Posted on

Using the AlKindi Catalogue as a Bibliographic Tool for Islamic Studies (and an Introduction to Cataloguing Standards)

By Jean Druel and N.A. Mansour

In light of recent events in Lebanon, we want to encourage you to donate to support domestic workers via Egna Legna, an Ethiopian domestic worker-run organization based in Beirut Lebanon, which has over the past three years assisted domestic workers including victims of horrible abuses to the best of its ability. We also recommend donating to Beit el Baraka. Use this tool to find more places that need donations.

If you’re an Arabist, think about the digital library or archive catalogues you use and then try to count the number that have interfaces and data available in Arabic. There are few in Arabic, although there are more catalogues and tools that are in Turkish. In addition, the design of these resources often is adapted without much alteration from tools produced for European-language materials for European-language audiences. It dismisses even the possibility that other intellectual histories rooted in different contexts function differently and require different things from their organizational standards; it also dismisses the notion that technologies are neutral and that they are inclusive.

A doorway in the IDEO featuring mashrabiyya (Photo Credit: N.A. Mansour)

The Arabic intellectual tradition is built around commentaries all expressing different and often diverging opinions, although they are often tied to the same text. So in order to study, for example كتاب سيبويه Kitāb Sībawayh, you need to be familiar with existing critical editions of the text. You might also want the commentaries written on it. You also naturally want the secondary sources on it as well: Arabic journal articles and monographs, as well as those written in other languages. Your institution’s standard catalogue might not be as much help here. You need a catalogue built to these bibliographic purposes. The AlKindi catalogue, developed by the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO) is the best solution to this problem of needing research tools in Arabic, built for Arabophone audiences with the Arabic intellectual tradition in mind. It’s also the solution to our bibliographical problems, essentially letting you browse online more effectively.  It’s not perfect yet, namely in that it does not include every Arabic book ever written but each day, the catalogue becomes a stronger engine, as more data is added to it and as more people use it; it is often the first result you find when using a standard internet search engine to look for a text, like, say كتاب سيبويه, Kitāb Sībawayh. The cataloguing team has needed to expand multiple times to accommodate the work-load and under the direction of Mohamad Malchouch, it is full-steam ahead for the project. Here, we’ll be giving you an introduction to using the system, as well as a crash-course in cataloguing standards.

Continue reading “Using the AlKindi Catalogue as a Bibliographic Tool for Islamic Studies (and an Introduction to Cataloguing Standards)”
Posted on

Walid Ghali, Aga Khan Library

Dr Walid Ghali preparing a manuscript for digitisation
(Photo Credit: Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev)

In a time when online learning has become a critical necessity, a select few institutions have proven to be a step ahead. The Aga Khan Library in London is one such institution that began digitizing its collections a few years ago with the goal of facilitating research all over the globe on Islam. Their head librarian Dr. Walid Ghali has played an indispensable role in this multifaceted process, and we have had the good fortune to discuss with him his experiences both in the position as well as those leading up to it. Continue reading “Walid Ghali, Aga Khan Library”

Posted on

Yes, you should use MENAdoc and here’s why and how

By Torsten Wollina (MSC Cofund Fellow, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin)

There are several noteworthy initiatives in Germany that are pushing the boundaries of #openaccess to both sources and secondary literature. Only recently, a joint project of several German university and research libraries has received funding for creating an online union catalogues for manuscripts in the Arabic script held by those libraries (named Orient digital). Leipzig University is home to the long-term project Bibliotheca Arabica which aims at a reassessment of Arabic literary history by putting it in conversation with manuscript studies. Unofficially, it has already been described as Brockelmann 2 (or 2.0). The digitization project Translatio at Bonn University is currently identifying periodicals in Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish published between 1860 and 1945 and makes them accessible online. Yet another initiative is the Bamberger Islam-Enzyklopädie headed by Patrick Franke. It provides a framework which aims at engaging scholars to disseminate their expertise on Wikipedia in German. Through this encyclopedia, authored Wikipedia articles become visible as citable publications.

At the moment, by far the largest initiative towards #openaccess is hosted by the University- and State Library Saxony-Anhalt (Halle). It offers two main online resources: MENALIB is the virtual specialist library but I will be focusing here on the online repository MENAdoc because it is, in my opinion, a truly unique treasure trove of primary and secondary sources.

