What’s in a Seal?
Identification and Interpretation of ʿAbd al-Bāqī Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 971/1564) Seal and Its Function
In: Journal of Islamic ManuscriptsSearch for other papers by Boris Liebrenz in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
It was only during the Ottoman period, beginning in 1517, that seals gained popularity in the Arab world as a means to document people’s interactions with books. Some seals came alone while others accompanied handwritten notes. Some spelled out their purpose clearly through formulations such as “min kutub”, “hāḏā mā waqafa” or the like; others contained only pious formulae and a name. But even the latter are generally assumed to denote ownership or endowment. In this article, I present the example of a seal that belonged to a judge in early Ottoman Egypt. I will argue that the seal did not denote ownership of the books on which it is found, and I will attempt to show that it was used by its owner in the process of an inventory of Cairo’s endowed libraries. I will also discuss what this insight could mean for interpreting the history of books and collections through seals.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
ʿAlī b. Bālī Ibn Manq: al-ʿIqd al-manẓūm fī ḏikr afāḍil al-Rūm, MS Leipzig Vollers 717.
-
Behrens-Abouseif, Doris: The Book in Mamluk Egypt and Syria. Scribes, Libraries and Market (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
-
Ben Azzouna, Nourane: Aux origines du classicisme. Calligraphes et bibliophiles au temps des dynasties mongoles (Les Ilkhanides et les Djalayirides, 656–814 / 1258–1411) (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2018).
-
Dalīl Matḥaf Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīya / Guidebook Museum of the National Library of Egypt (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub wa-l-Waṯāʾiq al-Qawmīya, 2018).
-
Al-Damīrī: Quḍāt Miṣr fī l-qarn al-ʿāšir wa-l-rubʿ al-awwal min al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar al-hiǧrī, eds. ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAbd al-Rāziq ʿĪsā and Yūsuf Muṣṭafā al-Maḥmūdī (Cairo: al-ʿArabī, 2000).
-
D’hulster, Kristof: Browsing Through the Sultan’s Bookshelves. Towards a Reconstruction of the Library of the Mamluk Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 906–922 / 1501–1516) (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2021).
-
Éche, Youssef: Les bibliothèques arabes publiques et semi-publiques en Mésopotamie, en Syrie et en Égypte au Moyen Age (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1967).
-
El Shamsy, Ahmed: Rediscovering the Islamic Classics. How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2020).
-
Gacek, Adam: “Ownership Statements and Seals in Arabic Manuscripts,” Manuscripts of the Middle East 2 (1987): 88–95.
-
Gallop, Annabel Teh: Lasting Impressions. Seals from the Islamic World (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2012).
-
Gallop, Annabel Teh: Malay Seals from the Islamic World of Southeast Asia. Content, Form, Context, Catalogue (Singapore: NUS Press, 2019).
-
Ǧiddī, Muḥammad Ǧawād: Dānišnāma-i muhr wa-ḥakkākī dar Īrān (Teheran: Muʾassasa-i Taʾlīf et al., 1392=2013).
-
Görke, Andreas and Konrad Hirschler (eds.): Manuscript Notes as Documentary Sources (Beirut, Würzburg: Ergon, 2012).
-
Grohmann, Adolf: Arabische Paläographie, I. Teil (Graz, Vienna, Cologne: Böhlau / Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1967).
-
Hammer-Purgstall, Josef von: Abhandlung über die Siegel der Araber, Perser und Türken (s.l., s.d.), published separately and as part of Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, vol. 1 (Vienna: Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1850).
-
Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: al-Durar al-kāmina, [ed. Sālim al-Karankawī al-Almānī = Fritz Krenkow], 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāṯ al-ʿArabī).
-
Ibn al-Ḥanbalī, Raḍī ad-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm: Durr al-ḥabab fī tārīḫ aʿyān Ḥalab, 2 vols., eds. Maḥmūd Muḥammad al-Fāḫūrī and Yaḥyā Zakarīyā ʿAbbāra (Damascus: Wizārat al-Ṯaqāfa, 1972).
-
Ibn Iyās al-Ḥanafī, Muḥammad: Badāʾiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʾiʿ al-duhūr, ed. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā, 5 vols. (Beirut: al-Maʿhad al-Almānī li-l-Abḥāṯ al-Šarqīya).
-
Ibn Ṭūlūn, Muḥammad: Ḥawādiṯ Dimašq al-yawmīya ġadāt al-ġazw al-ʿuṯmānī li-l-Šām, 926–951 h. Ṣafaḥāt mafqūda tunšar li-l-mara al-ūlā min Kitāb Mufākahat al-ḫillān fī ḥawādiṯ al-zamān, ed. Aḥmad Ībiš (Damascus: al-Awāʾil, 2002).
-
Ibrāhīm, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf: “Maktaba fī waṯīqa. Dirāsa li-l-maktaba wa-našr li-l-waṯīqa,” in ibid.: Dirāsāt fī l-kutub wa-l-maktabāt al-islāmīya (Cairo: Dār wa-Maṭābiʿ al-Šaʿb, 1962).
-
Juvin, Carine: “A Mamluk Qurʾānic Ǧuzʾ and its Connection with Amīr ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧazāʾirī,” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 10 (2019): 105–135.
-
Kamāl al-Dīn: Ayyām Kamāl al-Dīn al-Ḥāʾik. Ḥalab fī awāḫir al-qarn al-ʿāšir, eds. Boris Liebrenz and Kristina Richardson (Beirut: Orient-Institut, 2021).
-
Kut, Günay and Nimet Bayraktar: Yazma eserlerde vakıf mühürleri (Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 1984).
