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‘Our Publications’ databank / collection
‘Our Publications’ collection is a bibliographic database of the Foundation's own publications. These works are the outcome of prominent research projects and events carried out by the three centres of the Foundation, i.e. the ‘Manuscripts Centre’, the ‘Mawsoa Centre’ and the ‘Maqasid Centre’.
This collection was added to the ‘Al-Furqan Digital Library’ to enrich the user research experience. The collection is continuously updated, and currently contains over 200 works in over 400 volumes. These cover both introductory and advanced topics discussed and presented by distinguished scholars in the field of Islamic written heritage.
It also includes many popular and heavily cited publications, as well as award winning works, such as the critical edition of al-Isfizāri’s book which deals with the field of mechanics, known as “the sciences of weights and mechanical devices” (‘Ilmay al-Athqāl wal-Ḥiyal). Other popular items include works by the late famous scholar Annemarie Schimmel, such as The Secrets of Creative Love (1998) and Islam and the Wonders of Creation(2003); and many other highly demanded references, including the unique Encyclopaedia of Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Al-Madīnah Al-Munawwarah.
The Ottoman Turkish Manuscripts in Al-Khalidiyyah Library, Jerusalem
This catalogue describes 44 manuscripts in the Turkish language held at the al-Khālidiyya Library in Jerusalem. The manuscripts cover a breadth of topics: the sciences of jurisprudence, philosophy, creed, literature, rhetoric, writing, astronomy and medicine. Al-Furqān Foundation previously published the catalogue specifically to the Arabic manuscripts of this library.
Preface:
By Barbara Kellner- Heinkele
The cataloguing and conservation efforts at al-Khalidiyyah Library in Jerusalem, underway Since 1986, have brought to light not only a voluminous corpus of well-Known texts covering all fields of medieval Islamic learning but also an unexpectedly high number of rare or even unique Arabic manuscripts. While the existence of these treasures was formerly known only to a small circle of specialists, the catalogues of Arabic manuscripts published in recent years have drawn international attention to the importance of this library and will promote research in all areas of Islamic Studies.
The collection, assembled over centuries within a family that played a prominent role in the social and administrative establishment of Palestine and Jerusalem, also contains a number of manuscripts, documents and printed books from the Ottoman period (early 16th to early 20th century) in both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish as a small number of manuscripts in Persian. An overview of these works was published by Lawrence
I. Conrad and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele in 1994
(Lawrence I. Conrad and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Ottoman Resources Khalidi Library in Jerusalem. In: Aspects of Ottoman History. Papers from)
By Barbara Kellner- Heinkele
The cataloguing and conservation efforts at al-Khalidiyyah Library in Jerusalem, underway Since 1986, have brought to light not only a voluminous corpus of well-Known texts covering all fields of medieval Islamic learning but also an unexpectedly high number of rare or even unique Arabic manuscripts. While the existence of these treasures was formerly known only to a small circle of specialists, the catalogues of Arabic manuscripts published in recent years have drawn international attention to the importance of this library and will promote research in all areas of Islamic Studies.
The collection, assembled over centuries within a family that played a prominent role in the social and administrative establishment of Palestine and Jerusalem, also contains a number of manuscripts, documents and printed books from the Ottoman period (early 16th to early 20th century) in both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish as a small number of manuscripts in Persian. An overview of these works was published by Lawrence
I. Conrad and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele in 1994
(Lawrence I. Conrad and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Ottoman Resources Khalidi Library in Jerusalem. In: Aspects of Ottoman History. Papers from)
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| Contact: | Ṭariq Bab al-Silsila, Old City, at the top of ϹAqabat Abi Madyan |
| Date of establishment: | The library was formally endowed in its present building in 1900, but had already been a distinct family institution for at least fourteen years prior to this date. |
| Status: | Private |
| Status Details: | Private family library, operated under the terms of a family endowment (waqf dhurri). |
| Condition of access | The Library is presently closed for major renovation, cataloguing, and conservation work planned for completion in 1994. Regular opening hours are not presently envisaged, but access will be available to qualified researchers by advance appointment with the curator and upon presentation of proper identification or a letter of introduction. |
| Total number of Islamic MSS: | ca. 1,257 (ca. 1,200 Arabic; 18 Persian; 36 Turkish). These figures are provisional, pending completion of cataloguing work on the collections. |
| Description of Collection: | The Khalidi Library, one of the most important private Islamic libraries in the world, is located in a thirteenth-century Mamluk building known as the Turba of Barakat Khan (built after 644/1246), in Ṭariq Bab al-Silsila near the Bab al-Silsila gate of Al-Ḥaram al-Sharif. The building is presently being renovated, and the library's collections will soon be moved into quarters of a high professional standard, with books and manuscripts stored on metal shelving under controlled climatic conditions and protected from insect and other damage. The most important 120 MSS are now being conserved and microfilmed, and all the MSS are in course of cataloguing.
