Category Archives: Manuscripts and rare books

Islamic Studies Library digital collection in Internet Archive

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The Islamic Studies Library is glad to announce that all digitized materials from its collections are now accessible in Internet Archive, a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, and more.

Islamic Studies Library - Free Texts - Download & Streaming - Internet ArchiveCurrently, the collection includes 395 manuscripts, lithographs, and rare books in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu, published between 1488 and 2013 A.D., and is continually growing.

A course in Baluchi - Barker, Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman - Free Download & Streaming - Internet ArchiveThe materials can be opened and browsed using the Internet Archive book reader, or downloaded in PDF format. The RSS feed feature of the Internet Archive website gives you the opportunity to stay informed of new additions to our collection.

 

In the news: Perso-Indica

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“Perso-Indica is a research and publishing project that will produce a comprehensive Analytical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Traditions, encompassing the treatises and translations produced in India between the 13th and the 19th century.”

9/03/2015 – Research
McGill University Library

Indo-Persian Manuscripts at McGill University Library

Following the request of Perso-Indica at the Library of McGill University in Montreal, the Library has decided to digitize a selection of rare Persian manuscripts dealing with Indic cultures. These manuscripts were chiefly produced in South Asia during the 18th and the 19th centuries. They are kept in the Blacker-Wood Collection and the Osler Library of McGill University in Montreal.
They have been digitized thanks to the contribution of the Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library of McGill University. The following manuscripts are now available on line:
-Ṭilism-i i‘jaz, a work on amulets translated by Kishan Singh, Ms. BWL 129, copied in 1804.Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128702

– Tarjama-yi Satganā wa Basant rāḥ, anonymous translation from Hindi made in 1789, Ms. Bib. Osl. 7785/74. Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128693

– Qānūn-i ‘ishrat tarjama-yi Kūk shastr, a Persian adaptation of the materials of the Kokaśāstra, on sexology, Ms. BWL 166.Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128700

– Majmū‘a, a collection dealing with siyāq, Hindu mythology and castes, Ms. BWL 168. Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128699

– Faras nāma, tarjama-yi Sālūtar, a Persian adaptation of the teachings of the Śālihotra, a treatise on the horse and its treatment. The translation was made at Gulbarga by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ṣafī seemingly at the request of sultan Aḥmad Walī Bahmanī (r. 1422-1435), Ms. BWL W55, illustrated manuscript, copied in 1793.
Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128701

-Faras nāma, tarjama-yi Sālhūtar, an anonymous Persian version of the Śālihotra, Ms. BWL W31, copied in 1839.
Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128694

For more information see: Adam Gacek, 2005, Persian Manuscripts in the Libraries of McGill University: Brief Union Catalogue, Montreal, McGill University Libraries.
More manuscripts are in the process of being digitized, so stay tuned.

16 Arabic Lithographs digitized

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The Islamic Studies Library is currently displaying an exhibition featuring a fascinating selection of Arabic lithographed books from McGill Islamic Rare Books Collection. This Collection includes many examples of lithographed books in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu, dated from the eighteenth century until the mid-twentieth century. The Arabic lithographed books exhibition includes sixteen items encompassing the different periods, calligraphic styles, graphic designs, and publishing houses from the Muslim world and Europe.

The physical exhibition is freely accessible in the Islamic Studies Library during opening hours from April 1st to September 30th 2014. In addition, all 16 items have been digitized, and are now accessible online. Let us know what you think!

Ottoman Postcards

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A recent ‘discovery’ in the Islamic collection in Rare Books and Special Collections, is a set of Ottoman-French postcards named Medjmouaï teçavir (Collection de costumes). There are 22 postcards with each image portraying a different cultural aspect of Ottoman customs and dress attire. Unfortunately, there is no date on the cards themselves but we can assume these date from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.Ottoman PC3For further reading on Ottoman costumes, have a look at:

Salman, Fikri. 2012. Türk kumaş sanatı. Erzurum: Atatürk Üniversitesi, Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi.

Fenerci Mehmed. 1986. Osmanlı kıyafetleri: Fenerci Mehmed albümü = Ottoman costume book. İstanbul: Vehbi Koç Vakfı.

Hamilton, Alastair. 2001. Arab culture and Ottoman magnificence in Antwerp’s Golden Age. London: Arcadian Library.

Ottoman PC1Sevin, Nureddin. 1973. On üç asırlık Türk kıyâfet târihine bir bakış. [İstanbul]: Devlet Kitapları.

Yılmaz, Hale. 2013. Becoming Turkish nationalist reforms and cultural negotiations in early republican Turkey, 1923-1945. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.

