Welcome to Al-Furqan’s E-Database
The largest gateway of Islamic written heritage
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‘World Collections’ databank / collection
The ‘World Collections’ databank / collection holds the digitised outcome of the survey on the collections of Islamic manuscripts in the world, completed and published by the Al-Furqan Foundation in 1994, under the title “The World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts”.. This Survey is available in both the English and Arabic language.
This flagship project (the only one of this type to date) started in 1989, focusing on identifying and recording undocumented Islamic manuscript collections in the world, with the aim to support and instigate research into the field of Islamic manuscripts. A number of known scholars and experts contributed to this encyclopaedic work.
The Survey identified collections in 106 countries. It is a compilation of detailed independent studies, highlighting just over a million and a half Islamic manuscripts from just over 2,500 collections. These collections, in more than 40 languages, belong to public and private libraries in almost 1,300 cities. It gathered extensive information about these libraries, including details about their establishment and the status of their collections, unveiling in the process rare manuscripts. For example, the collection of manuscripts at the Institute of Oriental Culture (University of Tokyo) - that was acquired in 1987 - included several new and unique Islamic manuscripts. The noteworthy discoveries were two copies of Risala fi anwaʿ al-mashruʿat, a comprehensive work on the terminology of jurisprudence, by Luṭf Allah al-Kaydani (died 1349 AD /750 AH). These were significant findings, as they had not even been mentioned in the most renowned classical period references, such as Brockelmann's famous work Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (GAL), Sezgin's Geschichte Des Arabischens Schriftums (GAS), and Kaḥḥala's Muʿjam al-muʾallifin.
A large number of the identified libraries have listed and included detailed descriptions about the manuscripts held in their collection, in a form of a document or publication. This publication is known as a ‘catalogue’; with most of them published and available for purchase. Another form of a published catalogue is one that was compiled by a group of libraries, known as ‘library consortium’. These libraries partnered to combine their collections into one unified published catalogue, known as a ‘union catalogue’.
Some libraries held collections that were not catalogued or documented. Others made an attempt to describe their collections in simplified lists and general documentations. These were usually not published and are known as ‘unpublished catalogues’.
A unique outcome of the Survey was the identification of all the various catalogues. Just over 5,500 catalogues of Islamic manuscripts were surveyed, including the listing of almost 700 union catalogues, and almost 1,000 unpublished catalogues.
All this information and much more is ready to be explored on theAl-Furqan Digital Library, under the ‘World Collections’ databank.
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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 |
| Published Catalogues Total: 2 | 1900 |
1980 | |
| Unpublished Catalogues Total: 4 | A full catalogue of the Arabic MSS in preparation by Lawrence I. Conrad. |
A catalogue of the Turkish and Persian MSS. | |
The library also holds registers of MSS incorporated into its collections since 1900, and numerous daftars listing books owned by family members in the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, and now incorporated into the library. | |
1968 |
| Union Catalogues & Surveys Total: 16 | 1928 |
1938 | |
1945 – 1946 | |
1947 | |
1954 – 1964 | |
1976 | |
1981 | |
1981 | |
1982 | |
1983 | |
1983 | |
1984 | |
1986 | |
1987 | |
1987 | |
1989 | |
| Bibliographical appendix Total: 11 | 1947 |
1967 | |
1978 | |
1982 | |
1983 | |
1983 | |
1984 | |
1986 | |
1986 | |
1988 | |
1991 |
Cities surveyed
Libraries surveyed
Catalogues surveyed
