalogue Collectif de France) has  a separate data base Catalogue général des manuscrits including BnF Archives et manuscrits and Répertoire des manuscrits littéraires français du XXe siècle (Palme). Search by language gives results for Arabic and Hebrew only among the Middle Eastern languages.***

Bibliothèque nationale de France has its own database BNF Archives et manuscrits (BAM) with a search form, including the records of previously published catalogues for Arabic and Turkish where the transcription schemes vary.  Acquisitions made after the published catalogues are directly entered (including Persian), with original characters and standardised transliteration.  As for the published catalogues, they are available in PDF format (Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Persian, Syriac, Turkish…) that may be dowloaded.

BNF Archives et manuscrits (BAM) est la base de données de la Bibliothèque nationale de France qui offre un accès par Collections ou Formulaire de Recherche. Ce catalogue contient une conversion des anciens catalogues imprimés des fonds Arabe et Turc, d’une grande diversité dans la translittération et le choix des données. Les acquisitions postérieures à leur publication y sont directement décrites, ainsi que des manuscrits persans, avec caractères originaux et translittération normalisée. Des catalogues imprimés de manuscrits arabes, arméniens, éthiopiens, hébreux, persans, sabéens, samaritains, syriaques et turcs numérisés ont été numérisés et leurs pages sont téléchargeables au format PDF.

Présentation des collections de la Bulac de 149 manuscrits persans et 208 manuscrits turcs avec liens vers des catalogues détaillés et de manuscrits arabes (1622 cotes) avec un lien vers le catalogue en cours de rédaction

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Catalogue, Institut de recherche de histoire des textes (IRHT)-Section arabe, Paris
Microfilm duplicates of Arabic manuscripts held in the libraries of the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States.

Reproductions sur microfilms de manuscrits arabes conservés dans des bibliothèques du Proche-Orient, du Maghreb, d’Europe et des Etats-Unis.

Universität und Landesbibliothek – Bonn
252 manuscripts in Arabic, Turkish and Persian presented by  La présentation du fonds  F. J. Huschens whose work is available online.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München
Digitised version of published manuscript catalogues (OPAC)

Universitätsbibliothek Lepizig
Catalogue et images numérisées de manuscrits arabes (74), turcs (3) et persans (8) acquis depuis 1995 par la Bibliothèque universitaire de Leipzig, fruit d’une coopération entre la bibliothèque et l’Institut oriental. Sur la page d’accueil, la rubrique ‘Historische Kataloge’ donne accès aux images numérisées des catalogues imprimés.

Universitätsbibliothek – Tübingen 
Access to scanned printed catalogues of manuscripts in Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian and from India.

The has a large and important collection of Al Qur’an and manuscripts from all periods and countries (including NW China ) around the Islamic world. The museum possesses some fine examples of the writings of renowned calligraphers. The purpose of the collection is to illustrate something of the history and development of Islamic calligraphy.

fut créé en 2007 avec des fonds de la Communauté Européenne et des États-Unis. Elle se définit comme une « Bibliothèque de collections privées dans un espace public », conservant et valorisant 4000 manuscrits provenant des collections de soixante familles de Djenné qui en restent propriétaires.SAVAMA-DCI (Sauvegarde et valorisation des manuscrits – Défense de la culture islamique) est une ONG qui s’est donné pour mission la préservation et la valorisation des manuscrits en langue arabe de Tombouctou. Ce site donne des informations sur les manuscrits de Tombouctou et sur les efforts de tous les acteurs (bibliothèques de manuscrits, partenaires institutionnels et bailleurs) autour de leur conservation.

La recherche permet de sélectionner ‘Manuscrits’ et donne accès à 1652 notices. Search “manuscrits”  results in over 1650 manuscript records

Manuscript@CSIC
El portal Manuscript@CSIC presenta las colecciones de manuscritos en hebreo, árabe, aljamiado, persa y turco conservados en las bibliotecas del CSIC, incorporando tanto su catalogación como su digitalización. Se trata de una acción conjunta entre el Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo, la Escuela de Estudios Árabes de Granada y la Unidad de de Recursos de Información Científica para la Investigación del CSIC, realizada con el fin de dar a conocer las colecciones de manuscritos en lenguas orientales conservados en sus bibliotecas: Biblioteca Tomás Navarro Tomás del Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales y la Biblioteca de la Escuela de Estudios Árabes.Biblioteca nacional
Catalogue en ligne. La langue n’est pas un critère de recherche. L’Inventario Général de Manuscritos numérisé et ses index sont aussi disponibles sur le site. Biblioteca digital hispanica propose deux manuscrits arabes.

