After its main text, Princeton MS Garrett 784Y contains also a book list written by the same scribe who copied the entire manuscript. It contains 114 entries, referring to a rather large private library by the standards of the time. In this post, we will look at it more closely.
Continue reading “A book list from Damascus”Making books as an archival practice
Usually, posts are published on Sundays. This is an exception because today (when this is published) is my birthday. And I thought this enough to change the rule for once (and it’s more of a guideline anyway). In this post, we return to one person who has fascinated me for a while now and who has been featured here before: the Damascene book collector ʿAbd al-Salām al-Shaṭṭī. However, this time we are not just interested in his connections to Ibn Ṭūlūn manuscripts but rather in how he engaged with manuscripts for the sake of archival practices.
Continue reading “Making books as an archival practice”Aḥmad Ḥasībī-zādeh and Ibn Ṭūlūn MTMs
Last year, my article on different modes of transmission of Ibn Ṭūlūn manuscripts was published in the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. One figure that was ostentatiously involved in the certification of the manuscripts Chester Beatty Library, MS Ar. 3101 and Staatsbibliothek, MS Landberg 704, I could not identify by that time. He inscribed himself on the title pages of both manuscripts as Aḥmad Efendī Ḥasībī-zādeh in the year 1265/1849. Today, we revisit the identity of this person.
Continue reading “Aḥmad Ḥasībī-zādeh and Ibn Ṭūlūn MTMs”An owner of Ibn Ṭūlūn manuscripts: ʿAbd al-Salām al-Shaṭṭī
As Ibn Ṭūlūn wrote several hundred works and did so almost five hundred years ago by now, it stands to reason that the corresponding manuscripts might have changed hands several times over since their creation. Moreover, later readers, owners, and book traders were instrumental in the survival and recognition of those manuscripts as Ibn Ṭūlūn’s. This post explores one of those people whose personal collections included such manuscripts. Continue reading “An owner of Ibn Ṭūlūn manuscripts: ʿAbd al-Salām al-Shaṭṭī”
Into a bicycle history of the Middle East
And now, to something completely different: the bicycle in Middle Eastern History. Whereas today the bicycle is – arguably – mostly known as a vehicle for leisure, around 1900 it was not only a major means of individualized transportation but it also stipulated the restoration and expansion of road networks that would make the automobile viable, and bicycle races inspired public attention and drew crowds that today seem unimaginable. Moreover, this early history of the bicycle is intricately connected to histories of colonialism, modernity, and Western discourses on the perceived “exploration” of the wider world. Continue reading “Into a bicycle history of the Middle East”