A Medieval Muslim Scholar’s Legacy

Ibn Ṭāwūs and the Afterlife of his Library

In: Journal of Islamic Manuscripts
Author: Boris Liebrenz 1
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  • 1 Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Leipzig
Online Publication Date:
25 Oct 2018
In:
Volume 9: Issue 2-3
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
218–224
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/1878464X-00902007
Keywords:
Ibn Ṭāwūs; waqf; Baghdad; Damascus

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Abstract

This article presents an endowment note as the only surviving material trace from the famous library of the Shiʿite scholar ʿAlī b. Mūsā Ibn Ṭāwūs (589/1193–664/1266). This note offers new insights into the books he possessed and adds clarity about the legal framework under which it was passed on to Ibn Ṭāwūs’ descendants. The article also traces the further history of this manuscript through Damascus to Istanbul and discusses strategies for tracking these notes, which were often willfully destroyed.

In:
Journal of Islamic Manuscripts
E-ISSN:
1878-464X
Print ISSN:
1878-4631
Publisher:
Brill
Cover Journal of Islamic Manuscripts

  • Muḥammad b. Ǧarīr al-Ṭabarī, Annales quos scripsit Abu Djafar Mohammed Ibn Djarir at-Tabari. Secunda Series, ed. M.J. de Goeje et. al., 3 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1881–1889).

  • Šams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Ṭūlūn, al-Qalāʾid al-ǧauharīya fī tārīḫ al-Ṣāliḥīya, ed. Muḥammad Aḥmad Duhmān, 2 vols. (Damascus: Maǧmaʿ al-Luġa al-ʿArabīya, 1949–1951).

  • Youssef Éche, Les bibliothèques arabes publiques et semi-publiques en Mésopotamie, en Syrie et en Égypte au Moyen Age (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1967).

  • Ismail E. Erünsal, Ottoman Libraries. A survey of the history, development and organization of Ottoman foundation libraries (Cambridge, Mass.: The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 2008).

  • Konrad Hirschler, The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands. A social and cultural history of reading practices (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).

  • Etan Kohlberg, A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work. Ibn Ṭāwūs and his library (Leiden: Brill, 1992).

  • Boris Liebrenz, Die Rifāʿīya aus Damaskus. Eine Privatbibliothek im osmanischen Syrien und ihr kulturelles Umfeld (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

  • Ramazan Şeşen / Cevat İzgi / Cemil Akpinar, Fihris maḫṭūṭāt Maktabat Köprülü / Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Köprülü Library, vol. I (Istanbul: Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1406/1986).

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