Institute of Arab Manuscripts. 70 years serving the Arab heritage

The Institute of Arab Manuscripts is one of the oldest and largest manuscript research centers in the world and has provided it throughout the 1946 tender process for heritage of Arab manuscripts in terms of collection, maintenance, restoration and cataloging.

History of the institute

The beginning of the work of the Institute was entrusted to the Department of Culture of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, established in 1945, in accordance with the decision of the University No. 39, which created the Institute under the name "Institute of the reinterpretation of the manuscripts", because it is urgent to create an entity or institution in charge of And the restoration and the study of the manuscripts of the Arab heritage.

The Institute continued its work in the Department of Culture of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States until its accession to independence in 1955, on the basis of the memorandum sent by the Director of the Institute to the Secretary General of the Arab League, 1946 as an autonomous institute.

The Institute continued to function independently of the cultural administration until 1969. It then joined the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science in 1970. The Institute was maintained in Cairo until 1979. He then moved to Tunisia for two years. Until 1990, he finally returned to Cairo in 1991 and continues to this day.

Work of the institute

The Institute collects and lists Arabic manuscripts in public and private bookstores, as well as photocopies of the largest number of Arab manuscripts of scientific value, and strives to preserve, restore, maintain and submit manuscripts in a scientific way, as well as to make and publish Arabic manuscripts.

The Institute includes four main sections, the Catalogs section, and places the scientifically illustrated cards in the names of the books, the names of the authors and the subjects.

Department of Photography, and works on photocopying of manuscripts and film processing and reproduction and processing of images and zoom.

Secretarial department and works on the preparation of messages issued and registered and restrict entries and classified, and distribution of publications of the Institute, and finally the department of accounting.

The Institute offers a number of scientific services, including the provision of scientific databases indexed on Arabic manuscripts, the printed Arab heritage database, the database on heritage workers, the database of data from the specialized library of the Institute, the Arabic manuscript database, as well as periodic lectures, cultural forums and specialized workshops.

The Institute also offers a degree in manuscript sciences, as well as training courses in heritage text management, the basics of textual investigation and cataloging of Arabic manuscripts.

In the beginning, manuscripts and documents were collected at the Institute of Arab Manuscripts by sending photographic missions inside and outside the Arab world, which currently relies on exchanges with Egyptian and foreign institutions and cooperates with many organizations working in the field of Arab heritage,, The Egyptian Library, the Juma Al Majid Center, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the King Faisal Islamic Research and Study Center in Saudi Arabia and the Muhammadiyah Scholarly Association in Morocco.

40 thousand Arabic manuscripts at the service of scholars

The Arab Institute of Manuscripts keeps over 40,000 original manuscripts and microfilmed as well as a number of documents, all accessible to researchers for purposes of scientific research.

An example of the documents kept by the Institute: a document between scholars and Haj Ahmad Bay, to present grievances about the parish, its history the first year of 1246 AH, a collection of political documents, a series of letters exchanged between Salim Abdel Hadi in Palestine and the decentralized presidency in Cairo between 1913 and 1914.

The consulate of the Netherlands, the consulate of England, the consulate of Austria, the consulate of the Netherlands, the consulate of Italy, the consulate of Spain and a decree of the governor from Tripoli, Ali Pasha Reza, named Gharqani Sheikh of Tripoli to the West in 1284 AH.

Salman Sultani also appoints Governor Mahmud Nadim Pasha in place of former governor Ahmed Ezzat Pasha in 1276 AH, a group of Royal Fermans dating from 1268-1291 AH and the East Sudan Archives – Tokar , and includes the financing and expenditures of irrigators up to 1309 AH, Mahdia and other important documents.