For general information on manuscript libraries and holdings that come under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, please visit www.yazmalar.gov.tur whose English pages are not as complete as the Turkish ones. The libraries that have an independent site are listed on the page http://www.yazmakutup.gov.tr/index.html. The former site also offers a union catalogue but please note that not all the manuscript libraries’ holdings are available on this catalogue … yet.

You may register as a member and have access to the digitised material available via the online catalogue.

There are a number of other private or foundation libraries with relevant manuscript holdings.

 

consists of 425 works in 261 volumes, which are accessible online through Suna Kıraç Library Digital Collections. The collection acquired as donations mainly from scholars such as Fuat Bayramoğlu (1912-1996) who served as a diplomat and was poet and author and Şinasi Tekin (1933-2004) who was an acknowledged Turkish linguist professor and Turkologist. Manuscripts have originally written in different languages; 331 of these works are in Turkish, 61 of them are in Arabic,
24 of these works are in Persian and the rest 9 are bilingual works (majmuas) in Persian-Arabic, or Arabic-Turkish. Sufism, especially Anatolian / Ottoman Sufism (Bayrami, Melami and Mevlevi paths), Turkish literature, Islamic morality and ethics, Islamic law, Quranic works, fatwas, hadith constitute the main contents of the manuscripts. Among these books, there are many works written by the authors themselves, unique copies as the oldest manuscript in the collection dates back to 777 / 1376. Some of the manuscripts bear valuable contextual information on Anatolian Sufism and on the books, which they
have reached through the family lines of their owners. Another characteristic group of materials is the works that are in the early Anatolian Turkish language and literature. The collection compromises a valuable source for especially in terms of language and cultural history studies. In addition to these, a printed catalog in Turkish, named “Koç Üniversitesi Suna Kıraç Kütüphanesi Yazmaları Kataloğu” (Union Catalogue of Manuscripts), is also available to provide accessibility of bibliographic identities of manuscripts.

Collection of the Arts of the Book and Calligraphy consists of illuminated Korans, prayer books, calligraphic compositions, albums and panels written by well-known calligraphers, illuminated official documents bearing the imperial cipher of the Ottoman sultans as well as calligrapher’s tools, all produced during a period extending from the end of the 14th century to the 20th century.

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For archival holdings, see the online free catalogue of  T.C. Devlet Arşivleri (State Archives).  Printed holdings of the State Archives are available at the Documentation Database.

British Library : à l’exception de celui de la collection India Office Records and Private Papers, les catalogues des manuscrits orientaux ne sont pas inclus dans le catalogue en ligne “Search our catalogues : Archives and Manuscripts”. Des descriptions de collections, avec listes des catalogues imprimés et liens vers Internet Archive lorsque ceux-ci sont numérisés sont disponibles par langues sur la page “Help for Researchers / language”

Institute of Ismaili studies : Over 1700 volumes, comprising the manuscripts gathered by Vladimir Ivanow, Chotu Lakhani and other Ismaili scholars for The Ismaili Society in Bombay. The manuscript collection is divided into Arabic, Persian and Gujarati and the Khojki script sections.

An online catalogue of Haddād manuscript collection in the , consisting in 87 Arabic medical manuscripts from the  collection of Dr Sami Ibrahim Haddād (1890-1957), Lebanese physician and historian of medicine.

FIHRIST , the union catalogue of manuscripts in Arabic script in the UK
This catalogue provides a searchable interface to basic manuscript descriptions from some of the major manuscript collections in the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the British Library. With the continuing contribution of manuscript records from UK libraries, Fihrist aims to become a union catalogue for manuscripts in Arabic script.

Arabic Manuscripts from West Africa: A Catalog of the Herskovits Library Collection at Northwestern Universtiy.
The Herskovits Library contains four major cataloged collections: The ‘Umar Falke Collection (3323 items), the John Paden Collection (606 items), the John Hunwick Collection (569 items), the University of Ghana Collection (385 items) and un-cataloged Collections, with manuscripts, photocopies of manuscripts and printed editions.

The Islamic scholar’s collection consists of 24 bound volumes (ca. 1447-1902) whose subjects include astronomy and astrology, belles-lettres, grammar, history and théology.

eBethArké digital library
Collected by Beth Mardutho, this is part of the “online Syriac portal”.  Over 1500 items have been digitised (inlcuding manuscripts, printed books, archives, audio recordings) so far and more is expected to go online.  A collaborative project (State University of New Jersey and Rutgers University).