Author: Nadia Barclay, Director of Outreach at the Arab Cultural Trust
Overview:
al-hakawati.net is a virtual public library of Arab and Islamic heritage. Our purpose is to make learning and knowledge about the Arab world easily available, and to promote understanding of Arab/Islamic culture in the Arabic speaking work and in the West.
Over the past 12 years we have built an extensive collection, including:
Nearly 400 full-text searchableheritage books on astronomy, history, mathematics, poetry, medicine, geography, religion, music etc.
The library is organized into ten main sections: Stories & Tales, Personalities, States, Cities and Regions, Civilizations, Arts and Artists, Histories and Cultures, Environment, Architecture, and Religion.
Tips to Navigate the Library:
Our readers can find content using the freeform search toolbar or the drop down menus. Each of the 10 main sections in the menu has several sub-sections.
We recently redesigned the homepage incorporating 9 frames where we highlight articles from the various sections as suggestions of what a reader can expect. This design also allows us to feature selections (paragraphs or chapters) from the canon of Arabic books, and thereby introduce a new generation to this valuable resource.
The library is mostly in Arabic; however, there is anEnglish section, currently being updated. It covers the same 10 main topics, but the content was produced separately, and is not a translation of the Arabic texts.
To contact us with feedback or questions, please send an email to me, Nadia Barclay at: nadia.barclay@gmail.com
Our second interview for Deep in the Stacks is with Mehmet Kentel, Head Librarian, and Akın Özarslantürk, Branch Librarian at the AnadoluMedeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (ANAMED), or Research Center for Anatolian Civilization (RCAC).
Akın (l) and Mehmet (r)
How did you get interested in library work?
Mehmet: I think I can call myself as an ‘accidental librarian’, even though my primary identification would still be related to my ongoing work as a historian-to-be. I was a fellow at the Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) during 2014-15 academic year. Towards the end of it, and inspired by the work being done at the center, I started thinking seriously on a professional/administrative position within the larger domain of academia, that is not necessarily entailed teaching. Jobs like curating exhibitions, working at research centers, libraries, etc. started to be increasingly relevant and exciting. Akın’s example as a librarian, who is not only extremely helpful, but also engaged with every step of a researcher’s work, was also inspiring. And at this very time, by total coincidence, Özge Ertem, the then-Head Librarian of the ANAMED Library, resigned from her post to continue her postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. Özge is also a historian of the Ottoman Empire, and I saw in her persona that these two professional identities may actually get along quite nicely. So I applied for the position, and I am lucky that they thought I would make a good match.
Akın: Similarly, I never planned to be a librarian even while I was studying librarianship. After I graduated I couldn’t find a better option so I decided to be a librarian.
Tell us a bit about the patrons that your library serves, how would you describe the community?
Mehmet: We have several groups of patrons, with varying needs and degrees of attachment to the institution. Of course, the Library is first and foremost the library of the ANAMED and its fellows. ANAMED hosts around 30-35 fellows for an academic year, some staying for full 9 months, some for shorter periods. These fellows come from various parts of the world and have a wide range of academic interests (from Neolithic archaeology to contemporary heritage issues) as well as standings (from PhD candidates to emeritus professors). Our main mission is to support and facilitate the research of these fellows. But ANAMED Library is also a branch of the Koç University Suna Kıraç Library, and hence we also serve Koç University professors and students. ANAMED has especially close ties with the Art History and Archaeology Department and the History Department. Their students and professors are among our most constant patrons. Lastly, we also serve a large community of researchers based in Istanbul, even though they are not affiliated with ANAMED or Koç University. We have a special membership program that admits researchers (scholars and graduate students) in relevant fields as members, for free. This last group do not have borrowing rights. And of course, we try to pitch in for the research conducted by the ANAMED staff, for exhibitions or for other projects.
Akın: ANAMED Library’s user community, which consists of graduate students and faculty, has experience of using the library resources, much different than undergraduates. They usually ask for help about accessing specific resources that is important for their thesis or research and how to use the library equipment.
What do you think is unique to the collection or resources at your library?
Mehmet: We have a relatively small collection, around 22000 print materials. But this collection is composed of very important contributions coming from seminal names in their fields. Our special collections include the collections of the eminent Byzantinists Steven Runciman, Eunice Dauterman-Henry Maguire and Jacques Lefort; of the famous Islamic Art Historian Esin Atıl; of the renowned Hititologist Hatice Gonnet-Bağana and Muhibbe Darga; of the important numismatist Ömer Diler; and of the iconic photographer and ethnographer Josephine Powell. Overall, I can say that our strength in print materials is the most evident in the works related to Byzantine history. But what makes ANAMED Library unique among other research centers located in Istanbul is its access to a great array of electronic resources. Since we are a branch of Koç University Library, we provide access to all electronic journals, books and databases that are available at the main library.
Have you identified any areas of the collection that you hope to digitize? Which ones?
Mehmet: Two of our collections are already and partially digitized. One of them is Josephine Powell’s slide collection, comprised of the pictures Powell took during her travels in Turkey, especially relevant to the researchers of rural and nomadic life in Anatolia. Hatice Gonnet-Bağana’s excavation notes and pictures are also digitized and accessible to researchers. I believe it will be an indispensable source for the researchers interested in Hittites and the history of Hittitology. All of these are accessible via Koç University Library Digital Collections. Koç University Suna Kıraç Library also digitizes its rare manuscripts collection, and any rare item we have in our collection are sent there to be digitized. In the future, we aim to attract collections with large numbers of primary materials, which would necessarily be digitized.
Akın: We must also state that the library collection is too young. I think the digitization should be the next step after deepening the specific areas of the print collection.
Collection management is often a creative act. How you see yourself shaping the collection?
Mehmet: The most attractive responsibility of the position as I was applying was collection development, and into my seventh month as the Head Librarian of the ANAMED, I still find it as my most exciting and fulfilling duty. It is indeed creative, in the most literal sense of the word, as it involves bringing together various works that do not necessarily belong to the same field, period, methodology, etc; but you try to relate them to each other, creating a dialogue. It is of course a very contingent act, too, as our choices to add to the collection is dependent on the preferences of the fellows, budgetary decisions of the library management, the new scholarly trajectories ANAMED decides to pursue, and even the currency exchange rates we have to consider.
Akın: The head librarian is in charge of the collection management. I, as a branch librarian, used to follow the publishers and book reviews and make an effort to determine deficient resources in the collection.
Mehmet: Actually following book reviews is probably the best part of the job. It allows me to follow trends in fields very different than my own, and to appreciate different disciplines and their methodologies, giving a much more holistic perspective to the past.
RCAC library and books
What are you priorities and dreams for the collection? Are there digital resources that you are excited about collecting?
Mehmet: I myself am an Ottomanist, and my natural inclination is to enrich our collections on the Ottoman history. This fits in nicely with the shared evaluation of the ANAMED Library by Koç University Library and ANAMED managements, as all of us acknowledge that the weakest part of our collection is Ottoman history, especially compared to the large ratio of Ottomanists among our most regular patrons. But this priority should not come at the expense of other collections, especially our collection on Byzantine history, which makes us one of the leading research centers in this field. So my dream is to acquire a special collection on Ottoman history, rich with primary and secondary sources, which would fill an important gap within our collection without sacrificing other fields. And in the meantime, we continue to expand our resources with the most recent publications in all of the relevant fields, thanks to the suggestions by ANAMED fellows and staff, Koç faculty, and library members.
One of ANAMED’s scholarly directions under its new Director, Chris Roosevelt, is digital humanities. The center aims to become a focal point for digital research in Turkey, not only supporting scholars working on digital projects but also conducting its own projects, including digital mapping and digital archive initiatives. The ANAMED Library should necessarily follow suit, increasing our digital resources, as well as reference resources on digital humanities, to reach higher levels of competency in digital resource technologies.
And in terms of more ‘conventional’ digital resources, I aim to provide access to a rich historical newspapers collection, and a fuller access to Hathi.
Akın: I agree, especially regarding the special collections. I think the ANAMED Library should have more special collections, because these will draw researchers looking for unique materials.
Librarians working on the Middle East often find themselves addressing questions over cultural heritage. What do you see as some of the most pressing cultural heritage concerns in Turkey?
Mehmet: I think one does not have to be a librarian to find issues of cultural heritage very close to home. As a researcher who works on Ottoman archives, the wellbeing of the centuries-old documents, as historical sources but also as artifacts of cultural heritage, has already been very pertinent to me. The lack of transparency and accountability worries me and many Ottomanists like me concerning the future of our field and the past of our geography. As an urban historian, issues of urban renewal, debates around transformation of historic districts as well as ‘rebuilding’ of long-gone historic sites, are of course very relevant. Issues of transparency and accountability are lacking in this aspect of cultural heritage, too, this time accompanied by huge material interests. And of course, in Turkey and in our wider geography, violence against people usually come with violence against their ecology and their built environment, which puts cultural heritage at a huge risk.
ANAMED supports research in cultural heritage, and we at the library try to raise awareness on these issues by expanding our collection to this end.
What do you think are some challenges in librarianship that are unique to Turkey? Alternatively what are its advantages?
Akın: Libraries don’t receive the value as much as they deserve in Turkey. This situation sometimes forces the librarians to be innovative with funding and providing services . The advantage of this challenge is that the librarians have an extra mission and motivation on telling people how the libraries are important and valuable
Mehmet: While I am sure librarians who work at the public libraries would have a very different take on this, as a librarian of a research library, I think the biggest challenge is the overwhelming gap between research conducted in Turkish and in foreign languages. These two fields speak to each other in a very minimum level and in very scattered forms. This makes the job of the librarian quite difficult in evaluating the quality and accessibility of scholarly output. The barrier created by the Ottoman Turkish (or the language reform) also influences the quality of research. Intellectual production in the Ottoman Empire until 1920’s is still largely inaccessible to researchers who cannot read Ottoman Turkish. It is alright if one is a historian of the Ottoman Empire. But what if a Byzantinist wants to look for Ottoman Turkish production in the nineteenth century, on, say, Byzantine Istanbul? Shall I add such rare materials to the collection, or wait for transcriptions? I of course do not go into the details of difficulties that affect the entire country and all professions, such as constantly increasing prices and fluctuating currency rates.