Continue reading “Yes, you should use MENAdoc and here’s why and how”

Posted on

New York Public Library Schiff Collection

By Raphael Cormack

Hazine recognizes that most archives and libraries are closed right now and emphasize prioritizing during these times the health and safety of all those who work at archives and libraries as well as the health and safety of those who use archives and libraries. We are publishing archive reviews in the hopes that eventually these repositories will be accessible again. 

Finding pre-First World War Arabic printed books in European and American libraries is sometimes a complex business, involving navigating the online catalogs of different institutions, trying creative transliterations, and a good deal of luck. The major collections are well known – British Library, Bibliothèque national de France, Harvard, Yale, etc.. But, for a variety of reasons, people often overlook the New York Public Library, which had amassed one of the best (if not the best) collections of Middle Eastern books in America by the 1920s. In large part, this is because many of the books have not yet been uploaded to the online catalog and those that have been, can be quite hard to search because you need to have the transliteration right – e.g. it took me a long time to find the play لا اتزوج ولو شنقوني (la atzūj wa lū shankūnī). So, I hope it will be helpful if I provide a brief guide to using the Arabic books there, particularly those in the Schiff Collection.

Continue reading “New York Public Library Schiff Collection”

Posted on

Archivy (n. ~ The discipline of archives) *: everything that’s already been said

by Sumayya Ahmed

I have hesitated to write this piece because, as I told the person who commissioned it, everything about the archive(s), archivists, and their tepid relationship with historians and humanities folk has already been said in academic articles, books, conferences, and in less diplomatic ways on social media. Perhaps the most succinct and well-presented perspective of archivy’s relationship with other academics is Caswell’s (2016) article,  “ ’The Archive’ Is Not an Archives: On Acknowledging the Intellectual Contributions of Archival Studies.” I would not be offended if you stopped reading this right here and just clicked on the link to that article now.

Caswell (2016) acknowledges in her article previous work on the topic by Lingel (2013), “This is not an archive” , who spoke about the limits of the archives as a metaphor especially when the theories are constructed “in ignorance of archival work.” Recently, Gibbons (2020) has written “Derrida in the Archival Multiverse” which begins with the important point all of our voices have grown hoarse repeating, “Archival theory did not start (nor end) with Derrida.” As Eastwood (2017) explained, archivists themselves “have long engaged in characterizing the nature of archives.”

Continue reading “Archivy (n. ~ The discipline of archives) *: everything that’s already been said”

Posted on

Al-Imam al-Hakim Public Library

by Shabbir Agha Abbas 

I am a graduate student and manuscript cataloger based at Columbia University, and my research interest concerns Twelver Shi’ism, which thus requires frequent research trips to the Middle East, specifically to Iraq and Iran. With this background, I would like to contribute my experiences working in the relevant libraries of both these countries.

Hidden Entrance of Masjid al-Hindi Alongside a Clothing Shop(Photo Credit: Shabbir Agha Abbas)

Due to the turbulent last 50 years, the repositories of the two Shi’i dominated nations have in ways remained enigmatic for the typical western researcher. Enigmatic not because they are hiding anything, but because constant conflict has made them relatively inaccessible. Consequently, Shi’i studies, within Islamic studies, has been warped towards focussing on contemporary geo-political issues, whereas the rich Shi’i literary legacy ranging from jurisprudence to philosophy and so on has been veiled, seemingly only for certain experts to see. While it is true that travel to these regions is not at all easy, the historical libraries therein are indeed waiting for foreign researchers to come, and I have found that the staff are earnest in finding ways to assist in this proliferation of knowledge.

When it comes to Iraq and Shi’i studies, there are numerous libraries and manuscript collections where one can partake in research. From the National Archives in Baghdad and private libraries of Kazimiyah, to the collections of the ‘atabat (shrine) complex in Karbala, there is no single location that deserves to be the primal point of initiating research work, other than the seminary city of Najaf, and its al-Imam al-Hakim Public Library. This al-Hakim Library services the tens of thousands of students and scholars of the Najaf seminary, and thus can be considered the chief reservoir of Shi’ism as a school of thought. Therefore, visiting the al-Hakim Library is of vital importance for the Shi’i studies researcher, and hence the topic of this piece.

