{"id":5803,"date":"2021-04-06T14:26:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T18:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/islamicstudieslibrary\/?p=5803"},"modified":"2021-04-26T09:09:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T13:09:58","slug":"sinai-manuscripts-digital-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/islamicstudieslibrary\/sinai-manuscripts-digital-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinai Manuscripts Digital Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sinai Manuscripts Digital Library<\/a> is a project of St. Catherine\u2019s Monastery of the Sinai, in collaboration with the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library<\/a> (EMEL) and the UCLA Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Located in Egypt\u2019s Sinai Peninsula, St. Catherine\u2019s Monastery is “one of the world\u2019s oldest monasteries and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” The site has been occupied by monks since the 4th century, but the monastery was formally established in 6th century the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Thanks to its remote location, the Monastery has been able to preserve one of the world\u2019s most important libraries holding 4,559 manuscripts dating from the 4th to the 19th century in 13 languages, covering a wide range of topics (Bible, liturgy, hagiography, patristics, spirituality, and history, classical poetic, scientific and philosophical texts). Widely recognized as “the world\u2019s oldest continually operating library, the manuscript holdings of St. Catherine\u2019s Monastery represent an unparalleled resource to study the history and literature of the Eastern Mediterranean from late antiquity until early modernity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started in February 2018, the digitization of 1,172 Arabic and Syriac (400,000 pages) should be completed in March 2022. The second phase of the project will focus on digitizing Greek, Georgian, Slavonic and other languages 3,387 codices (1.1 million pages).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of our visit, a total of 660 manuscripts in Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Aramaic, Turkish, Coptic and Latin were accessible via the following categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n