The Yahuda Collection was bequeathed to the National Library of Israel by one of the twentieth century's most knowledgeable and important collectors, Abraham Shalom Yahuda (d. 1951). The rich and multifaceted collection of 1,186 manuscripts, spanning ten centuries, includes works representing the major Islamic disciplines and literary traditions. Highlights include illuminated manuscripts from Mamluk, Mughal, and Ottoman court libraries; rare, early copies of medieval scholarly treatises; and early modern autograph copies.
In this groundbreaking Arabic catalogue, Efraim Wust synthesizes the Islamic and Western manuscript traditions to enrich our understanding of the manuscripts and their compositions. His combined treatment of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts preserves the integrity of the collection and honors the multicultural history of the Islamic intellectual tradition.
Efraim Wust has been the cataloguer of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts at the National Library of Israel since 1970. Following his retirement in 2002, he has continued his position in a voluntary capacity.
Raquel Ukeles is the Curator of the Islam and Middle East Collection of the National Library of Israel. She received her PhD in Islamic studies from Harvard University in 2006, and has published on medieval Islamic devotional law.
Foreword
Haggai Ben Shammai
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Abraham Shalom Yahuda: The Scholar, the Collector and the Collections
Raquel Ukeles
Author’s Introduction
Efraim Wust
Subject Index
List of Symbols
Yahuda Ms. Ar. 1–599
List of Bibliographic Abbreviations
Arab and Western academic libraries, scholars and graduate students in medieval and early modern Islamic studies; Arabic, Persian, and Turkish; Islamic manuscripts and traditions of manuscript production and cataloguing.