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RESEARCH LIBRARY – ISLAMIC LAW

– The Library of Professor Baber Johansen (Harvard) –

1,526 titles in 1,826 volumes
Written in the following languages:
- English (40%)
- Arabic (27%)
- French (21%)
- German (10%)
List of titles available in Excel (use blue link below, please)

Baber Johansen (born 1936 in Berlin), one of the world‘s leading scholars of Islamic Law, was Professor of Islamic Religious Studies and Research Professor of Islamic Studies, Harvard Divinity School; Acting Director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School (2006-2010); Director of The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University (2010-2013); Faculty Associate and Executive Committee Member of The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; Professor for Islamic Studies at the F...
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RESEARCH LIBRARY – HISTORY OF BOOK PRINTING IN THE MIDDLE EAST

– Part 2 of the Research Library of Dr. Geoffrey Roper (Cambridge) –

Approx. 140 titles, some multi-volume, in various languages, principally English, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French, German and other European languages. They are mainly on book history with a focus on printing and publishing history in the languages and countries of the Middle East and Islam. The collection also covers the history of book printing in Arabic in other parts of the world. Mostly publications of the last 50 years, but a few are older (19th century).

Pdf-Flyer available for download. (See below!)
Excel list of titles is currently being prepared and available upon request.

Geoffrey Roper, who compiled this collection over decades, was the driving force behind four symposia on the history of printing and publishing in the languages and countries of the Middle East, held in Leipzig, Mainz, Paris, and Alexandria between 2008 and 2011. These symposia aimed to build a body of knowledge and understanding of a hitherto neglected aspect of the intellectual and social history of the Middle East. The starting point of this research project was the thesis that only when a considerable amount of dat...
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REFERENCE LIBRARY – ORIENTAL CARPETS & RUGS

Approximately 400 volumes published between 1902 and 2006 in various European languages (mostly English and German)

This rich reference library on oriental carpets comprises around 400 volumes and is now for sale in its entirety. In addition to numerous handbooks and monographs, this reference collection also contains a range of important exhibition and auction catalogues. Most of the titles contain large-format colour illustrations, maps and tables. The condition is very good. The collection focuses on the varieties, production methods and history of oriental carpets over the centuries. Countries and regions of origin covered are Pe...
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Risale-i kürre-i suri-i ufkî beyanı zat-ul kürsî'üddânî [Statement of the length of the horizon line of the celestial sphere and the statement of the earth sphere below]

Naskhī, title illuminated. Illustrations.
Unfinished copy without colophon.
Probably second half of the 18th or early 19th century.
22 leaves at 17 lines 
23,3 x 16.5 cm

Beautiful Ottoman-style leather binding with decorative stamps Astronomical text by an unidentified author. Special focus the topic “armillary sphere” (ẕāt-i kürsī-i ṣanāʿī). The images – e.g., the perspective view – show very likely an impact of Müteferrika’s Cihānnümā or European astronomical illustration. Probably second half of the 18th or early 19th century....
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Observations of the Movements of Sun and Stars during the year 1287 H. [1870 AD] for Submission to the Sultan.

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
54 pp., c. 16.5 x c. 10.5 cm
in acid-free cardboard box, includes original leather covers.

Restored in museum quality: Cleaning of surface, some pages stabilised with coated Japanese paper, glued by using alcohol.
Window fold for individual sheets

Müneccimbaşı / Chief Astronomer of Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876) –

...
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Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ (2 volumes)

Fluent naskhī Manuscript in Arabic, no vowel signs.
Copist Muḥammad ibn al-ʿālim Ḥasan ibn al-ʿālim ʿAbdullāh ibn al-ʿālim Ibrāhīm 1276 H (1859 AD)
Vol. 1: 414 leaves,
Vol. 2: 415 leaves at 20 lines each
22 x 17.5 cm Leather covers with flaps

al-Fīrūzābādī [al-Fayrūzābādī], Abū Ṭāhir Majd ad-dīn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb (1329–1414 H) –

One of the most widely spread Arabic dictionaries in the 15th-19th centuries. Manuscript has a lot of users notes in Ottoman-Turkish from the 19th and 20th centuries, e.g. death or birth of persons related to the owner, date of the enthroning of Sultan Meḥmed Reşād (r. 1909-1918). al-Fīrūzābādī, a Persian-born lexicographer who was long resident in Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem before he settled in Mecca. The first volume includes a colophon giving the name of the copyist, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿālim Ḥasan ibn al-ʿālim ʿAbdu...
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Mukhtaṣar Manāsik

Elegant naskhī script in Ottoman Turkish without illumination.
Dated 1125 H / 1713 AD
37 leaves at 21 lines
22 x 15.5 cm
Carton binding

el-Ḥācc Şevkī Süleymām Meḥmed –

Ottoman-Turkish translation and adaptation of a very widespread work describing the rites of the pilgrimage (ḥajj orʿumra) in detail. It is authored by a certain el-Ḥācc Şevkī Süleymām Meḥmed. The manuscript includes the colophon of the author’s copy, but it might as well be a later copy that is based on the author’s copy dating 1 Jumādhā II 1125 h. (waqaʿa al-farāgh bi-yadd muʾallifihi al-faqīr Sulaymān b. Muḥammad ash-shahīr bi-al-Shawkī ghurra Jumādhā al-ākhir li-sana khamsa wa-ʿashrīn wa-miʾā wa-alf)....
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Ṣiḥḥat-ābād