Continue reading “Al-Imam al-Hakim Public Library”

Posted on

The British Library for Newcomers: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide

By Ahmed Shaker

I am an independent researcher working on early Qurʾānic manuscripts and fragments written in māʼil and Kūfī styles, which dates back to the period from the 7th century to the 11 century CE. I blog at quranmss.com. I am fascinated, too, by illuminated and gilded Qurans from later periods such as those in naskhī, thuluth, rayḥānī, biharī, and ṣīnī scripts. I spend most of my time researching, writing, translating, collecting books and volumes, and following-up on recent conferences, symposia, and events associated with the codicological and paleographical studies of Qurʾānic manuscripts. In addition, I tend to make regular journeys to distinguished libraries, museums, and public exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe, and North America to keep myself updated with current literature, look for unexplored materials convenient for publication in my field of interest, not to mention locating out-of-print books and references. This is not always an easy task considering factors such as date of publication, how rare it is, and whether it is available in many libraries or not. 

This year, I decided to visit the British Library (BL) in London to explore some of the non-digitized Qurʾānic materials, focusing my eyes on bindings, frontispieces, illustrations, scribal errors, marginalia, and other impressive features of handwritten documents. It was a productive journey as I anticipated it to be. As you may know, the BL has one of the largest and finest collections of Arabic manuscripts in both Europe and North America, with over 100,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals, and newspapers, in addition to more than 15,000 manuscripts works in 14,000 volumes, covering various subject matters. These include Quranic sciences and commentaries, hadīth, kalām, Islamic jurisprudence, mysticism and philosophy, Arabic grammar and philology, poetry, history, science, medicine, and many other subjects and themes. Moreover, the Arabic manuscripts at BL consist of two major collections: the Arabic manuscripts of the old British Museum Library and those of the India Office Library; formerly part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. These two historic collections, in addition to acquisitions made after 1973, were transferred to the newly-formed British Library in 1982.

In this blog post, I will be offering a detailed information guide—supplied by photographs and illustrations—to newcomers to the British Library, so they can thoroughly enjoy the experience and understand some of the requirements and regulations of the library before their arrival. 

A large bronze sculpture of Sir Issac Newton displayed on a high plinth in the piazza outside the British Library in London. The work is based on William Blake’s 1795 portrayal of Newton, which depicts him sitting on a ledge while measuring with a pair of compasses (Photo Credit: Ahmed Shaker)

Continue reading “The British Library for Newcomers: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide”

Posted on

A Short Research Guide to Egypt

The lobby of the American Research Center in Egypt (photo credit: N.A. Mansour)

At MESA 2019, Djodi Deutsch, Academic Programs Manager for the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), participated in a discussion on doing research in Egypt today; she based this on years of working with ARCE fellows conducting dissertation research and other projects. She kindly shared this list of research sites in Egypt with us (and on social media!) to share with you. Note these are not archive reviews –we’ve hyperlinked the research sites that we do have reviews for– but we are working on bringing you Egypt-specific archive reviews, along with other content. Feel free to drop us a line at hazineblog@gmail.com if you want to write us a piece! For now, this guide should help you get a general sense of what is out there.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Statue-of-a-Peasant-Woman-in-the-Museum-Gardens-1024x1024.jpg
Statue of a Peasant Woman in the Agricultural Museum Gardens (photo credit: Taylor Moore)

Obviously Dar al-Wathaiq (the National Archives) and Dar al-Kutub are still accessible. Dar al-Wathaiq requires a lengthy application process you can begin by visiting the location on the Corniche. Dar al-Kutub, both at the Corniche and Bab al-Khalq are running as usual: these repositories are good for rare books, manuscripts, and periodicals.

The Coptic Canadian History Project (CCHP) also has a list, written by Amy Fallas and Weston Bland, on archives in Egypt and the US. The CCHP is also working in collaboration with immigrants and have a growing archival collection with York University Libraries in Toronto.