How do you see your institution as benefiting from international collaboration? Could it potentially address any of the challenges you mentioned previously?
Mehmet: As the ANAMED Library, we benefit from the international connections and channels of collaboration both of ANAMED and Koç University Library. We have exchange agreements with various international institutions. Such collaboration helps us in reaching to the best quality work produced in other countries, especially in languages other than Turkish and English.
We currently have a very important project of collaboration that is local in its scope but international in its nature: Supported by the Istanbul Development Agency, we are creating a union catalogue called BiblioPera, a joint website and a platform, for the libraries and research centers of ANAMED, SALT Research, French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA), Istanbul Research Institute (IAE), Orient Institute Istanbul, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), and the Netherlands Institute in Turkey. While all of these institutions are located in Beyoğlu, many of them are tied to foreign governments or foundations, which gives the collaboration an international aspect. By August 2016, researchers will be able to access the catalogues of all of these institutions with one click. We want this infrastructure as a basis for further collaboration, not only among these institutions, but also other research libraries located in Istanbul.
What do you think are some of the most exciting developments in libraries and librarianship right now, in Turkey or elsewhere?
Mehmet: Certainly digitization and advancement of digital technologies in humanities, not only for its own stake, but also for allowing further collaboration among librarians and researchers in an unprecedented scope. My novice observation is that these tools force researchers and librarians to work more closely, and turn libraries into scholarly environments where knowledge is not only consumed, but also actively produced.
Akın: This is especially true for the rising generation of Turkish librarians, who are very curious and talented in terms of IT services. As a consequence, many quality works showed up on the digitization and open access scene. The works on these two areas in Turkey recently are especially very exciting
Do you want to mention or talk about anything else that we have not mentioned?
Mehmet: My partner in the ANAMED Library, and in this interview, Akın Özarslantürk, has recently resigned from his position to move to Istanbul Technical University Library. Akın has been working at the Koc University Library for four and a half years, and at the ANAMED Library since 2012, and has been a crucial factor in turning the Library into one of the most popular destinations for the scholarly community residing and researching in Istanbul. He has been the solid rock of the Library as head librarians and support staff have come and gone. His incredible skills in communication and library services made him one of the most popular librarians in Istanbul. I am sure there are readers of the Hazine blog who benefited largely from Akın’s skills. In their presence, I would like to thank him and wish him the best once again.
I also would like to thanks Hazine editors, especially you, Heather, for giving us the opportunity to talk about the ANAMED Library, and also for being so patient with us.
Finally, what is the best reference question you have received?
“Deep in the Stacks” is a new feature of HAZINE that highlights the work of librarians in shaping the research collections and agenda of the field of Islamic studies as a whole.
Our first interview is with Guy Burak, Middle East Librarian at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at New York University, guides.nyu.edu/mideast.
How did you get interested in library work?
I got interested in library work as a user in graduate school. At NYU, I worked quite closely with Peter Magierski (currently the Middle East librarian at Columbia). Then my dissertation research took me to other libraries in the Middle East, Europe and the US. Academically, I’m very interested in the circulation of texts, manuscripts and knowledge throughout the Islamic world, so in many ways I had been thinking about collecting and collections long before I became a librarian.
Tell us a bit about the patrons that your library serves, how would you describe the community?
Like most major research libraries, NYU’s Bobst Library serves the University globally (as NYU has portal campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai and numerous study abroad sites), the broader academic community and, even more generally, the public. Although the physical access to most of our collection is restricted to scholars and students affiliated with NYU, we share our resources through interlibrary loan services and other consortia NYU is part of. Our special collections are open to the public. We are also in the process of digitizing much of our Arabic collection as part of the Arabic Collections Online (ACO).
Chez Guy
What do you think is unique to the collection or resources at your library?
In comparison to other research libraries, NYU’s collection is fairly young. That said, over the years NYU has built strong Arabic, Persian and Turkish/Ottoman collections. In addition, NYU has some interesting special collections, such as the largest collection in country of cookbooks (including cookbooks from the Middle East), a large collection of Afghan materials (now digitized as part of the Afghanistan Digital Library), a sizeable collection of Persian lithographs and an interesting collection of Ottoman books from the Hamidian period.
Collection management is often a creative act. How you see yourself shaping the collection?
One of the most exciting things about being a librarian or a curator is trying to imagine the potential use of materials – be they books, artifacts, or video and sound recordings – beyond the current state of the academic field. I sometime try to imagine a future reader and guess what she would like to know about the Middle East and the Islamic world. This exercise often guides my cataloging and curatorial decisions.
At the same time, I’m trying to bring materials to the attention of potential users, mostly graduate students who are looking for research topics for their seminar papers or dissertations.
What are you priorities and dreams for the collection? Are there digital resources that you are excited about collecting?
My main priority is serving the Library’s users. In the near future, I intend to build on the strengths of NYU’s collections and keep expanding our Arabic, Persian, and Turkish collections. I hope to devote more time to enhancing existing special collections and building new ones. As I said, I am also thinking about digitizing (selectively) the collection of Hamidian books. In the more distant future, I hope NYU will be able to embark on the second phase of the Afghanistan Digital Library, covering Afghan materials from later decades.
Have you identified any areas of the collection that you hope to digitize? Which ones?
NYU is already in the process of digitizing significant parts of its collections as part of the Arabic Collections Online and the Afghanistan Digital Libraries. Once we finish cataloging the Hamidian books, we hope to digitize them as well, as they are very brittle.
Librarians working on the Middle East often find themselves addressing questions over cultural heritage. What do you see as some of the most pressing cultural heritage concerns in the Middle East?
Quite evidently the most pressing concern is the destruction of cultural heritage sites, such as museums and libraries, in warzones throughout the Middle East. A related concern is the appearance of looted manuscripts – some could be “blood manuscripts” – and artifacts on the markets.
What do you think are some challenges in librarianship that are unique to the Middle East? Alternatively what are its advantages?
All I can say about Turkish libraries is based on my work there as a researcher. The obvious advantages of Turkey are the size and quality of its manuscript collections and archives. To me, the most urgent challenge is making those unique materials discoverable (if not available) to different audiences – both academic and non-academic. An interesting challenge is how to standardize the transliteration of titles in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman in Turkish catalogs. The other major challenge is that many resources and manuscripts are not adequately described.
That said, I can say that things have improved dramatically since I started working in Turkey more than a decade ago. Also – a young generation of librarians is doing very important work in enhancing metadata and digitization.
How do you see your institution as benefiting from international collaboration? Could it potentially address any of the challenges you mentioned previously?
NYU has been and still is involved in several international collaborative projects, such as the Afghanistan Digital Library and ACO (AUB is one of the contributors to the project). That said, the collaboration with libraries in the Middle East and North Africa is still fairly limited. There are several reasons for this situation, the most significant of which are different practices and workflows (such as different cataloging conventions) and legal issues.
What do you think are some of the most exciting developments in libraries and librarianship right now, here or elsewhere?
To my mind, the most exciting development is the growing integration on different levels of the library and the cultural heritage worlds (in projects such as Europeana and Digital Public Library of America). The other exciting and challenging development is the collection and archivization of new contents, formats, and media.
Finally, what is the best reference question you have received?
It really depends on how you define what a “good” question is. I enjoy challenging queries that involve getting materials from obscure collections and small vendors. One of our users was interested in pamphlets published in late Ottoman Syria. It took me a few days to find them. In other instances, a “good” question is good because I’m interested in those questions. One of our graduate students, for example, wrote a very interesting thesis on the history of Middle Eastern studies collections during the Cold War and discussing the project with him was real fun.
We have a new person at HAZINE–Heather Hughes! Heather is a Middle East cataloger at the University of Texas Libraries and is leading the preparations for some great new content for our third season. So keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks.
Tucked between the Faculté des Lettres and the annex of the Bibliothèque Nationale just outside the Bab Rouah gate in Rabat, the Archives du Maroc is Morocco’s newest public archive and, as such, offers scholars the opportunity to delve into previously overlooked material. The Archives hold those records of the French Protectorate (1912-1956) that remained in Morocco (or those that were not transferred to France) following independence, as well as a smattering of holdings from the pre- and post-Protectorate periods.
History
The establishment of the Archives du Maroc stems from the findings of the Equity and Reconciliation Committee in 2007 that recommended a national repository of information in order to increase government transparency and support research on twentieth-century Morocco. Dr. Jamaa Baida was appointed director in 2011 and has since assembled an impressive array of sources, with the eventual goal the creation of a true national archive that possesses historical records from all state agencies and ministries.
The entrance of the archive…
This, of course, has proved a difficult task. The Archives join a complicated and not always user-friendly archival scene in Rabat. The Bibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc is a research library with a large collection of manuscripts and historical periodicals; the Hassaniyah library located inside the palace contains the records of the ʿAlawite dynasty, including correspondence between the sultan and his various governors; the Direction des Archives Royales contain another portion of official makhzen (the Moroccan state structures under the Sultan) correspondence with some specific interest in Moroccan international relations in the pre-colonial period.
At the moment, the Archives du Maroc is primarily useful for historians studying the French Protectorate. Although much of the Protectorate archives were repatriated to France following Moroccan independence in 1956, approximately 40% stayed behind. These form the “Fonds Protectorat” of the Archives du Maroc and contain primarily the “gestion,” or management, files rather than the policy or military documents, are now based at the Centre des Archives Diplomatiques in Nantes. Nonetheless, there are exceptions to this rule, and many of the Direction des Affaires Indigènes files remain in Morocco.
The Research Experience
Much of the Fonds Protectorat material deals with the colonial economy, public works, and administrative or legislative matters. All files are originals and, as of yet, nothing has been digitized. The bulk of Affaires Indigènes files and most documents labeled “confidential” returned to France and are housed in the Centre des Archives Diplomatiques-Nantes. Consequently, what stayed in Rabat—the correspondence of technical bureaucrats and administrators—can make for dry reading. Duplicates and blank pages make many boxes appear much larger than they really are.