As well as: http://www.midafternoonmap.com/2014/02/ottoman-hats.html

Ottoman PC

Ignác Goldziher signatures

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Ignaz Goldziher (Ignác Goldziher) (1850-1921), the famous Orientalist (in the pre-Said definition of the word) and scholar of Islamic Studies. He was born in Budapest in 1850 and has been recognised as one of the founders of Islamic studies, along with Theodor Nöldeke and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje.

Discovered in the stacks in a bound collection of offprints are a number of Goldziher’s signatures. The signatures are throughout the articles, complete with dedications some of which are to the philologist, René Basset who is also suspected as being the binder of these volumes. The dedications are written in German, Arabic and French.

In related news, the Oriental Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has released “The Goldziher correspondence of Budapest – more than 13000 letters related to Ignaz Goldziher.” The letters are searchable, here.

Below are some of the signatures in multiple languages for your viewing pleasure.

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Further reading: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 42 (1922), pp.189-193.

Nöldeke, Theodor, Ignác Goldziher, and René Basset. 1871. Mélanges. (Held in the Islamic rare books collection at Rare Books and Special Collections, 4th floor McLennan Library.)

Kalilah wa-Dimnah digitized!

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The McGill Rare Books and Special Collections’ 17th cent. manuscript of Kalilah wa-Dimnah is now available online.

Originally authored in Sanskrit, Kalilah wa-Dimnah is a collection of animal fables in verse and prose, taken from the Indian oral tradition. It was translated into Arabic by Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa around 750 A.D.

As the bookplate below indicates, McGill copy was presented to the Library by the Quebecer philanthropist John R. Redpath (1796-1869).

OwnershipThis Arabic version of the text is written in an Egyptian or Syrian Hand. On the 130 folios in laid European paper, the attentive eye might be able to see the three crescents watermark. 95 beautiful miniatures illustrate the numerous fables*.

Tortue *Description based on Adam Gacek’s Arabic Manuscripts in the Libraries of McGill University Union Catalogue

ColombeThe Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Université Paris-Sorbonne are currently collaborating on a research project aiming to identify, locate, and describe worlwide manuscript copies of this important text, in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. McGill Library has now joined the list of partners, along with prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Chester Beatty Library (Dublin) or the Cambridge University Library (Cambridge UK). A full description (in French) of the project is available here.

Robert Wisnovsky & Institute of Islamic Studies News

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Hi friends!

Recently, Dr. Robert Wisnovsky of the IIS of McGill was promoted to full professor and has also been appointed to a James McGill professorship. This is of course wonderful news and a much deserved recognition for his individual achievements, but it also is an important milestone for the Institute for which we can all be proud.

In related news, Dr. Wisnovsky was recently interviewed by the Montreal newspaper, Le Devoir: Humanités 2.0 – Le zéro et l’infini McGill numérise la science et la philosophie islamiques.

In addition, Dr. Wisnovsky has an article in the forthcoming Cambridge University Press publication entitled Interpreting Avicenna Critical Essays.

Many congratulations, Dr. Wisnovsky!

 

 

 

 

 

Calligraphy Friday

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Hi friends! Arabic calligraphy is one of the finest arts of Islamic culture. The illustrious Dr. Annemarie Schimmel noted calligraphy to be “an art which can be called without exaggeration the ‘quintessential’ art of Islam” (Schimmel in Highlights of Persian art. Richard Ettinghausen; Ehsan Yar-Shater, eds. 1979).

McGill is fortunate to have several hundred calligraphy specimens, including 200 in Arabic alone. This particular calligraphy piece is a Ḥadīth. Unfortunately the calligrapher did not autograph the work but we may guess that this is a later calligraphy piece, perhaps 18th-19th century. An interpretation of this particular Ḥadīth was recently commented on in al-ahram (Egypt).

The ISL, itself holds a number of pertinent resources in Arabic, English and other languages on Ḥadīth. One may find these through searching WorldCat using “su: hadith” (su stands for subject as in subject heading) to guide your search.

Enjoy!

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RBSC AC187

 

Digitization of Turkish Manuscripts in the Balkans

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Hi friends!

A short news piece released yesterday has announced a joint effort between the Yunus Emre Institute and several Balkan libraries in order to digitize various Turkish manuscript collections.

For those of you inclined to read about the Turkish manuscript holdings of the Vatican Library, take a look Rossi, Ettore. 1953. Elenco dei manoscritti turchi della Biblioteca vaticana: vaticani, barberiniani, borgiani, rossiani, chigiani. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana (Ref. Z6605 T8 R6 ).

For more information on the Vatican’s manuscript collections take a look at St Louis University’s Vatican Film Library subject guide.