Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative

The private manuscript libraries of Yemen, estimated at 50,000 codices, constitutes the largest and most important set of unexamined Arabic manuscripts in the world today. The Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative presents, for the first time, access to manuscripts from three private libraries in Sanaa, Yemen, and virtually conjoins them to additional Yemeni manuscripts held by the Princeton University Library and Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. The texts in this archive were composed, copied, studied, and preserved by Zaydi scholars from the tenth century to the present. Zaydism is a leading school of Islam in Northern Yemen known for forms of rationalist theology that were abandoned in other regions. The Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative is made possible by a Enriching Digital Collections Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaf (DFG). The grant is administered by Princeton University Library and the Free University, Berlin in conjunction with the Imam Zayd ibn Ali Cultural Foundation (IZbACF) in Sanaa, Yemen. Information on this grant and related projects to preserve and disseminate the manuscripts of Yemen can be found at ymdi.uoregon.edu.         


                                      Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative

Virtual Collection of Persian Manuscripts

Characteristics of the collection from the National Library of the Czech Republic

The Collection of Persian manuscripts has a great variety as to contents, but the volumes containing poetry are prevalent. We can find here collections of poetry (Díwáns) by many Persian authors, both the famous ones and the less-known poets whose names cannot be found in classical overviews of Persian literature. Furthermore, it contains anthologies of Persian poetry, literary biographies (Ádhar), and papers or letters (munsha'át) by famous Persian authors. Moreover we can find here volumes containing the classical works of Sufi literature, tadhkiras (stories from the lives of poets), and prose. Several volumes also represent philosophy, logic, geography, and geomansy. There are a great number of historiographic, astronomical and medical treatises and compendia. Some volumes with religious contents are not missing as well. Under the shelf number XVIII B we can also find several manuscripts at least partially written in Turkish - these are commentaries on Persian literary works (Sa'dí), Persian-Turkish dictionaries, and Persian poetry by Turkish authors. There are also three volumes containing the poetry of Hilálí, representing the Tajik literature, and volumes containing the literary work of the minister of the Mughal emperor Akbar Abu'l-Fazl b. Shaikh Mubárak 'Allámí (two volumes of letters and Akbarnáme).

http://www.manuscriptorium.com/apps/main/en/index.php?request=show_static_collection_detail&collId=12000000891297687560&client=

Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava

The Manuscriptorium virtual collection of Arabic manuscripts consists of manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic and from the Basagic Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava. The Basagic Collection is listed in the Memory of the World list of documentary heritage.