Special Issue on the Manuscripts of the Muslim World Project

Naunidhi Raʹē. (12611845). Dastūruʹl-ṣibyān. Rare Book, RBML (Non-Circ) 892.84 N225

We are excited to announce the publication of a special issue on the Manuscripts of the Muslim World Project in the November 2020 issue of the  Journal of Philological Encounters. Making a Hidden Collection Visible: Columbia’s Collection of Muslim World Manuscripts, edited by Zeinab Azarbadegan and Mohammad Sadegh Ansari, features six contributions by librarians and scholars on the manuscript collection at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML).

The contributions by Kaoukab Chebaro & Jane Rodgers Siegel, Avinoam Shalem, Alexandre M. Roberts,  A. Tunç Şen,  Trevor Brabyn & Mohammad Sadegh Ansari, and Zeinab Azarbadegan explore the history of the collections as well as themes of authority and originality, transmission of knowledge, and history of science. They offer a variety of methodological approaches to study of manuscripts from across disciplinary, regional, and linguistic specialties. The issue ends with an afterword by Marwa Elshakry.

The special issue is part of the larger project of the scholarly efforts to further publicize the contents and importance of the collections at RBML. This has included the “Rediscovering Words and Worlds: Arabic Script Collections at Columbia University” (February 16-17, 2017), the ongoing cataloging project by the University Libraries, and the digitisation as part of the CLIR-Mellon Hidden Collections grant.