The MSS are the holdings of a prominent Jerusalem family, based on various personal collections established at least as far back as the eighteenth century CE, and consolidated from the late nineteenth century onwards. MSS were still being incorporated into the library from the holdings of family members into the 1930s. The oldest MS. can be dated to the fourth century AH / tenth century CE on the basis of the script, and the oldest specifically dated MS. is a work from 418/1027. There are numerous makramas, or presentation copies, as well as several which were originally copied for royal libraries, and others gilded and decorated to a very high standard. Of particular importance is the rather high proportion of unique MSS which the library contains.
Of the unique MSS, some important examples are the following: 1) Al-Akhbar al-manthura, by Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan ibn Durayd, a MS. of the fourth century AH; 2) a majmuʿa of unique essays, drafts of essays, and notes by Taqiy al-Din ʿAli b. ʿAbd al-Kafi al-Subki (autograph, wr. 741–49 / 1340–48); 3) Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyaʾ, by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar ibn Abi ʿAdasa al-Qudsi (autograph, wr. 856/1452); 4) Al-Kiyasa fi aḥkam al-siyasa, by Yusuf b. Muḥsin b. Aḥmad ibn al-Ṣaydawi (autograph, wr. 884/1479); 5) the first volume of jilaʾ al-afkar fi sirat al-mukhtar, by Muḥammad b. Ibrahim al-Bilbaysi (autograph, wr. 986/1520). Other autograph MSS include 6) Manadiḥ al-mamadiḥ wa-rawḍat al-maʿathir wa-'l-mafakhir fi khaṣaʾiṣ al-Malik al-Naṣir, by ʿAbd al-Munʿim b. ʿUmar b. Ḥassan al-Julyani, dated 598/1201 and apparently the copy originally presented to Ṣalaḥ al-Din al-Ayyubi (r. 564–589 / 1169–1193). The library's copy of 7) Kitab Shanaq fi sumum wa-'l-tiryaq by the ancient Indian physician Canakya, translated through Pahlavi and Syriac into Arabic, is a richly decorated royal copy from the library of the Zengid Arslan Shah I (r. 589–607 / 1193 – 1211).