Unlike the Bibliothèque Nationale or the Saudi Library in Casablanca, there is no online catalog, but three computers on site have searchable catalogs. Cartons are organized by the particular Protectorate offices (Direction des Affaires Indigènes, Direction de l’Agriculture, Commerce et Colonisation, etc.), although descriptions of each box vary in detail. Carton headings usually list time periods, but there is no standard periodization, and boxes will often list a date range but primarily include materials from only a narrow portion of the range. There are also printed catalogs that researchers can browse and use in the event that the servers are down. The most efficient search method is the online catalog. Researchers are likely to find some success with keyword searches but will probably want to follow these up by exploring neighboring boxes and consulting with archivists. The Protectorate files have been fully cataloged; new arrivals (from other government agencies after independence) are cataloged as they come in.
Cartons are requested on small slips of paper in French or Arabic, handed to the assistant in the front of the room. Because Moroccan scholars have yet to fully embrace and explore the Archives, the reading room is usually quiet and requests are filled immediately, with no set “pull times.” The vast majority of the Archives staff are either trained historians or preservationists. They know the collections well and can help researchers navigate through the system. The staff all speak French and Arabic, and a few staff members speak English. The goal from the beginning has been the creation of a transparent state archive, and the staff is committed to the task.
The reading room is a comfortable workspace. It is bright with plenty of windows and thirty-two reader desks that all have outlets and lamps. Although heated, it tends to be quite cold in winter. Laptops are welcome (unlike at the Direction des Archives Royales), but there is no wireless internet access.
Access
Conservation and cataloging in progress…
The Archives du Maroc are open continuously Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 16:00. It is closed on government holidays and during the entire month of August. Researchers can view the collection for three days with a temporary permit, but longer periods of research require a reader card. These cards can be obtained quickly after submission of two small photos (passport-size, although they can be on regular paper), a letter of attestation, and a passport or carte d’identité. Note that the reader card process is changing as the Archives have recently acquired digital card printers. Doctoral students must pay a 100 dirham registration fee in cash, approximately 10 USD. The archive is not wheelchair accessible.
Reproductions
Photography of all collections is permitted free of charge—something rare in Moroccan archives and libraries. Researchers simply need to fill out an authorization slip (fiche d’autorisation) and have it signed by the reading room director. Most archival documents are in decent shape, the room is well-lit, and photography is easy. The published works on the shelves can be photographed without authorization. Staff will also photocopy documents for 0.5 dirham per page. A request must be filled out, and a photocopy voucher purchased from the registration desk by the entrance. Copies are usually made immediately and ready within an hour or two. Note that documents cannot be reproduced for publication without special permission. There are forms for this available in the reading room.
Transportation and Food
The archive is located on Avenue Ibn Battouta, flanked on one side by the Faculté des Lettres of Mohammed V University and on the other by the annex of the Bibliothèque Nationale. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Rabat Ville train station, just up the hill from Bab Rouah. It can be reached easily by tramway, just a five-minute walk from the Bab Rouah stop. Taxis are easy to pick up on the street outside. There is parking available in front of the Archives and adjacent; pay the guardian a few dirhams when you leave. Those up for the walk can make it on foot from Agdal (30 minutes), Orangers (10 minutes), Centre Ville (20 minutes), Hassan (30 minutes), and even L’Ocean (40 minutes).
While transportation options are plentiful, food options are limited. Small snack vendors operate outside the Faculté building next door, and inside the Faculté and the Bibliothèque Annexe there are coffee machines (3 dirhams). The best dining option is the Café Carrion, a Tetouani café chain, inside the Bibliothèque Nationale, a ten-minute walk. They serve sandwiches, brochettes, omelettes, and the usual atay, espresso, and juices, starting around 25 dirhams. A good alternative is the popular eateries along the tram route, just inside the city walls towards the train station. Here you’ll find four or five eateries serving simple and cheap meals like lentils and loubia, roasted chicken, and Moroccan griddlebreads like harsha and ghrif.
Contact information
The Archives du Maroc are located at Avenue Ibn Batouta, Rabat 10080. The Phone number is 05 37 77 66 85. The Director is Dr. Jamaa Baida. A new website recently launched. At the time of publication, it has little information, but updates are expected soon. Inquiries can be sent through the website.
Resources and Links
Daniel Rivet’s article provides some guidance as to what sorts of Protectorate records remain in Morocco and which are housed in French archives. See Daniel Rivet, “Archives coloniales et écriture de l’histoire du Protectorat,” Recherches sur l’histoire du Maroc: esquisse de bilan (1989): 25-33. Interviews with the Director of the Archives shed some light on the collections and their history; they can be found here and here.
Graham H. Cornwell is a PhD candidate in History at Georgetown University, working on the history of tea and sugar in modern Morocco. He is the co-editor of tajine, a podcast and blog about North Africa.
Cite this: Graham H. Cornell, “Archive du Maroc,” HAZINE, 8 July 2015, https://hazine.info/archives-du-maroc/
This 2015 list features many important resources. Another list with resources is at our Online Archives and Resources page, updated January 2020.
hathitrust.org: This is the most important digitization project in human history. Google went around the United States and digitized the entire collections of dozens, perhaps hundreds of university libraries. Anything no longer under copyright is available, which generally means material older than one hundred years. Many of the most important Arabic scientific magazines from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries, for instance, including al-Muqtataf, al-Hilal, al-Mashriq, have recently been made available here. And the most remarkable feature: keyword searchable. Ten of thousands of volumes that were previously only available in a handful of libraries in the world are now some of the easiest sources to access.
Hathi Trust Website
2. ULB Sachsen-Anhalt:An enormous collection of some 3,050 volumes of printed Arabic, Ottoman and Persian (and other) books that date from the end of the sixteenth century to the early twentieth, digitized by the Middle East and North Africa Special Area Collection of The Universitaets- und Landesbiblithek Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle. The project began in 2010 and is ongoing. WorldCat does not search its contents, so be sure to search them separately. The material is searchable by keyword, author, genre or place of publication. This includes many of the earliest printed editions of Arabic and Syriac texts, such as Bar Hebreas and Ibn Kathir. The digital collection also includes a vast number of volumes of Latin, Italian, French German and English literature on philology, Arabic poetry and history. The bulk of the material dates to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Shamela’s website
3. Shamelais one of the largest free digital collections of Arabic books online, with over 6,000 volumes. Most work deal with Islamic religious sciences, but include other topics as well, such as travelogues, chronicles and biographical dictionaries. Users can search Shamela library by keyword or browse according to the following genres: al-ʿAqida, al-Tafasir, al-Farq wa-al-Rudud, ʿUlum al-Qurʾan, Tajwid wa-al-Qiraʾat, Mutun al-Hadith, al-Ajzaʾ al-Haditha, Makhtutat Haditha, Shuruh al-Hadith, Kutub al-Takhrij wa-al-Zawaʾid, Kutub al-Albani, al-ʿIlal wa-al-Suʾalat, ʿUlum al-Hadith, Usul al-Fiqh, Tarikh, al-Fatawa, al-Sira, al-Tarajim, al-Ansab, al-Daʿwa, and many others. This is an incredible resource for anyone studying pre-modern Middle Eastern history or modern Islamic thought. Unfortunately, since Shamela reformatted some of the material, page numbers are often inconsistent with their printed counterparts; readers must cross check the electronic files with the printed texts. Still a remarkable resource.
Waqfeyais quite similar to Shamela, although it is smaller and the user interface is not quite as sleek. It also focuses on Islamic religious sciences, but also includes many volumes on other topics, including Islamic economics; history; the Muslim family; contemporary life; and Arabic language and literature.
Al Aqsa Mosque library: This digitization project preserves the historical periodical collections (1900-1950) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library, located in East Jerusalem. There are some rare periodicals in this collection, such as Majallat Rawdat al-Maʿarif (1922-34), the journal of one of the most important high schools in Mandate Palestine, al-Kulliyya al-ʿArabiyya (1928-36), the journal of the most important men’s education training college in Mandate Palestine, al-Huquq (1925-7), the only Arabic law journal to publish in Mandate Palestine, as well as a dozen others: al-ʿArab (1933-4), al-Jinan (1874); al-Mahabbah (1901), al-Hasna (1909); al-Zahra (1922-6), al-Fajr (1935), al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya (1932-5), al-Jamiʿa al-ʿArabiyya (1928-35), al-Sirat al-Mustaqim (1931-6), Sawt al-Shaʿb (1929-34); al-Awqat al-ʿArabiyya (1935); al-Liwaʾ (1936-7); Tasvir-i Efkar (1909); al-Muqtabas (1909-16); al-Qabas (1913-34); al-Difaʿ (1934-51); Filastin (1923-48); al-Aqdam (1934-6) and Mirʾat al-Sharq (1922-36). This is the single best digitized collection of historical Arabic periodicals on the web. A great many dissertations could be written about the political, religious and educational history of late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine based on this collection alone. Regrettably, the user interface was poorly designed. The material is not searchable by keyword, so trying to browse through large amounts of material can be frustrating at times. It is still an incredible collection (funded by the British Library).
Historical Jewish Press Website
Historical Jewish Press:This is the largest collection of Jewish and Hebrew periodicals in the world, digitized and searchable by keyword! The collection includes fifty-two titles in a half-dozen languages, including Hebrew (28), French (8), Yiddish (6), English (5), Judeo-Spanish (2), Judeo-Arabic (2), Russian (1) and Hungarian (1) published in Europe, the Middle East and the United States from the 1850s to the 1990s, with a concentration of material from 1900-1950. I recall very vividly doing a simple search for the word “locust” (in the relevant languages) and digging up countless anecdotes buried in newspapers I had not even heard of about the 1915 locust attack in Syria and Palestine. But make sure you use the old version. The new one still has some bugs. (update and ed. note [18 Jun 2015]: According to other researchers, this website is not accessible from Turkey. Use a VPN to access it.)
