The Library of Aḥmad Pasha Al-Jazzār

Book Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72053-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 219, 626 Seiten, Format (B × H): 202 mm x 268 mm, Gewicht: 1792 g

Reihe: Islamic History and Civilization

This study is the first to examine the history and composition of the library of Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar (d. 1804), the famous governor of northern Palestine in the late eighteenth century, on the basis of the inventory of the library’s holdings. The chapters in the first volume situate the library, one of the largest in Palestinian history prior to the end of the nineteenth century, in its historical context, examine the materiality of the collection based on a study of the extant manuscripts and other historical sources, and analyse the contents of the library. The second volume consists of a facsimile of the inventory, a critical edition and index.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Aljoumani, Said

Burak, Guy

Hirschler, Konrad

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures and Tables

Contributors

Introduction: The City, the Endowment and the Manuscripts Said Aljoumani, Guy Burak and Konrad Hirschler

Part1 The History of al-Jazzar, His Library and the Inventory

1 Al-Jazzar’s Library and Its Ottoman Context Berat Açil, Nimet Ipek and Guy Burak

2 The Inventory: Documentary and Bibliographical Practices in al-Jazzar’s Library Said Aljoumani

3 From Whom and for Whom? The Audience and Provenance of al-Jazzar’s Manuscripts Boris Liebrenz

4 Historical Representations of al-Jazzar: ‘Butcher’ or Patron of the Poor? Feras Krimsti

5 Uncovering al-Jazzar’s Wealth: Confiscation and Power Struggle Yasin Arslantas

6 The Library of Abu Nabbut in Early Nineteenth-century Jaffa Benedikt Reier

7 A (Mostly) Local Story: The Translocations of al-Jazzar’s Books in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Konrad Hirschler

Part2 The Materiality of al-Jazzar’s Manuscripts

8 Notes on Materials: How Brief Descriptions Indicate Substantial Losses Karin Scheper

9 Calligraphic Descriptions Nimet Ipek and Guy Burak

10 The Endowment Seals Boris Liebrenz

11 By the Keepers’ Hands: Comparing the Inks of Endowment Statements, Mottos and Seals Claudia Colini and Kyle Ann Huskin

Part3 The Intellectual Profile of al-Jazzar’s Library: The Inventory’s Sections

12 The Qur?an Section (ma?a?if) Walid A. Saleh

13 A Foreshadowing: The Qur?an Commentary Section (tafsir) WalidA. Saleh

14 The Recitation Section (qira?at) ShadyH. Nasser

15 The ?adith Section Garrett Davidson

16 The Section on Islamic Law (fiqh) Ahmed ElShamsy

17 Books on Islamic Theology (taw?id) and Sufism (ta?awwuf): Rational Verification and Experiential Learning in Ottoman Palestine Hadel Jarada

18 Textbooks of Grammar, Morphology and Lexicography: Cosmopolitan Arabic Philology in Early Nineteenth-century Acre Christopher Bahl

19 Manuals for Manners: Books on adab Berat Açil

20 Logic in the Jazzar Collection (man?iq) AsadQ. Ahmed

21 The Poetry Section (al-dawawin wa-al-qa?a?id): Pedagogy and Devotional Piety Khalil Sawan

22 The Pasha’s New Clothes: The History Section (tarikh) Dana Sajdi

23 Amassing Medicine (?ibb): Selections from an Ottoman Governor’s Medical Collection Deborah Schlein

24 The Occult Sciences Liana Saif

25 A Language-oriented Approach: The Section on Persian and Turkish Books Berat Açil

Edition of the Inventory Said Aljoumani

Facsimile of the Inventory

Index of the Inventory’s Book Titles

List of Identified al-Jazzar Manuscripts and Their Current Location

Über Autor(innen)

Said Aljoumani, Ph.D.(2010), Cairo University, is Research Associate at Universität Hamburg (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures) and has numerous publications on the history of libraries and book culture including The Library of a Madrasa in Aleppo at the End of the Ottoman Era(2020).

Guy Burak, Ph.D.(2012), is the Librarian for Middle East, Islamic, Jewish and African Studies at New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. He has published several articles on Islamic legal and intellectual history in the post-Mongol period and is the author of The Second Formation of Islamic Law: The Hanafi School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire(Cambridge, 2015).

Konrad Hirschler, Ph.D.(2003), SOAS, is Professor of Middle Eastern History at Universität Hamburg (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures). He has published extensively on historiography, history of libraries and archives and book history from the Ayyubid period through the twentieth century.