See:
Khazāʾin al-kutub al-ʿArabīya: nafāʾis al-Khizāna al-Khālīdiya fi 'l-Quds al-Sharīf.By ʿAbd Allāh Mukhliṣ.Majallat al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī al-ʿArabī bi-Dimashq 4, pp. 366–369, 409–413. Khiṭaṭ al-Shām, VI.By Muḥammad Kurd ʿAlī.Damascus: Maṭbaʿat al-Mufīd, pp. 201–202. 1945 – 1946 Dūr kutub Filasṭīn wa-nafāʾis makhṭūṭātihā.By Asʿad Ṭalas.Majallat al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī al-ʿArabī bi-Dimashq 20, pp. 236–237, 344–347, 440–448, 528–536; 21, 49–60. Al-Maktaba al-Khālidīya.By Filib Ṭarrāzī.Khazāʾin al-kutub al-ʿArabīya fī 'l-khafiqayn. I. Beirut: Wizārat al-Tarbiya wa-'l-Funūn al-Jamīla, pp. 142–143. Muḥammad Rūḥī al-Khālidī:rāʾid al-baḥth al-taʾrīkhī al-ḥadīth fī Filasṭīn.By Nāṣir al-Dīn Al-Asad.Cairo: Maʿhad al-Buḥūth wa-'l-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabīya. 148pp. The Turbat Barakat Khān or Khalidi Library. By A.G. Walls.Levant 6, pp. 25–50. Ajdādunā fī tharā Bayt al-Maqdis.By Kāmil Jamīl al-ʿAsalī.Amman: Muʿassasat Āl al-Bayt, pp. 73–75. Maʿāhid al-ʿilm fī Bayt al-Maqdis.By Kāmil Jamīl al-ʿAsalī.Amman: University of Jordan, pp. 379–388. Al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʿArabīya fi Filasṭīn. By Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid.Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-Jadīd. Turkish manuscripts: cataloguing since 1960 and manuscripts still uncatalogued, Part 3. By Eleazar Birnbaum.Journal of the American Oriental Society Al-Maktabāt. Al-Mawsūʿa al-Filasṭīnīya, IV.Edited by ʿAbd al-Hādī Hāshim.Damascus: Hayʿat al-Mawsūʿa al-Filasṭīnīya, pp. 287–288. Al-Mufaṣṣal fī taʾrīkh al-Quds. 2nd edition.By ʿĀrif al-ʿĀrif.Jerusalem: Maṭbaʿat al-Maʿārif, p. 449. Mamlūk Jerusalem: an architectural study. By Michael Hamilton Burgoyne, with additional historical research by D.S. Richards.London: World of Islam Festival Trust. Al-Maktaba al-Khālidīya: min al-maʿālim al-ḥaḍārīya fī madīnat al-Quds. By Muḥammad Abū Khuḍayr.Al-Quds, Monthly Supplement, 1 June 1990, pp. 4, 9. Conservation at the Khalidi Library in the Old City of Jerusalem.By A.R. Bish.Proceedings of the Conference of the Institute of Paper Conservation. Manchester: Institute of Paper Conservation, pp. 178–181. Ottoman Resources in the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem.By Lawrence I. Conrad and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele. Edited by Amnon Cohen and Amy Singer. Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of Pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Studies. Jerusalem: Magnes University Press. expected 1993. The Khalidi Library in Jerusalem: a preliminary report.By Lawrence I. Conrad.Manuscripts of the Middle East 6, 1993? On the family members whose MSS are now deposited in the library, or who helped to establish and organise it, see (in addition to the study by Al-Asad listed above): Ein palästinischer Repräsentant der Tanzimat-Periode: Yūsuf Ḍiyāʾddīn al-Khālidī (1842–1906).By Alexander Schölch.Der Islam 57, pp. 311–322. Palestinian historiography: 1900–1948.By Tarif Khalidi.Journal of Palestine Studies 10 iii, pp. 59–76. Rūḥī Al-Khālidī: a pioneer of comparative literature in Arabic.By H. al-Khateeb.Journal of Arabic Literature 18, pp. 81 –87. Kitāb Al-Sayūnizim aw al-masʾala al-Sharqīya li-Muḥammad Rūḥī al-Khālidī.By Walid Khalidi.Studia Palaestina: Studies in Honour of Constantine K. Zurayk, edited by Hisham Nashabe. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, pp. 37–81. In addition to the MSS shelved in the old Reading Room of the library, a large cache of manuscript materials, some very old, were discovered in the space above the ceiling in 1987. These materials are currently being sorted and classified, and in some cases they fill gaps in the MSS in the Reading Room. These materials also include many Ottoman-period documents which have yet to be cleaned and classified. See the forthcoming report by Conrad & Kellner-Heinkele listed above. |
| Notes: | See published World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts. 1992 - 1994, Vol.2, p 585. |
| Published Catalogues: | 2 |
| Unpublished Catalogues: | 4 |
| Online access: | www.khalidilibrary.org |
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