Hebrew Books: This enormous collection includes some 52,449 Hebrew books. Most of the material will be of interest primarily to students of Jewish philosophy, theology, prayer, the Talmud, halakha and other matters pertaining to Jewish ritual worship and practice, but there is much to be gained for anyone studying American and Jewish history or the history of Israel/Palestine. Most of the collection dates from the nineteenth century onwards and can be searched by keyword or browsed by genre: American, Avos, Chabad, Chassidus, common, Hagada, periodicals, rishonim, shulchan aruch, biography and more.
Qatar Digital Library: The sleek design and powerful user interface feels more like a tech-start up than a digital archive, but then again, this project was funded by Qatar. The site has digitized 303,094 documents, most of which seem to come from the British India Office that deal with the Gulf, especially Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Iran and the UAE. The documents span the period 1700-1999, with the overwhelming majority of the documents covering the period, 1850-1950. The database is searchable by subject (e.g. foreign relations, Arab nationalism), place (Bushehr, Muscat, Persian Gulf), type (archival file) or people and organizations (Colonial Office, Sir Gilbert Clayton). Incredibly, for each document, users can view a transcript of the document (machine generated), a summary (human generated) as well as a bit of information on the physical characteristics of the document. The site also provides some simple html5 to users who want to embed the image viewer of certain documents into their websites, as well as a selection of “articles from our experts,” all of which seem to have been written by Arabists and other librarians at the British Library (funded by Qatar).
Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran: The focus of the collection is, wait for it, Women in Qajar Iran (1796-1925), but there is much to be gained here for specialists of other topics and periods, such as a sixth century Persian medical textbooks and letters from the 1930s-1950s. The collection can be browsed either by genre of the source itself (i.e. manuscripts, objects, legal and financial records, photographs, letters and audio files), people, places or subjects. Most of the material is in Persian, save for an occasional Arabic text. Contributors digitized an extremely rich collection of physical materials, from water pipes to lingerie, innocuously labeled “undergarment pants.” There is an inordinate amount of really personal stuff, such as juicy marriage contracts. The design is sleek, until you reach the page to view the actual records. There is one saving grace: click the “print” button, then select “convert entire document,” and type your email. A PDF will be sent to your inbox. Note that some of the contributors to the collection still maintain their ownership rights, so be sure to prnt scrn if you are using any of the personal stuff. (Read HAZINE’s piece on the Women’s World in Qajar Iran.)
Open Access TBMM: This collection of 1,230 volume is a gold mine for researchers of the late Ottoman and Republican periods of Turkish history. It includes hundreds of Ottoman language works that
TBMM Website
cover contemporary affairs, history, ethics and government publications, such as a 1914 book about the health bureau in the Hijaz, early editions of Katib Çelebi’s Taqvim-i Tevarih, an authorless 1861 history of Afghanistan and Şevki ʿAziz’s 1877 Mirrors of Ottoman history, a 1916 military report about Iran and hundreds of other rare works. There is also rich collection of high quality maps of various parts of the Ottoman and Turkish towns from both the Ottoman and Republican periods, such as Edremit, Kütahya, Sivas, Erzurum, Simav, Rize, Ünye, Maltya, Van, Kilis, Sis, Çorum, Ankara, Urfa, Amasya and dozens of other places. The materials in this collection published from the 1930s and beyond consist almost exclusively of Turkish political party programs. The collection is searchable by author, subject or publication date. There are also dozens if not hundreds (most of the books seem to have been in the possession of the library of the The Grand National Assembly in Turkey, the TBMM). This is an incredible collection, not known to Worldcat.
Archive.org: It seems almost too obvious to list, but researchers do not regularly search archive.org as they would worldcat. Archive.org is better known for archiving the internet, but its contributors have scanned a great deal of material that worldcat does not seem to know about and have gathered an impressive array of material scattered across the web. An example is the French language periodical about the Orient, Revue de l’Orient Chrétien (1896 à 1936), which had previously existed elsewhere on the web but was brought over to archive.org. The user-interface is friendly. Archive is the best place on the internet to find keyword searchable texts out of copyright.
Cite this: Zachary J. Foster, “11 Essential Digitized Collections for Middle East Historians,” HAZINE, 17 June 2015, https://hazine.info/11-essential/
Zachary J. Foster is a Ph.D candidate in the Near Eastern Studies Department at Princeton University, focusing on the history of the idea of the Palestine.
St. Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria (Natsionalna Biblioteka Sv Sv Kiril i Metodiy, hereafter, NBKM), located in Sofia, has one of the richest Ottoman archives with respect to the quantity and variety of materials. Founded in 1878, the NBKM’s holdings were significantly expanded in 1931 with the acquisition of millions of Ottoman documents from Turkey. Today, the NBKM’s Oriental Department Collection (Kolektsiya na Orientalski Otdel) contains more than 160 sijills, 1000 defters and registers, 1,000,000 individual documents, and countless registers of religious endowments (waqf/awqāf) from all provinces of the Ottoman Empire between the fifteenth and the twentieth centuries. In addition, it has a valuable Persian, Arabic, and Turkish manuscript collection. Apart from its Oriental Department, the Bulgarian Historical Archive (Bŭlgarski istoricheski arkhiv) houses materials dating mostly from the nineteenth century and written in both Ottoman Turkish and Bulgarian. In this sense, NBKM is a hidden gem for scholars of the Middle East and the Balkans.
The main entrance to the library
History
The NBKM was first established in 1878 as the Sofia Public Library but quickly became the National Library in 1879. During 1870s and 1880s, NBKM officials collected various Ottoman materials from local waqfs and libraries throughout Bulgaria, and brought them to the Oriental Department of the NBKM. In 1944, the entire building was destroyed in the course of the war. While some materials were irreparably damaged during the attacks, much was saved. These surviving materials were transferred to local libraries in order to be protected from further destruction. All the transferred materials were eventually brought back to the NBKM’s main building in late 1940s. The NBKM’s current building was officially opened in 1953. The NBKM gets its name from St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the eponymous brothers who invented the Cyrillic alphabet in late ninth century. A monument of the two brothers holding the Cyrillic alphabet in their hands stands tall in front of the NBKM, and it is also one of the landmarks of the city.
The founders of the Cyrillic script and namesake’s of the library.
In 1931, as a part of its political agenda based on the rejection of the Ottoman past, the Turkish government sold a massive amount of Ottoman archival documents to a paper factory in Bulgaria to be as used as recycled waste paper. This event became known as the “vagonlar olayı” (the railcar incident) because the documents were transported in train cars and when the events were publicized in Turkey they triggered a heated debate among scholars and politicians of the time. Once Bulgarian customs officials realized the materials were actually Ottoman state documents and not waste, the papers were deposited in the NBKM. Today, these documents constitute more than 70% of the entire Oriental Department of the NBKM, which continues its tireless effort to catalog and preserve them.
Collections
The NBKМ has eleven collections varying from Slavonic and Foreign Language Manuscripts, to the Collection of Oriental Department. Information about each collection and the structure of the collections can be found here.
The Collection of Oriental Department has two main archives: the Ottoman Archives and the Oriental Manuscript Collection. The Bulgarian Historical Archive is also located in Oriental Department since it includes many documents in Ottoman and Bulgarian. The following are collections that might be of direct interest to historians of the Middle East:
Sijill Collection:
A sijill is an incoming-outgoing register, organized by the qadi (judge) or his deputy in a specific settlement. A sijill also includes copies of documents, written by the qadi. There are more than 190 sijills in this collection from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. They are catalogued based on their region such as Sofia, Ruse, Vidin etc. The sijills from Sofia and Vidin have call marks beginning with “S”, while sijills from Ruse, Silistra, and Dobrich have call marks beginning with “R”. Most of the sijills have card catalog entries in Turkish in either Latin or Ottoman script. The earliest sijill is from Sofia dated 1550, whereas vast majority of the sijills are from the eighteenth century. Most of them are from Vidin (71 defters), and then Sofia (59 defters.). Much of the sijill collection has been digitized and can be accessed through the official website of the NBKM.
Waqf Registers:
There are more than 470 separate waqf (endowment) registers from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries in this collection. In addition, some other waqf registers can be found inside the sjill collection. Registers and series of waqf documents are compiled in the form of deste (separate register bunches) and waqf sijills. They are written primarily in Ottoman, while several of them are in Arabic. The earliest waqf register dates back to 1455; and the latest to 1886.
A comprehensive inventory of the waqf registers can be accessed here.
Miscellaneous Funds:
This collection includes the rest of the Ottoman documents in the Oriental Department. Many cadastral surveys (timar, zeamet and icmaldefters) can be found in this collection. There are also various other types of registers and financial account books (ruznamces) here. In addition, all individual documents such as fermans, buyruldus, arzuhals, ilams and various individual correspondences and materials are located in these funds.
Most of these Ottoman materials in this collection are cataloged according to the region they are related to, and each region has a separate fund with a different number. For instance, documents related to Istanbul are cataloged as F1, Damascus as F 283, Iran as F 295, Hijaz as F283, Albania as F212, Austria as F290, Smyrna as F238, Skopje as F129, Malatya as F249 and so on. Most of the funds have sub-collections and they are cataloged separately. Most of the entries in fund numbers have dates, and some of them include keywords such as “military”, “church”, “taxation”, “timar” giving some basic clues about the type of the document. Unfortunately, there is no other information available to the researcher about the documents from the catalog. However, there are some publications, mostly written by the staff of the Oriental Department, such as inventories and catalogs of selected funds of Ottoman documents, which are helpful. So, it is vital to consult these published volumes, which are mostly in Bulgarian. All catalogs in this collection are also in Bulgarian and handwritten. The number of the documents in this collection exceeds 1,000,000 and none of them have been digitized. Their dates range from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.
An Ottoman document from NBKM
Oriental Manuscript Collection:
This collection has about 3,800 volumes in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. Around 3,200 of these volumes are in Arabic, 450 are in Turkish and 150 are in Persian. The earliest manuscript is an eleventh-century copy of the hadith collection of al-Jami’ al-Sahih of Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870). One of the most valuable manuscripts of this collection is a sixteenth-century copy of the work of the twelfth-century Arab geographer Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Book for Entertainment of the One, Longing to Cross the Countries Wide and Far). Partial catalogs in English, Arabic, and Bulgarian exist for this collection and are available in the reading room.
