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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| Telephone: | 8850242 |
| Date of establishment: | 1928 |
| Status: | Institutional |
| Status Details: | Governmental (Ministry of Awqaf & Religious Affairs) |
| Condition of access: | MSS available for internal reading; photography permitted for purposes of editing & publishing. |
| Total number of Islamic MSS: | 5,147 (4,907 Arabic; 130 Persian; 110 Turkish). |
| Description of Collection: | The collection comprises the MSS which had been scattered in religious schools and mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere, in addition to several collections which used to belong to scholarly families before being donated to the library, including those of Munir al-Qaḍi, Ismaʿil al-Ṣaffar, Ḥasan al-Ankurli, Jamal al-Alusi, Aḥmad al-Mudarris, Makki al-Jamil, Kamal al-Din al-Taʾi, the library also holds the contents of the following former public and private libraries: JāmiϹ al-Imām al-AϹẓam Al-Madrasa al-Sulaymānīya JāmiϹ al-Bāchahchī Al-Madrasa al-Marjūnīya (al- Maktaba al-NuϹmānīya) Al-Ḥaydarkhāna Al-Takīya al-Khālidīya JāmiϹ al-Shaykh Junayd JāmiϹ al-Āṣifīya Madrasat NāϽila Khātūn JāmiϹ al-Kahyā JāmiϹ al-Qabalānīya Al-Sayyid ϹAlī Ḥaydar al-Bāchahchī ϹAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Laḥāfātī [al-Ḥāfātī] Muḥammad SaϹīd al-Ṭabaqchalī JāmiϹ al-Muṣarrif ϹAbd Allāh al-Jubūrī For the history of the library and its contents to 1969, see the 1969 catalogue by al-Juburi (under Published catalogues): Maktabat al-Awqāf al-ʿĀmma: tārīkhuhā, wa-nawādir makhṭūṭātihā.By ʿAbd Allāh al-Jubūrī.Baghdad: Maṭbaʿat al-Maʿārif, 1389/1969 (Manshūrāt Majallat al-Risāla al-Islāmīya, 2). 272pp. The library possesses many rare and unique MSS, some of them autographs, as well as fine illuminated copies from different periods. Especially noteworthy are: 1) Taʾwil mukhtalif Ḥadith, by Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 AH / 889 CE), copied in Wasiṭ in 472 AH [1079], the earliest extant copy known and the oldest MS. in the Library. 2) Al-Muntaqá min al-muʿjam al-mukhtaṣar, by Abu Bakr ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Asadi al-Dimashqi, known as Ibn Qaḍi Shuhba (d. 851 AH / 1448 CE). 3) Al-Muʿtamad fi aḥadith al-musnad, by Abu 'l-Thanaʾ Maḥmud ibn Aḥmad ibn Masʿud al-Qunawi al-Ḥanafi al-Dimashqi (d. 777 AH / 1375 CE), produced by Yunus ibn Abi Bakr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Razi in 767 AH [1365 CE] for the library of Sultan Abu Saʿid Barquq. 4) Al-Muḥaḍarat wa- 'l-muḥawarat, by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuṭi (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), copied by Muḥammad al-Sanhuri in 929 AH [1522 CE]. 5) Ḥashiya ʿalá Maqamatal-Ḥariri, by ʿAli ibn Muḥammad al-Raḥbi ibn al-Simnani (d. 499 AH / 1105 CE), a valuable autograph copy formerly in the possession of the calligrapher ʿAbd al-Ḥayy ibn Yusuf ibn ʿAli al-Maraghi. |
| Notes: | See published World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts. 1992 - 1994, Vol. 4, p 216. |
| Published Catalogues: | 12 |
| Unpublished Catalogues: | 0 |
| Published Catalogues Total: 12 | 1947 – 1948 |
1953 | |
1965 | |
1965 | |
1967 | |
1967 | |
1969 | |
1972 | |
1973 – 1974 | |
1977 | |
1977 | |
1983 |
| Union Catalogues & Surveys Total: 13 | 1919 |
1945 | |
1947 – 1951 | |
1948 | |
1956 | |
1958 | |
1966 – 1968 | |
1967 | |
1969 – 1974 | |
1973 | |
1976 | |
1984 | |
1985 | |
| Bibliographical appendix Total: 15 | 1947 |
1949 | |
1958 | |
1958 | |
1967 | |
1972 | |
1973 | |
1975 | |
1978 | |
1982 | |
1983 | |
1984 | |
1986 | |
1986 | |
1991 |
Cities surveyed
Libraries surveyed
Catalogues surveyed