Dar al-Kutub (Corniche Location) is on the right side of the image. The left side of the image is Zamalek, where the Majma al-Lugha al-‘Arabi can be found (photo credit: N.A. Mansour)

Here is the list itself, compiled by Djodi Deutsch

  • Al-Azhar University; al-Azhar Library
  • American University in Cairo
  • National Judicial Studies Center
  • Central Library (al-Sayyidah Zaynab)
  • Bibliotheca Alexandrina
  • Alexandria Municipal Library
  • Institute of Arabic Manuscripts
  • Majma al-Lugha al-‘Arabi
  • Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO)
  • Nederlands-Vlaams Instituut in Cairo (NVIC)
  • American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE)
  • Coptic Museum and Patriarchate
  • St. Catherine’s Monastery Library
  • Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO)
  • Franciscan Centre of Christian Oriental Studies
  • Cairo International Book Fair (every January/February, dates change yearly)
  • Suq al-Ezbekiyya
  • Egyptian Radio and Television Archive
  • Al Ahram
  • Akhbar al-Yawm Newspaper Archive
  • Ruz al Yusuf Foundation
  • Dar Al Hilal Newspaper Archive
  • Dār al-Karmah, Dār al-Tanwīr, and Dār al-Maḥrūsah (publishing houses)
  • Wekalet Behna
  • Egyptian Olympic Committee
  • Cimatheque Cairo – Alternative Film Center
  • Agricultural Museum
  • Dar al-Mahfuzat al-ʿUmumiyya 

Posted on

Maktabat al-Azhar (Cairo)

Maktabat al-Azhar (al-Azhar Library) in Cairo is reportedly about to move to a new location not far from the original location on Salah Salem Street, around the corner from al-Azhar mosque and al-Azhar Garden. Thus, it does not merit a full archive review. HOWEVER, one of our editors, N.A. Mansour, has been using it and she put together a Twitter thread with all the relevant information. Click through to read the thread in its entirety (you DO NOT need a Twitter account to read it) and we look forward to featuring an entire archive review when the library moves.

Continue reading “Maktabat al-Azhar (Cairo)”
Posted on

Orient-Institut Istanbul

Introduction

The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul is a specialized research library dedicated to the study of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey in all its aspects (linguistics, history, literature and social sciences); and, to a lesser extent, to the Turkic peoples, languages, and literatures of Central Asia. The collection comprises currently about 48,000 monographic volumes in various languages (Turkish, German, English, Ottoman, French, Armenian, Russian etc.) and over 1,500 periodical titles. It offers access to e-books and e-journals as well as to database holdings. Readers can also access the Islamic Studies e-Book Collection by the provider Al-Manhal within the network of the institute. This collection comprises at the moment 2,035 titles, mainly in Arabic.

The Orient-Institut Istanbul is located in Cihangir, Istanbul, Turkey. Cihangir is a neighborhood in the close proximity of Taksim Square.

History

The institute and its library are an offspring of the Orient-Institut Beirut, whose researchers had to leave Lebanon in 1987 because of the civil war and found a temporary home in Istanbul. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of interest in the Turkic world, the institute remained in Istanbul as a branch office of the Orient-Institut even after the directorate and some of its researchers were able to return to Lebanon in 1994. In 2009, the Orient-Institut Istanbul became an independent research institution. Since 2003, it has been affiliated with the Max Weber Foundation.

From the very beginnings, acquisitions had the objective of establishing a research library for Ottoman, Turkic, and Islamic studies in accordance with the academic profile of the institute. Its main aim has been to serve the purposes of the in-house researchers. Thus, acquisition is driven by the needs of current as well as prospective researchers, be it in the fields of history, literature, language, religion, culture, or society. This includes not only academic books and journals, but also primary source material. Accordingly, a great number of Ottoman books and journals as well as books and journals from the early Republican period have been purchased at antiquarian bookshops. In general, manuscripts are not part of the collection strategy. Since one of the objectives of the institute is the promotion of academic exchange between Germany and Turkey, relevant academic publications in German are acquired on a regular basis.

Collection

The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul collects for the most part print material related to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Besides books and journals, we also collect music and documentary films on CD and DVD.

It is a highly specialized library with currently over 48,000 monographic volumes and a collection of more than 1,500 journals, 120 of them as currently running subscriptions. Our oldest monograph dates back to the 16th century.