Newspaper Collection:
This collection is located in Bulgarian Historical Archive section of the Oriental Department, and it includes the newspapers published between 1844 and the 1940s. The majority of the newspapers are in Bulgarian, but those published until the late 1870s are both in Ottoman and Bulgarian. The catalog of this collection is a reference volume written in Bulgarian that can be found at the reading room at the Oriental Department. Since 2014, the majority of materials in this collection have been digitized and now are available for researchers. Digitization efforts continue, so researchers should check the online catalogue research tool on a regular basis.
The Research Experience
Researchers should note that all administrative materials at the NBKM, including the catalogs and all paperwork needed for registration, reproduction of documents etc., are in Bulgarian. Likewise, all catalogs in the Oriental Department are also in handwritten Bulgarian. The cataloging system does not have a regularized format for the Oriental Department. Some of the catalog entries have Ottoman explanations in addition to Bulgarian, but they are very few in number. Most of the Ottoman materials are cataloged according to the region, and each region has a separate fond letter with a different number. Specific collections have their own cataloguing system as explained in previous section.
Materials can be requested from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 15:30, and will be available the next day. All staff members, both in the Oriental Department and in other sections of the library, are very helpful and supportive. The researcher should keep in mind that documents from a specific section needs to be requested in that section. However, for reproductions, the researcher must obtain approval of both the director of the Oriental Department and the general secretary of the Director of the NBKM. While this seems burdensome at first, it is a relatively comfortable process as all staff members try to help foreign researchers.
Access
There are two requirements to gain access to the Oriental Department. First, the researcher needs to fill out an application form to gain access to the NBKM. A passport, visa and a photo are needed for this process. As visa requirements vary by nationality, the researcher should consult the local Bulgarian embassy regarding the required documents. (North American citizens can stay in Bulgaria without a visa up to three months. Turkish citizens, and citizens of any country who are required to obtain a visa to enter the EU, however, must obtain a visa at their local consulate. I obtained a student visa as a Turkish citizen and fellow of American Research Center in Sofia, but a Schengen visa might be accepted to conduct research for shorter periods.)
This registration process takes around thirty minutes. Once registration is completed, the researcher receives an ID card, which must be shown every time she enters the NBKM. There are three, six or twelve-month registration options; the fee for three months is $18 while the rest costs $20, regardless of the duration. Researchers can access all departments with the issued ID card.
To access the documents in Oriental Department researchers must fill out another form that needs to be submitted to the director of the department. In addition to the form, graduate student researchers are asked to bring a letter from their supervisor explaining their aim, current affiliation, and academic status. The director, Stoyanka Kenderova, is very helpful and supportive. For foreign researchers, contacting her might be the only way to gain some guidance in the research process as she speaks Turkish, Arabic, French, and English. It must be noted that most of the staff working at NBKM in general, and the Oriental Department, in particular, do not speak English. As such, some knowledge of spoken Bulgarian or the friendship of a Bulgarian-speaking fellow researcher is definitely helpful when communicating with the staff.
The NBKM is open to researchers from Monday to Saturday, between 8:30-19:00 except on official holidays. The Oriental Department’s working hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00-18:00, and on Saturdays, 9:00-15:00. It is closed every August, and also every last Tuesday of the month for cleaning, and housekeeping purposes. All sections are wheelchair accessible, except for the cafeteria.
The reading room of the library
Reproductions and Costs
To request reproductions, researchers must fill out a form that needs to be approved by the General Secretary of the NBKM and the director of the Oriental Department. Copies of materials can be obtained either as a photocopy or digital photos. Researchers can also take their own photos. In all cases, the cost for a photocopy or photograph of a regular size document is 3 Bulgarian Leva ($2/ page.) The cost for a single page of illustrated or larger materials ranges from 4.5 to 6 Bulgarian Leva ($3 to $3.5)
Transportation and food
The NBKM is located in the heart of the city on Vasil Levski Blvd next to the Sv. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, and across from the Alexandr Nevski Square. Almost all city buses pass through the bus stop in front of the National Library. Lines 2 and 4 are the most frequent. Tickets for buses can be purchased at small kiosks at the corners of the intersection of major streets or on the bus. One can also take the metro since metro station is a three to four minute walk from the library. If you are staying at the city center or surrounding neighborhoods such as Hadji Dimitar, where the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS) is located, or Vitosha Street, where many of the social events take place, it takes fifteen to twenty minutes to walk to the NBKM. A Metro or bus ticket costs 1 Leva (75 cents).
A variety of food options are available around the NBKM. The library also has its own cafeteria, which is a good option for a quick coffee, water, or snacks in cold weather. Yet it is not preferred by most researchers as there are better options available close by the library. There is also a small kiosk right next to the NBKM building selling snacks, pizza, sandwiches, and coffee throughout the day. Just across from the kiosk, there is a popular restaurant-café, Modera Café, which is usually preferred by Sofia University students and staff. There are also many various options for breakfast, lunch and dinner in small streets around the University and NBKM. Depending on your preference, a lunch can cost between $2 and $10 at these locations. You can also bring your own lunch and eat it at the outdoor garden of NBKM. However, it should be kept in mind the garden becomes crowded and finding a spot can be difficult, especially in nice weather.
Binark, İsmet. Bulgaristan’daki Osmanlı Evrakı. Ankara: TC Başbakanlık Daire Müdürlüğü.1994.
Dobreva, Margarita. “Aya Kiril ve Metodiy Milli Kütüphanesine Bağlı Oryantal Bölümü’ndeki “Vidin” Ön Fonu Defterleri”. Osmanlı Coğrafyası Kültürel Arşiv Mirasının Yönetimi ve Tapu Arşivlerinin Rolü Uluslararası Kongresi Bildirileri 1. Ankara: TC Çevre ve Şehircilik Bakanlığı Tapu ve Kdastro Müdürlüğü Arşiv Daire Başkanlığı Yayınları. 2013, 183-223.
Kenderova, Stoyanka. “Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in SS Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia, Bulgaria” Hadith Sciences. Ed. by M. Isa Waley. London. 1995.
Özkaya, Yücel. “Sofya’da Milli Kütüphane Nationale Biblioteque’deki Şeriyye Sicilleri” Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi (Ankara), c. XIII, № 24, 1980, s. 21–29.
Гълъб Гълъбов, Бистра Цветкова. Турски извори за историята на правото в българските земи. Състав.T Т. 1-2. София. 1962- 1971.
Ivanova, S. “The Sicills of the Ottoman Kadis: Observations over the sicill collections at the National Library in Sofia”. Bulgaria. Studies in Memoriam Prof. Nejat Göyünç. Ed. K. Çiçek. Ankara, 2001
***
I would like to thank Margarita Koleva Dobreva, Stoyanka Kendarova, Rossitsa Gradeva, and Milena Zvancharova for their valuable help and guidance at the archive. I benefited from works cited below.
***
Cite this: Seçil Uluışık, “National Library of Bulgaria,” HAZINE, 9 May 2015, https://hazine.info/national-library-bulgaria/
Secil Uluisik is a PhD candidate in History Department at the University of Arizona. She works on provincial governance, politics of taxation, and networks of local power holders during the late eighteenth early nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire.
Set in the heart of Manchester, between the City Council, the Magistrates’ Court, and the Coroner’s Court, The John Rylands Library (hereafter JRL) houses the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library. It is one of the three largest academic libraries in the United Kingdom, and houses more than 400,000 printed books and over a million manuscripts and documents, including important collections of Oriental manuscripts. In this article, I will focus on the JRL collections related to Near Eastern studies.
Exterior of the old entrance to the library.
History
The JRL is named after John Rylands (1801-1888), a famous British entrepreneur who owned the most important textile manufacturing concern in Victorian England. It was created by the wife of the latter, Enriqueta Rylands (d. 1908), shortly after his death. Architect Basil Champneys (d. 1935) was asked to construct the building, which opened to the public on January 1, 1900. The JRL was enriched by Mrs. Rylands’ important purchases of books and manuscripts, especially by the acquisition of two major collections: the Spencer Collection in 1892 and the Crawford Collection in 1901. The majority of the Oriental manuscripts at the JRL come from the latter. In 1921, Henry Guppy, the JRL Librarian from 1900 to 1948, invited local families to deposit at the library their archives for safekeeping, so that the library soon became one of the first institutions to collect and preserve historical family records. In July 1972, a merger between the JRL and the University of Manchester Library took place. Since then, the JRL collections are part of The University of Manchester Library Special Collections. In the early 1980s, the Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts of the Chethams Library were acquired by the University of Manchester Library and added to the collections of the JRL.
Collections
The core holdings of the JRL are the Spencer Collection, comprising 43,000 printed books, of which 4,000 were printed before 1501; and the Crawford Collection, comprising 6,000 manuscripts written in fifty different languages. The majority of the Near Eastern manuscripts are found in the Crawford Collection.
A. Near Eastern manuscripts collections (in alphabetical order)
NB : A guide to the collections is available on the JRL Jewish, Near Eastern and Oriental studies webpage, including bibliographies of their respective catalogs. With a few exceptions, the catalogs mentioned here are all viewable and downloadable from the University of Manchester eScholar website. I also recommend F. Taylor’s manual and catalog of catalogs, which dates back to the 1970s, but is still very helpful: F. Taylor, “The Oriental Manuscript Collections in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 54, n°2 (Spring 1972), p. 1-30 [EScholarID:1m2987]. See also C. H. Bleaney & G. J. Roper, “United Kingdom (1990)”, in G. Roper (ed.), World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, vol. 3, Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, London, 1994, p. 509-512
1. Arabic
900 Arabic manuscripts are found at the JRL and cover roughly 1,000 years. They include numerous Qur’ans (among which is a rare Mamluk Qur’an from the fifteenth century) and cover a wide range of subjects such as history, law, science, medicine, philosophy, geography, cosmography, astronomy, astrology, literature, etc. The JRL also holds a collection of 800 papyri derived from the Crawford Collection and consisting of private letters, tradesmen’s and household accounts, among other records. Most of the dated papyri date to the third/ninth century. The collection also contains 1,500 uncataloged paper fragments in Arabic deriving in most cases from the Genizah Collection. The Genizah Collection is a collection of around 14,000 fragments written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judeo-Arabic from the Genizah of the Synagogue of Ben Ezra in Fustat, Cairo between the tenth and nineteenth centuries of the Common Era. It was discovered by Solomon Schechter, among others, and acquired when the JRL purchased the collection of Moses Gaster in 1954. The major part of the Genizah Collection was catalogued and is available in digital form via LUNA.