-
Liebrenz, Boris: Die Rifāʿīya aus Damaskus. Eine Privatbibliothek im osmanischen Syrien und ihr kulturelles Umfeld (Leiden: Brill, 2016).
-
Liebrenz, Boris (ed.): The History of Books and Collections through Manuscript Notes (Leiden: Brill, 2018) = Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 9, 2–3 (2018).
-
Liebrenz, Boris: The Waqf of a Physician in Late Mamluk Damascus and Its Fate Under the Ottomans (Berlin: EB-Verlag, 2019).
-
Moukarzel, Pierre: “The European Embassies to the Court of the Mamluk Sultans,” in Mamluk Cairo, a Crossroads for Embassies. Studies on Diplomacy and Diplomatics, eds. Frédéric Bauden and Malika Dekkiche (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019), 685–710.
-
Murr, Christoph Gottlieb von: “Von den Siegeln der Araber,” in idem: Drey Abhandlungen von der Geschichte der Araber überhaupt, derselben Münzen und Siegeln (Nurenberg: Ammermüller, 1770).
-
Al-Naḥḥāl, Maḥmūd: “al-Tazwīr wa-l-ʿabṯ bi-quyūd al-waqf al-muṯbata ʿalā ẓuhūr al-uṣūl al-mawqūfa wa-kutub al-Madrasa al-Maḥmūdīya bi-l-Qāhira namūḏaǧan” (https://www.alukah.net/culture/0/108568/, last accessed October 10, 2020).
-
Al-Naššār, al-Sayyid: Tārīḫ al-Maktabāt fī Miṣr. Al-ʿAṣr al-Mamlūkī (Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣrīya al-Lubnānīya, 1413 = 1993).
-
Necipoğlu, Gülrü, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer (eds.): Treasures of Knowledge. An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4), 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
-
Ohta, Alison: “The Bindings of Qansuh al-Ghawri,” in Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond. From the Fatimids to the Mughals. Studies Presented to Doris Behrens-Abouseif, eds. Alison Ohta, J.M. Rogers, and Rosalind Wade Haddon (London: Ginkgo Press, 2016), pp. 215–225.
-
Porter, Venetia: Arabic and Perisan Seals and Amulets in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 2011).
-
Reland, Adriaan: “Dissertatio de Gemmis Arabicis,” in idem: Dissertationes miscellanea, III vols. (Utrecht: Gulielmus Broedelet, 1707–1708), vol. 3, 231–250.
-
Richard, Francis: “Muhr-i kitābḫāna-yi Rašīd al-Dīn Faḍlallāh Hamaḏānī,” Ayāndah 8/6 (1982): 343–346.
-
[Richard, Francis]: “Stamps,” in François Déroche et al.: Islamic Codicology. An Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Script (London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2005), 335–344.
-
Sayyid, Ayman Fouad: “Les marques de possession sur les manuscrits et la reconstitution des anciens fonds des manuscrits arabes,” Manuscripta Orientalia 9 (2003): 14–23.
-
Sayyid, Ayman Fuʾād: “Intiqāl al-maḫṭūṭāt al-ʿarabīya ilā Turkiyā wa-aṯaruhū fī tawṭīd al-ṣabġa al-islāmīya li-l-ḫilāfa al-ʿuṯmānīya,” Buḥūṯ al-muʾtamar al-duwalī ḥawla al-ʿilm wa-l-maʿrifa fī l-ʿālam al-ʿuṯmānī, ed. Ṣāliḥ Saʿdāwī (Istanbul: 2000), 293–302.
-
Sayyid, Ayman Fuʾād, al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī wa-ʿIlm al-Maḫṭūṭāt, 3 vols. (Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣriyya al-Lubnāniyya, 1997).
-
Sayyid, Fuʾād: “Naṣṣān qadīmān fī iʿārat al-kutub,” Maǧallat Maʿhad al-Maḫṭūṭāt al-ʿArabiyya 4 (1958): 125–136.
-
Vesely, Rudolf: “Die richterlichen Beglaubigungsmittel. Ein Beitrag zur Diplomatik arabischer Gerichtsurkunden. 2) ʿunwān,” Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Philologica 4, Orientalia PragensiaX (1977): 99–122.
-
Witkam, Jan Just: “Adriaan Reland on Islamic Gems and Seals: An Annotated Translation of the Latin Text,” in The Orient in Utrecht: Adriaan Reland (1676–1718), Arabist, Cartographer, Antiquarian and Scholar of Comparative Religion, eds. Bart Jaski, Christian Lange, Anna Pytlowany, and Henk J. van Rinsum (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 399–422.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 472 | 114 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 42 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 132 | 26 | 1 |
What’s in a Seal?
Identification and Interpretation of ʿAbd al-Bāqī Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 971/1564) Seal and Its Function
In: Journal of Islamic ManuscriptsSearch for other papers by Boris Liebrenz in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
It was only during the Ottoman period, beginning in 1517, that seals gained popularity in the Arab world as a means to document people’s interactions with books. Some seals came alone while others accompanied handwritten notes. Some spelled out their purpose clearly through formulations such as “min kutub”, “hāḏā mā waqafa” or the like; others contained only pious formulae and a name. But even the latter are generally assumed to denote ownership or endowment. In this article, I present the example of a seal that belonged to a judge in early Ottoman Egypt. I will argue that the seal did not denote ownership of the books on which it is found, and I will attempt to show that it was used by its owner in the process of an inventory of Cairo’s endowed libraries. I will also discuss what this insight could mean for interpreting the history of books and collections through seals.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 472 | 114 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 42 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 132 | 26 | 1 |