The Comprehensive Catalogue Of Arab Islamic Manuscripts

This project aims at cataloguing Arabic manuscripts based on printed and manuscript catalogues of the public and private libraries. In achieving this work, the Institute adopted the task of collecting catalogues, sources and specialized studies which amounted to two thousand catalogues, studies and references which are not all available to the researchers. Consequently, the Institute classified and compiled them according to the arts.

Because of this wide investigation, identifying the one manuscript and its available copies in all libraries became more comprehensive than ever. Also, this work revealed unavailable copies because the said manuscripts are rare and not outspread.

The volumes of these indexes were issued within an illuminating outline, in which the manuscript of a certain art are mentioned and classified according to the alphabets and along with the name of the author and his time. Moreover, the copies of manuscripts are classified according to their seniority and their relation to the original manuscript and what follows in the date written by the transcriber, the library in which it is available along with the number of the book, and then the reference of the manuscript which is mostly an index.

The Institute published a guide to those manuscripts which comprised 1506 catalogues, 124 specialized studies and 56 references which constitute the bases of this grand project.

A new guide will be issued comprising 600 catalogues, studies and references subsequent to that date. Furthermore, this is the largest collection of catalogues of manuscripts that are available in one place and written in 17 languages. These comprehensive catalogues of Arab Islamic manuscripts are listed according to the Publications of the Institute in the list of publications.