Catalogs:
E. Bosworth, “A Catalogue of Accessions to the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 56, n° 1-2 (1973-1974), p. 34-73 (1973), 256-296 (1974) [EScholarID: (p. 34-73); (p. 256-296)].
S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of Arabic Papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester, The Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1933 [EScholarID: (p. 1-49); (p. 50-143); (p. 144-241); (plates 1-42)].
Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester, The Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1934 [EScholarID: (MSS 1-207); (MSS 208-433); (MSS 434-818)].
This catalog with its index and detailed descriptions is practical and useful, although it sometimes makes attribution mistakes [for instance, Mingana wrongly identifies the author of the two texts in the Arabic MS 374 [349] (Ibn Rushd’s Talkhis Kitab al-Qiyas and Talkhis Kitab al-Burhan) as being al-Farabi. Likewise, he mistakenly considers al-Farabi to be the author of the text in the Arabic MS 375 [403] (Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Najat on Physics)]. The manuscripts are classified according to catalog numbers followed by their shelfmarks between brackets. In the case of a compendium (majmu‘a), the texts of the latter are not scattered throughout the catalog but remain together in the same description. To avoid any confusion, readers should requests manuscripts by quoting their full numbers, including both catalog numbers and shelfmarks between brackets.
al-Moraekhi & G. Rex, “The Arabic Papyri of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 78, n° 2 (1996), p. 1-232 [EScholarID: (introduction); (Part I); (Part II); (Indices); (References)].
See also LUNA for the online catalog of the Genizah Collection
2. Armenian
22 Armenian manuscripts, on parchment or paper, are found in the JRL. They consist mainly of religious texts. Among them is a Gospel codex, which would be the oldest Armenian manuscript in British Libraries. There is also an abundantly illustrated sixteenth-century Romance of Alexander.
Catalogs:
Kiwrtean, “A Short Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester”, in Sion, vol. 49 (1975), p. 199-259.
Nersessian, A Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the British Library Acquired Since the Year 1913 and of Collections in Other Libraries in the United Kingdom, British Library, London, 2012
3. Hebrew
The JRL comprises a collection of about 400 Hebrew manuscripts, Torah scrolls and marriage contracts dating between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries of the Common Era. It includes prayer books, commentaries, treatises on various subjects, letters, marriage contracts, liturgical poetry (piyyutim), and thirteen scrolls of the Law. There are, in addition, around 10,600 fragments (generally very small) in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic coming from the Genizah Collection (see A.1). One can find there various autograph fragments of Maimonides, including one folio from the Guide of the Perplexed. The JRL holds also a collection of 377 Samaritan manuscripts derived mostly from the Gaster Collection; see A.1)
Catalogs:
Samely, “The Interpreted Text: Among the Hebrew Manuscripts of the John Rylands University Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 73, n° 2 (1991), p. 1-20 [EScholarID:1m2267].
See also LUNA for the online catalog of the Genizah Collection.
NB: A catalog of the Hebrew manuscripts is in course of preparation.
4. Persian
The JRL Persian manuscripts collection comprises over 1,000 volumes dating from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries CE, including many illuminated codices. They cover subjects such as theology, Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), Sufism, lives of holy men and prophets, poetry, romances, chronicles and fables, calligraphy, lexicography, grammar, philosophy, medicine, natural history, geography, cosmography, occult sciences, astronomy and astrology. They include encyclopedias and volumes on the history of India and the Mughal Empire.
Catalogs:
Kerney, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Hand-List of Oriental Manuscripts, privately printed, 1898, p. 107-237.
Kerney, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Crawford, not published, n. d. (1890?). Can be consulted at the Library. (This catalog can be consulted at the Library and online.
W. Robinson, “Some Illustrated Persian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 34, n° 1 (1952), p. 69-80 [EScholarID:1m2002].
5. Syriac and Karshuni
The JRL holds 70 manuscripts and fragments in Syriac and Karshuni (among which there are three manuscripts in Turkish Karshuni and one manuscript in Armenian Karshuni). The Syriac manuscripts consist of copies of the Old and New Testaments, psalters, liturgical texts and prayers, hymns, books of catechism, lives of Saints, theological treatises, a Syriac-Arabic lexicon, a treatise on amulets, several treatises of Bar Hebraeus (among which a book containing the first nine books of The Cream of the Sciences on logic), a corpus of writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and theRhetoric of Anthony of Tagrit.
Catalogs:
Coakley, “A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 75, n° 2 (1993), p. 105–208.
6. Turkish
The JRL Turkish manuscripts collection consists of 195 items, dating from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century. Most manuscripts are in Ottoman Turkish, but twelve of them are written in Çağatay and one is a Latin transcription of a compilation of Turkish and Armenian texts. J. Schmidt published a catalog of the entire collection in 2011, which details the wide range of subjects that it contains, including anthologies of poetry, narrative poetry, guides for dervish novices, fables and stories, commentaries, grammar books, letters (among which, a number of Ottoman official documents), biographies and biographical dictionaries, dictionaries and vocabulary lexicons, travelogues, library catalogs, texts on religious ethics, jurisprudence (fiqh), history, medicine, geography, cosmography, astronomy, mathematics, and music.
Catalogs:
Kerney, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Hand-List of Oriental Manuscripts, privately printed, 1898, p. 241-268.
Kerney, Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts belonging the Earl of Crawford, not published, 1892. Can be consulted at the Library.
Schmidt, A Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library at Manchester, Brill, Leiden-Boston, coll. “Islamic Manuscripts and Books”, vol. 2, 2011.
7. Other Languages
The JRL also holds collections of around 1,100 Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets dating from the third and second centuries BCE, over a thousand Coptic items, and smaller collections of Armenian and Ethiopian manuscripts, as well as Egyptian papyri.
The library holds a collection of more than one hundred manuscripts from Southeast Asia, partially catalogued, in ten different languages.
B. Archival Collections
The JRL hosts various archives of notable documents related to the history of the Middle East. The most important one is without any doubt the Archive of the Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian), which was established in 1821 by John Edward Taylor (1791-1844). The editorial correspondence and dispatches from its reporters constitute a rich source of information on the history of the Middle East in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection contains important material on, for instance, the founding of Israel, the later Middle Eastern conflicts, as well as the Suez Crisis. The Papers of Samuel Alexander (1877-1938) are also of importance since they include, for example, a correspondence between the latter and the Zionist pioneer Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), the first President of Israel. See also the Military Papers of Major General Eric Edward Dorman O’Gowan (1926-1969) and Field Marshal Auchinleck (1919-1971), who was commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East (1941-1942) and India (1943-1947). A downloadable digitized catalog of the Guardian Archive is available on the JRL website. Other catalogs can be searched online via ELGAR, such as the Catalogue of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society Archives.
A view of the historic reading room.
Research Experience
People conducting research in the Special Collections work in the Elsevier Reading Room (4th floor), as the Historic Reading Room (3rd floor) is used for readers’ own private work. In addition to the main staircase, an elevator serves every floor of the Library building. I had the opportunity to work for several days in the Elsevier Reading Room, and I can say that the conditions there are very comfortable. The Library’s staff is conscientious and very reliable. The controlled climate and secure environment provide a quiet atmosphere. No matter how dark the sky, the light is always sufficient. In daytime, the room is enriched by a soft light coming from a generous bay window that overlooks Spinningfield and Deansgate. The work tables can accommodate up to twenty-two people and are equipped with two electrical sockets each. Many other facilities are provided: adaptors for laptops, a set of magnifying glasses, an easy-to-use fiber-optic light sheet to analyze watermarks, a ruler and a microscope are at the readers’ disposal. A stock of pencils is provided as well as pencil sharpeners and several erasers. Manuscripts and books must be used on book-rests. It is asked that the reader give advanced notice of at least 24 hours to guarantee every item he of she asks for is ready. There is no limit to the amount of requested items. Several items can be consulted at the same time if the reader provides valid reasons for doing so. In the Elsevier Reading Room, the presence of three computers connected to the Internet will prove useful for searching the webpage of the JRL and The University of Manchester, but not for other use. Basically, only members and students of The University of Manchester are allowed to do so on their own computers, as well as people who have registered at Eduroam. The Library is planning to provide Wi-Fi access to external users in the future.
Accessibility
The JRL is situated on Deansgate, Manchester. In order to access the collections, it is important that the reader first make an appointment by e-mail (see Contact Information) or by phone. On that occasion, he or she can also pre-order one or several manuscript(s) or document(s) using the appropriate lists, inventories and catalogs of the JRL. On the day of his or her arrival, he or she must present a proof of address, a photo-ID (including signature), as well as a letter of reference. Note that original documents are required, not photocopies.
After entering the Library, the reception staff helps new readers to find their way in the library. Before going to the reading room, readers are asked to deposit their coats, bags, umbrellas, sleeves, pens and laptop computer carry-cases in the lockers in the basement (for which a £1 coin returnable deposit is necessary). Clear plastic bags are at their disposal to carry their work material and belongings with them (more information is available on the webpage “Using the reading rooms in the John Rylands Library”; see Resources and Links). The reader is then invited to go to the Readers Reception on the 4th floor to fill a registration application, in which he or she is asked to describe briefly the purpose of his or her visit and the topic of research. If the reader plans to come back the day after or during the days following his or her last visit, it is recommended to specify whether consulted materials should be reserved for future use. Without explicit notice from the reader, the documents will be returned to secure storage and it may take several hours to have them back again.
