Islamic Manuscripts [engl.]

Project for the cataloguing and digitising of 55 Islamic manuscripts

This project is sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) for the purpose of establishing a database-supported index of and digital access to Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts recently acquired by the Leipzig University Library. This project is part of the DFG’s “Cultural Heritage” programme in the field of Scientific Library Services and Information Systems (LIS)".

The project will set up a database-supported index and provide digital access to a group of about 55 Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts. The Leipzig University Library purchased these manuscripts in 1995 and 1996. In this pioneer project, for the first time Arabic script will be integrated into a database that will also feature German and English transliteration systems. This will provide scholars of Oriental Studies worldwide with access to a hitherto unknown pool of Islamic manuscripts.

The variety of disciplines covered in the manuscript collection, the origins of some works from early periods of Islamic scholarship, the age of the copies and their historical proximity to the respective author, as well as the elaborate decoration, deserve special attention. A key place in the collection will be taken by one of the oldest known Ismaili manuscripts in the world, the Kitāb al-Zīna by the Ismaili author Abū Hātim al-Rāzī (d. 322 H. / 934 AD).

Duration of the project: 1.5 years. Start: August 2006.