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: | ShariϹ Ḥayfa, Baghdad |
| Telephone: | 8840115 |
| Date of establishment: | 1988 |
| Status: | Institutional |
| Status Details: | State library, affiliated to the Department of Monuments & Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Information. |
| Condition of access: | Open to researchers; photographic services available for purposes of editing, publishing and exchange with MSS centres throughout the world. |
| Total number of Islamic MSS: | 40,214 (36,461 Arabic; 210 Kurdish; 2,757 Persian; 786 Turkish). |
| Description of Collection: | Dar Ṣaddam is regarded as the central authority in charge of MSS in Iraq, and its responsibilities include MSS in public and private libraries and in the possession of individuals. The nucleus of the collection is the MSS library of the Iraqi Museum, which was started in 1940 and grew to nearly 4,000 MSS by 1968. From then onwards special attention was paid to manuscripts, and consequently they increased to 38,000 by 1988, in addition to more than 50,000 MSS which are registered by Dar Ṣaddam but are kept elsewhere. Such an enormous task required the establishment of a special department for MSS which would be responsible for providing a suitable place and conditions for MSS storage, preservation and restoration, and for making them available to readers. So Dar Ṣaddam was established and the MSS collection of the Iraqi Museum library was transferred to it. This is the largest MSS collection in Iraq. It includes many rare, decorated and unique MSS and autograph copies. It also includes a large number of specimens and diplomas (ijazat) of the most celebrated calligraphers in Islamic history. The MSS date from the first century AH to the beginning of this century. The oldest manuscripts are fragments and pages of the Qurʾan written on parchment in Kufic script, from the first three centuries AH. The oldest dated MSS are a letter from the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Wathiq in the handwriting of Ibn al-Bawwab, and a copy of Kitab al-Mujmal fi 'l-lugha by Ibn Faris, written in 446 AH / 1054 CE. The Library acquired by means of purchase or donation several well-known private collections such as those of Father Anastas al-Karmali, Rashid ʿAli al-Gaylani, Mulla Sabir Kirkukli-Zadah, al-Sharif Ḥazim, ʿAbbas al-ʿAzzawi, Sadiq Kammuna, Yaʿqub Sarkis, Masʿud, Muḥammad and Aḥmad ʿAli al-Balaghi, Qasim Muḥammad al-Rajab, Hashim al-Alusi and others. The library's holdings also include the following former private collections: – ʿAlī al-Khāqānī (350 MSS). – Muḥammad Ḥasan āl Yāsīn (99 MSS). – Aḥmad Nīyāzī (434 MSS). – Yūsuf Maskūnī (61 MSS). – ʿUbayd al-Utrūshī (224 MSS), Mosul. – Raʾūf al-Naqīb (199 MSS), Kirkūk. – ʿAbd Allāh al-Sinawī (224 MSS). – ʿIzz al-Dīn Muṣṭafá Safwat (56 MSS). – ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Jazāʾirī (241 MSS), Najaf. – Muṣṭafá Jawād (19 MSS). – ϹAbd al-Razzāq al-Ālūsī (386 MSS). – Maktabat al-NāϽib wa-'l-Naqshabandī (518 MSS). – Kūrkīs ϹAwwād (36 MSS). – Salmān Hādī al-ṬuϽma (138 MSS), KarbalāϽ – ḌiyāϽ Shikāra (93 MSS), al-ϹAmāra. – ϹAbd al-Muṭṭalib ϹAbd al-Ghanī al-Naqīb (78 MSS), Mosul. – Nūrī Fayḍ Allāh al-Naqīb (20 MSS), Mosul. – Muḥammad Muṣṭafá SaϹīd (1,592 MSS), Kirkūk. – Khalīl al-Ward (84 MSS). – MasϹūd Muḥammad (287 MSS), Irbil. – Muḥammad Ḥasan al-ṬabāṭabāϽī(147 MSS), KarbalāϽ – SaϹīd al-Dīwah-chī (258 MSS), Mosul. – ϹAzīz ϹAbd Allāh al-Ḥassū (10 MSS), Mosul. – Sayyid Mahdī al-Khirsān (195 MSS), Najaf. – Muṣṭafá Muḥammad ṣāliḥ al-Suhrawardī (173 MSS). – Kāẓim Sharīf al-Qurashī (173 MSS), Najaf. – Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Adīb (221 MSS), KarbalāϽ – Ḥusayn ϹAlī Maḥfūẓ (255 MSS). – Muḥammad ϹAlī Murtaḍá (174 MSS), KarbalāϽ – Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ ḌiyāϽ (185 MSS), KarbalāϽ – Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Ṣadr (281 MSS), Najaf. – Ḥamdī ϹAbd al-Majīd al-Salafī (104 MSS), Duhuk. – Muḥammad Rashād al-Muftī (423 MSS), Irbil. – Ḥasan ϹAbd al-Amīr (127 MSS), KarbalāϽ – ϹAbd al-Razzāq al-Fakhrī(185 MSS), Mosul. – Hāshim Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭāṭ (273 MSS). – Mahdī Muḥammad al-ϹAskarī (258 MSS), SāmarrāϽ – Hāshim Muḥammad al-Rajab (12 MSS). – Mashkūr Mahḍī al-Asadī (75 MSS). – ϹAbd al-MunϹim al-Muṣarrif (230 MSS). – Al-Maktaba al-Ḥusaynīya (1,004 MSS), Najaf. – Ibrāhīm ϹAṭṭārbāshī (32 MSS). – Muḥammad al-Khālisī (376 MSS). |
| Notes: | See published World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts. 1992 - 1994, Vol. 4, p 228. |
| Published Catalogues: | 35 |
| Unpublished Catalogues: | 5 |
| Published Catalogues Total: 35 | 1951 |
1951 | |
1955 | |
1955 | |
1955 – 1956 | |
1957 | |
1958 – 1959 | |
1966 | |
1967 | |
1969 | |
1970 | |
1972 | |
1974 | |
1975 | |
1975 | |
1976 | |
1976 | |
1979 | |
1979 | |
1980 | |
1981 | |
1981 | |
1982 | |
1982 | |
1982 – 1988 | |
1983 | |
1984 | |
1984 | |
1985 | |
1985 | |
1986 | |
1988 | |
1989 | |
1989 | |
1991 | |
| Unpublished Catalogues Total: 5 | Fihrist bi-asmāʾ makhṭūṭāt Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Niyāzī bi-Baghdād, allatī ālat ilá maktabat al-Matḥaf al-ʿIrāqī. |
Fihris makhṭūṭāt Āl al-Suhrawardī. | |
Fihris makhṭūṭātFinsān Mārīnī. | |
Al-makhṭūṭāt al-Naṣrānīya al-ʿArabīya fī maktabat al-Matḥaf al-ʿIrāqī. | |
1947 |
| 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