Reader Service Opening Hours
The Reader Service is open Monday through Saturday, from 10:00 to 17:00 (until 19:00 on Thursday). It is closed on Sunday and public holidays. The Library is closed over Christmas and New Year (check the library’s website for up-to-date information).
Reproductions
The University of Manchester Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care (CHICC) can provide digital images of most items in the JRL for research and publication, subject to the physical condition of the item. Images are available in several formats: JPEG (72 dpi, c.1mb), small TIFF (300 dpi, 5-10mb) and large TIFF (600dpi, 60-80mb). The JPEG format is for research purposes only and the most suitable for researchers. It is also possible to obtain photographic and paper prints. All orders are subject to a £10 administration fee and VAT (where applicable). JPEG reproductions (per page, not per folio) cost £3 each up to 10 photographic exposures. If more than 10, the price is £100 (1-50 images), £200 (1-100 images) and £300 (1-200 images). Above 200 images, the price is £100 per 100 images. Authorization from the JRL is needed if the requested images are to be used in a publication. To place an order, complete the Imaging Service Application Form and return it to the CHICC Imaging Service office. The CHICC Imaging Service prices and the Imaging Service Application Form are displayed on the “Order an image” webpage, as well as other useful pieces of information (see Resources and Links). Reproduction orders can be made remotely. Payment is requested in advance of an order being processed.
NB: Highlights from the collections kept at the JRL, including Rylands Collection, Rylands Genizah Collection and Rylands Papyri Collection, are freely available at the University of Manchester Image Collection website. For instance, the manuscript Arabic MS 378 [372], which contains Ibn Sina’s Kitāb al-Shifā’, is entirely available there in digitized high-definition form.
A view of the new entrance to the library.
Self-Service Photography
Self-service free of charge photography is allowed in the Elsevier Reading Room for private research purposes only. For each document, one should fill out an application and hand it over to a member of the staff at the desk. Pay close attention to the list of rules listed on the reverse of the form. Many items in the JRL are covered by Copyright Law, which includes unpublished manuscripts.
Transportation, Food and Other Facilities
Reaching the JRL is quite easy. When in Manchester city center, simply use the free Metroshuttle lines 1 or 2 and get off at the Deansgate (John Rylands Library) stop. You will find the Library in front of you, on the other side of the street. You can download a map of the Metroshuttle lines in PDF format on the following webpage: http://www.tfgm.com/buses/Pages/metroshuttle.aspx.
Breakfast and lunch are served daily at Café Rylands inside the JRL building for a reasonable price. It is opened every day of the week (Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 16:30; Saturday from 9:00 am to 16:30; Sunday from 11:00 to 16:30). There are many other restaurants and cafés in the vicinity of the library as well.
There is a book and souvenir shop inside the main entrance of the JRL building.
Contact Information
The John Rylands Library,
150 Deansgate,
Manchester,
M3 3EH
I would like to thank Elizabeth Gow, Manuscript Curator and Archivist, for the detailed information she offered me on the JRL as I wrote this article.
Teymour Morel is a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva and EPHE, Paris, and a full time collaborator to the European Research Council project “PhiC” (Philosophy in Context: Arabic and Syriac Manuscripts in the Mediterranean), directed by Maroun Aouad (Research Director at CNRS, Paris – Centre Jean Pépin – UPR 76).
Located on the grounds of the National Garden in the Topkhane district of Tehran, The Malek National Library and Museum (Ketābkhāna va mūza-ye melli-ye Malek) is a must-see not only for researchers but also anybody visiting Iran’s capital. While the museum holds an extensive collection of various artifacts, coins, artworks and carpets, the tens of thousands of Islamic manuscripts, many of which are rare and some unique, make the library one of the largest depositories of its kind in Iran.
The entrance to the Malek Library
History
The institution was established over seventy years ago on the initiative of Hosayn Malek, who died in 1972 at the age of 101. The center was initially located in his father’s house in Tehran, until 1966 when it was moved to a new building in what was then the central part of the city. In his twenties, Hosayn Malek, the grandson of a high ranking Qajar officer, traveled to Khorasan with his father, where he had a chance to get acquainted with some of the most beautiful art works of Islamic world. It was during this trip that he made a decision to acquire his own collection of manuscripts and establish a library. Hosayn Malek’s passion for other kinds of artifacts and artworks came in later years. In 1937 he decided to donate and endow his collection of precious objects and manuscripts to Astan-e Qods-e Razavi (a charitable foundation managing the shrine of Imam Ali Reza) for public use. It is a little difficult to determine when or how the different pieces from this extensive collection were acquired. What we do know is that at the time of Hosayn Malek’s death the value of his endowments was estimated to be over several million dollars. In recent years Hosayn Malek’s daughter, Ezzat Malek Soudavar, has made another significant donation to the center of arts works and Quranic manuscripts that further enriched the already extensive collection.
Collections
The center is divided into two sections: On the ground floor there is a museum and on the first floor there is a reference library and computer room.
The museum has well-presented collections of visual arts, paintings (European and Iranian), lacquered pen cases from the Qajar era, coins, an impressive collection of Qurans (including a part of Quran in Kufic script on a parchment leaf, ascribed to Imam Hassan Mojtaba), and other calligraphic masterpieces. The library has two reading rooms. One room has a number of volumes on subjects ranging from medicine and biology to geography, politics, history, and religious sciences. As of 2007, the library had approximately 70,000 printed books but this figure maybe slightly outdated. The library has been rapidly expanding and new books are constantly being added to the collections. At the time of visit stuff members regularly came in with trolleys stuffed with books. It is worth browsing through the shelves. The second reading room, also a computer room, holds all of the catalogs, periodicals, magazines, and a few shelves at the very back on subjects like mathematics, computer science, accounting or general English.
The center holds over 19,000 manuscripts dating from the tenth to the twentieth century. The manuscript collection is divided in two groups. The first includes philosophical, literary, historical and scientific works, most of which are either rare or unique. In particular, the staff members take great pride in the extensive collection of scientific works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina). The second group of manuscripts includes books from all over the Islamic world, many fine examples of Persian calligraphy and miniature (e.g. Shahnamas produced for the Safavid or Timurid kings) are kept here. The majority of works is in Persian, but one can also find works in Arabic and some in Ottoman Turkish.
The manuscripts in the collection are of great variety, but the overwhelming majority originate from Iran and its neighbors (i.e. do not expect to find many works related to North Africa, whereas there is quite a lot on Central Asia and India). At the same time one can easily find works by late Qajar intellectuals, medieval Islamic histories, as well as dynastic chronicles from the Ilkhanids to the Qajars, hermeneutics and other religious subjects as well as a lot of poetry. The oldest manuscript in the collection dates back to the fourth century of the Islamic era. Of particular interest are local histories of different provinces or cities of Iran (e.g. Kerman, Lorestan, Kordestan, Tabriz, Orumie…) and the travelogues (safarnama) of Hajj pilgrims and Persian and European travelers (inside and outside of Iran).
A coin from the Malek museum’s collections
Research Experience
The Malek Library is one of the easiest institutions to access and use in Iran. The library’s convenient and easy-to-reach location, friendly and helpful staff (some of who speak English), well-functioning software (albeit only in Persian), free WiFi, and very comfortable reading rooms make the Malek Library one of the best research institutions in Iran. The building has elevators and is relatively maneuverable in a wheelchair. The reading rooms are very spacious and never seem to be too crowded. The rooms, however, can get quite chilly as a consequence of the powerful air conditioning systems.
There is a fourteen-volume catalog of the library’s manuscript collection–thirteen volumes of which have been prepared by Iraj Afshar and Muhmmad Daneshpazhuh while the most recent volume is a work of Seyyid Muhammad Hussein Hakim–available for reference in the main reading room. Catalogs for other Iranian libraries and archives, as well as for research institutions in Turkey and Europe are also available. The catalog provides some details on the manuscripts in the collection, including the date of acquisition and place and date of copy. The catalog is well organized and easy to use. The entries appear accurate, but the librarian has informed me that there are occasional mistakes, which will be corrected in an updated version of the catalog to be at the end of this year (Since my visit to the library a new edition, plus a new volume (14th) have been published). There is no electronic catalog available on the library’s computer workstations yet. Ottoman and Arabic manuscripts are covered in the first volume of the catalog and are organized alphabetically, for the small number of works in these two languages. Volumes two to four contain descriptions of Persian manuscripts which are grouped according to subject, e.g. history, literature, science and medicine as well as law and fiqh, and within those groups are also arranged alphabetically. Volumes five to nine contain anthologies and collections while the rest, ten to fourteen are volumes of indices organized by authors, copyists, dates, manuscript names, etc.
Generally speaking, the whole collection has been cataloged and digitized. Researchers request to view manuscripts by submitting the appropriate catalog numbers to the librarian, who then uploads the manuscript to one of the library’s workstation computers. The whole process takes no more than an hour. The quality of the digitized documents varies, but is generally quite decent and the computer interface is user-friendly. Although the quality of the digitized documents is fair (with some variations), all of the manuscript images are slightly obscured in the lower-right (or lower-left) corner, where the library has placed a digital watermark. Viewing original documents is more complicated and one needs to negotiate with the different members of staff and make good use of personal charisma.
Depending on the number of manuscripts that a researcher requests, the process of obtaining a CD with the reproductions usually takes between two to five working days (the center is open 6 days a weeks). Personally, I’ve not experienced any inconvenience while working at this library except perhaps for the rather arbitrary opening-closing hours (it is better to call the library before leaving home). Generally speaking the best tip is to wake up early, go to the library and stay there until it closes as opposed to trying to combine a visit to the library with something else. Tehran simply is the city where it is often difficult to plan things.