The collection has its emphasis on the study of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey in all aspects (linguistics, history, literature and social sciences). It also includes literature concerning Turkish-speaking groups of the Ottoman Empire’s former territories, the languages of Turkey, the religions of the Ottoman Empire and “Turkish Islam.” The Turkic peoples, languages and literatures of Central Asia also fall under the purview of our collection. Publications on the history of Turkey before the time of the Seljuks are not acquired.

Besides printed material, with the establishment of the research field “Music in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey” in 2011 the library began to focus on literature on music as well as on audio material. In 2016, a collection from the late German journalist Birger Gesthuisen with more than 280 music CDs and records, especially from musicians in the North-Western European Gurbet, was donated to the library.

For the institute’s special research project on “New Religiosities in Turkey” between 2011-2017, a special collection was established that comprises currently about 2,700 volumes related to new religious movements, spirituality, superstition, occultism, esoteric belief, alternative healing methods, etc. Additionally, a comprehensive collection of journal articles and grey literature on the topic is currently being catalogued.

The Research Experience

All monographs and journals can be retrieved in our OPAC. Besides this, articles from edited volumes like conference proceedings and festschrifts available at the library are likewise retrievable.

Since the collection is currently spread out over six floors in two residential buildings, books are generally grouped according to their subject. In anticipation of the institute’s relocation to a building with a separate book repository, we have started to organize the books according to the numerus currens system since January 1, 2018.

Recently, some of the most fragile materials of the library were digitized. Those digital materials are hosted by Menalib, the Middle East Virtual Library. Since only very fragile publications are digitized, access to the originals is normally not possible.

Most of the library’s material is immediately available for the researcher, but those parts of the collection housed in the second building must be ordered a day in advance. This can be done directly through the OPAC by mail request.

The reading room offers seven reading spaces, one with a computer for catalogue research, etc.. WLAN is available.

The librarians speak Turkish, Armenian, German, and English.

Access

The library is open to the public from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 7pm and on Friday from 9am to 1pm. We are open in summer, but closed on official Turkish holidays, as well as Easter and between Christmas and the New Year.

The library is open to everyone without prior registration. Library users are asked to enter their name in our guestbook, which serves merely statistical purposes.

Reproductions

Library users are free to take photographs or use a book scanner free of charge within the limits of the copyright regulations. The book scanner is used with one’s own USB-stick.

Photocopies are permitted in accordance with copyright regulations. Originals are sent by our staff to a nearby copy shop for next-day delivery. The copy shop currently charges 0.15 TL per copy, plus tax, (December 2018).

Transportation and Food

The institute is situated in Cihangir, within walking distance from Taksim Square.

A lot of cafes, bistros and local restaurants (lokantalar) are nearby as Cihangir is an up-and-coming neighborhood, with accordingly elevated prices. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to allow for coffee breaks or having lunch on our premises.

Miscellaneous

The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul is a member of BiblioPera, a network of research centers in Beyoğlu. The heart of the network is its union catalogue. For more information, please click here.

The Orient-Institut Istanbul hosts lectures and symposia and organizes conferences together with academic partner institutions. The institute has a scholarship program for doctoral candidates coming from abroad for a research stay in Istanbul up to six months. The announcement is published annually on our website, usually in late autumn.

Future Plans and Rumors

The Orient-Institut Istanbul will move from Cihangir to the Tünel district within two to three years. The new location will be close to the Şişhane Metro station on Galip Dede Street. Her şey çok daha güzel olacaktır.

Contact information

Orient-Institut Istanbul

Susam Sokak 16/8

Cihangir, 34433 Istanbul

Tel. +90-212-2936067

www.oiist.org/en/

https://www.oiist.org/en/bibliothek/

Map of location

Resources and Links

Catalog

Here you can check which online journals you have to access within the premises of the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

On the library’s website, also find a list of relevant online resources, some freely accessible some only from the network of the institute.

Keyword Tags

Istanbul; Turkey; Early Modern; Modern; Printed; journals, newspapers; music

Biography

Dr. Astrid Menz is the head librarian of the library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

ORCID-ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1741-3250