The interior of the Malek museum
Access and Reproductions
The center is officially open Saturday to Thursday from 8.30 to 16.30 during summer, and 9.00 to 17.00 during winter. We recommend calling before every visit to confirm that it is open. The museum and library (including computer room and reading rooms) are open to the public and registration is required. However, those who plan to request reproductions on CD or a viewing of the manuscripts need to bring a passport and an introduction letter (ma‘rifatnama). Letters of introduction may be written by academic supervisors or departmental chairpersons (no specific format). They may also be obtained from the International Center for Persian Studies (ICPS), known as the Dehkhoda Institute. The Dekhoda letter of introduction is also accepted by all other major libraries, archives and research centers in Iran. As for the difficulty of the process, other than having to run around the premises getting signatures of different members of staff (takes no more than an hour) everything is pretty smooth and easily accessible. I have been told by a member of staff that taking pictures of manuscripts is not allowed. Reproductions of manuscripts cost 2,000 Rials per pdf page (approximately 7 U.S. cents) and generally take up to five days to be prepared.
Transportation and Food
The Malek Library and Museum is located in downtown Tehran, only five minutes away from Imam Khomeini metro station (Red metro line). Metro is by far the most convenient transportation option in Tehran (the traffic is pretty congested during most hours) and the center is best reached by metro. Tehran is certainly not known for its delicious street food but there a few places to have lunch or dinner around the center, including a couple of fast food places on Ferdowsi avenue and some decent cafes and lokma kebab on Mirza Kuchek Khan street, both are relatively cheap and within walking distance. Packing your own lunch might also be an option, as there are some really nice gardens and parks in the area. The archive itself is located inside a massive garden complex although there doesn’t seem to be too many places to sit in the garden.
فهرست نسخههای خطی كتابخانه و موزه ملی ملك (14 ج)، نگارش سیدمحمّدحسین حكیم، قم، كتابخانه تخصّصی تاریخ اسلام و ایران، 1393 خ
فهرست کتابهای خطی کتابخانه ملی ملک وابسته به آستان قدس رضوی (1-13 ج)، زیر نظر ایرج افشار، محمد تقی دانش پژوه؛ با همکاری محمد باقر حجتی و احمد منزوی، تهران:کتابخانه ملی ملک، 1380 – 1352 خ
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Gennady Kurin is currently a doctoral student at Cambridge University researching Ottoman-Safavid relations and borderlands
Citation: Gennady Kurin, “Malek National Library and Museum”, HAZINE, 3 Nov 2014, https://hazine.info/maleklibrary/
The Museum of Textbooks or “Matḥaf al-Kitāb al-Madrasī” is a unique resource for historians interested in education, not only in Jordan, but also in Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The museum is located on the grounds of the secondary school for boys in Salt, approximately twenty miles from Amman and houses textbooks used in Jordan, but written and published throughout the region. These textbooks mainly date from the 1920s through the present but also include a few Ottoman-era works, as well as documents relating to Jordanian education, particularly at the Secondary School for Boys.
One of the graduating classes of the boys secondary school in Salt from 1941
History
The Textbook Museum originated in 1982, when its purpose and plans for establishment were outlined in the Government Gazette. It falls under the authority of the Ministry of Education. The Jordanian Ministry of Culture attributes the concept to Dr. Sa‘id al-Tel, Minister of Education in 1982. As the museum fell under the authority of the Ministry of Education, its original purpose was to collect textbooks used in the schools of Jordan and Palestine since 1921, as well as ministerial documents relating to the history of education in Jordan. These regulations were amended in 2006 and stipulated a number of significant changes to the museum’s central mission. Specifically, the museum planned to archive all educational material issued by the Ministry of Education and contribute to research on educational affairs by collecting and preserving educational documents regardless of their source, as long as they had been used in Jordan. Moreover, the museum planned to augment its public outreach through permanent exhibits on educational affairs, curriculum, and textbooks from Jordan and abroad, The museum opened in its current building in 2008.
The museum from a distance…
Collection
The Museum contains a wealth of material relating to government-sponsored education in Jordan, as well as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, particularly during the Mandate era. Its main interest, as is clear from its title, is in collecting schoolbooks used in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from the early 1920s through the present day. Collectively, the museum and the school’s archive contain a variety of documents relating to education in Jordan. The documents pertaining to Boys’ School in Salt are also notable due to the school’s significance, as it was the only full high school in Jordan during the Mandate period.
As of 2012, there was no catalog. Textbooks are displayed on glass shelves, and arranged in cabinets organized by the decade they were published, although sometimes this can lead to confusion, as a later edition of a textbook may be located in the decade of its original publication. As Jordan did not produce its own textbooks for much of the Mandate period, its government relied on works from the rest of the Middle East, particularly Egypt and Syria, even for subjects such as civics. This means that researchers interested in education throughout the Arab world can find textbooks and pamphlets at the museum, particularly those dating from before the 1950s. After this period, most works were published in Jordan. The textbooks include all subjects taught in Jordan’s curriculum: history, Arabic language and grammar, English, religion, geography, elementary science, ethics, civics, and mathematics. The majority of the textbooks are written in Arabic, but there are many works in English that were used to teach the English language such as elementary readers and introductory histories.
The interior of the one-room museum is surrounded by framed documents in display cases. Researchers interested in education, and governance, in Jordan and Palestine should take care to look at these documents, which include diplomas from the Arab College of Jerusalem, exam certificates and results from Palestine and Jordan, and letters from the Department or Ministry of Education in Jordan to employees of the secondary school, generally focusing on nationalism and exhibitions of Arab unity. For example a 1923 letter written by the director of education describes the nationalist activities of teachers in the district of Ajlun.
The school possesses an archive documenting its own materials, although the classification status of these materials fluctuates depending on the date of the documents, as well as the schedule (and disposition) of the principal. These materials are housed in the school’s main building, and one should take care to meet with the principal first if one is interested in these materials. Documents on school attendance, teachers’ salaries, and student grades are contained in binders and on CDs, although I was not given access to the electronic materials. Recent documents are more difficult to access than those from the Mandate-era. Inside the school are photographs depicting its teachers and students from the beginning of the school through the present.
Few researchers, particularly foreign researchers, make use of this archive although that appears to be changing. This means that researchers may often find themselves alone with the employees of the museum. They speak little English, but are kind, friendly and very willing to help to the best of their ability. They are also quite interested in the research and life of researchers; be prepared to chat, eat, and drink while you work. There are tables and folding chairs set up, giving the researcher a surface on which to place the books, and to photograph them. The museum has no central heating, but is comfortably cool in the summer. There are restrooms, which generally work, including a western style toilet (at least in the ladies’ room), but bring your own toilet paper.
The school is very much a working school. This means that if you venture to seek documents from the school’s archive, you will be subject to the rhythms and interests of school life at a boys’ high school. When I was there, students were protesting the lack of central heating, which meant that every few minutes the principal and various teachers were dealing with the head of the student council throughout the morning while I was photographing documents.
Schoolchildren on a tour of the museum
Access
The Museum is open from approximately 8:00 until 14:00 or 15:00, depending on the availability of the museum’s employees. It is not open on Friday or Saturday.
It is useful to bring a letter of introduction from your university, and your passport, although these things are not necessary to use the Textbook Museum. I also found it useful to mention that I had heard of the Museum from a previous researcher. Feel free to mention my name as well.
It is more difficult to use documents from the school archive. I was initially allowed to photograph these documents, but a few days later I was refused. I was lucky in that the Minister of Education visited the school and Museum while I was there, and took the PR opportunity to give me permission to view the documents. My advice is to be polite, and persistent. However, most researchers will probably be more interested in the textbooks that are explicitly accessible to all.
Reproductions
The museum allows researchers to photograph all the materials within the museum without charge. In 2012, there were no facilities for photocopies, although the principal does have a photocopier that can be used for certain school documents.
One of the museum’s textbooks, this a basic reading trainer from the 1980s
Transportation and Food
The museum is approximately a twenty-minute drive and thirty to forty-five minute bus ride by bus from Amman.
The best way to get to the museum by public transport from Amman is to take a minibus in front of the University of Jordan. These small buses will have “al-Salt” written in Arabic on the side. There will also be a man yelling “al-Salt, al-Salt” from the door of the bus. It costs .5 JD, passed up to either the shouter or the driver during the ride. The ride takes approximately thirty minutes, depending on traffic and the number of stops to pick up passengers. The bus makes several stops along the way, but the al-Salt bus station is the final stop. The bus actually stops just above the station, coming from Amman.
To get to the museum, which can be seen up the hill, go towards the town but take a left, and continue winding up the hill. There are now signs pointing to the museum. If confused, ask for directions to the “al-madrasa al-thanawiya lil-banin.” Enter the main gate of the school and continue straight. The museum is on the right, down the hill. The boys and staff members are generally happy to give directions as well. To get back to Amman, retrace your steps but this time enter the bus station (a large parking lot of buses at the bottom of the hill) and take either one of the larger or smaller shared buses towards “al-Jami‘a” (the University of Jordan). As in Amman, there will be men shouting where each bus is traveling. Smaller buses often leave more quickly, and both are the same price. The bus towards “al-Jami‘a” stops in front of the university, by the Burger King.
There are grocery stores, and several restaurants in al-Salt, but little within a five minute walk of the school. As the museum’s hours are limited, it is best to pick up a snack on your way, which you are allowed (encouraged) to eat as you research. There is an open-air produce market in the main street of the town, which generally has fresher and cheaper produce than in Amman.
Miscellaneous
Salt also boasts a museum, in the Abu Jaber House, on the history of Salt that is well worth visiting. Its informational displays are well-researched, clear and new. This museum includes a prominent section on education, and has maps of Salt’s historic trail that includes directions to various architectural and cultural sites.
The ministry of culture also has two segments of its website on the mission and regulations of the museum here and here
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Hilary Falb Kalisman is a doctoral candidate in the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the relationships between government-sponsored education and political culture in the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth century Middle East.
Citation information: Hilary Falb Kalisman, “The Museum of Textbooks (Jordan)”, HAZINE, 9 Oct 2014, https://hazine.info/museumoftextbooks/
“Deep in the Stacks” is a new feature of HAZINE that highlights the work of librarians in shaping the research collections and agenda of the field of Islamic studies as a whole. 