Elegant naskhī script in Ottoman Turkish.
Plain but appealing illumination.
24 leaves at 11 lines
24 x 13.5 cm,
Ottoman-style leather binding with flap

ʿOsmānzāde Aḥmed [Tāʾib] –

At the beginning of the 18th century, various poets in Istanbul wrote poems with titles such as Ṣıḥḥatnāme or Ṣıḥḥat-ābād, in which they refer to Sultan Ahmed III's (r. 1703-1730 AD) fight against smallpox. The present work was written by ʿOs̱mānzāde Aḥmed [Tāʾib] in a mixture of prose and poetry (cf. Talât Sait Halman et al., Türk Edebiyati Tarihi, II, 459). The manuscript includes two colophons: 1. the colophon of the authors copy by Aḥmad b. ʿOs̱mān el-müderris, first decade of first decade of Rebīʿ el-āḫir 1120 H...
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Tārīḫ Nādirī (Ottoman History during the years 1182-1190 H [1768-1776 AD])

Later additions on the last folios, concerning political events in the 1220s and 30s H.

es-Seyyid el-Hācc Yūsuf-i Nādirī –

Sketch of a tuġra [Sultan Maḥmūd II.?], probably by other author and in different script with mentioning of 27 Safar 1238 H. as date [1822 AD]. Pencil note indicating that the text concerns the reign of the Grand Vizier Musḥsinzāde Meḥmed Paşa....
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Ḥilye-i Ḫāḳānī – About the physiognomy of the Prophet

Manuscript in Ottoman-Turkish. Nasḫī.
23 fol.
No date, approximately second half of 18th century
Contemporary binding

Haqani –

Illumination of the title, citations from al-Shāmāʾil in red Famous and widely read poem by the Ottoman-Turkish poet Ḫāḳānī (d. 1015 H/1606 AD) describing the physiognomy of the prophet Muḥammad. Based on al-Shaqāʾiq al-Nabawiyya by the ḥadīth scholar al-Tirmidhī. Owner’s seal by a certain ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ dated 1197 H. [1782 AD] (“hüve ‘l-Ḫallāḳ - ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ 1197”). Later added on the last folio are instruction and recommendation about how to pray....
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Yâdigâr-i Ibn-i şerif

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Derviş bin Ahmed in Istanbul
8th Rebiülevvel 986 H [1570 AD]
185 leaves (370 pages )
14 x 21 cm, old leather binding

Tabib Ibn-i şerif –

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish Copied by Derviş bin Ahmed in Istanbul 8th Rebiülevvel 986 H [1570 AD] 185 leaves (370 pages) 14 x 21 cm, old leather binding Many handwritten notes of the time in the margins Yâdigâr is one of the oldest medicine books written in Ottoman Turkish. Ibn-i Serif was interested in and practiced medicine from his youth. He studied medical books written in Arabic and Persian to gain knowledge and described his work as collecting pearls from seas. After finishing his book between 1421 and 1428, he...
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Three Manuscripts (1) Kifāyat al-waqt li-maʿrifat al-dāʾir wa- faḍlihi wa-ʾl-samt. (2) Tashil al-miqat (3) Faraḥ Fazā

Three Manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish Bound in 1 Volume
Copied by Abdullah Seyyid Feyzullah b. Ahmad in 1166 H [1752 A.D.]
70 fol.,
20 x 13 cm.
Cardboard cover with leather spine

Mustafa ibn Ali al-Muwaqqit, died 978 [1571] –

ad (1): Kifāyat al-waqt li-maʿrifat al-dāʾir wa- faḍlihi wa-ʾl-samt, also known as Risāla fī al-muqanṭarāt, 936 H [1529 AD] written in Ottoman Turkish; it deals with various aspects of geometry, trigonometry and astronomy and also mentions an astronomical instrument called rubʿ al-muqanṭarāt (astrolabe quadrant). ad (2): Tashil al-miqat, written in Ottoman Turkish in 936 H. [1529 AD ], deals with the science of time measurement and the sine quadrant (al-rub' al-mujayyab). ad (3): Faraḥ Fazā, dedicated to the Grand Vi...
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Müntehab-ı Şifâ (Selected Writings on Health)

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied 990 [1582]
623 pp., 20 x 15 cm

Celâleddin Hızır Hekim Haci Pasa, • 740 - 827 [1339 - 1424] –

One of the very early medical works in the Ottoman Empire which consists of three parts: Basic information on healthy living, nutrition, sex; production of medicines (pharmacy); diseases and their treatment. In Turkish medical history, Hekim Haci Pasa is one of the outstanding physicians of the period of Anatolian Principalities. Some refer to him as Ibn Sina of Anatolia. After completing his primary education in Konya, he went to Cairo, the center of learning at the time. Due to a severe illness during his school years in C...
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ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN USBEKISTAN c. 1930

Lot of 15 Photographs taken in Samarkand, Bukhara, and Taschkent
Picture size between 8 x 11.1 cm and 16.5 x 12 cm
Package of original photos and digital files
c. 1930

Very rare photos from Usbekistan –

Rare pictures from architectural sites in Samarkand, Taschkent and Bukhara such as the Madrasah at Registan square in Samarkand or the mosque in Bukhara. Some pictures present stamps in Cyrillic in verso so they are possibly Russian press photos.  The collection is conservationally processed for archival purposes and is stored in PAT material (photographic activity tested):  - Original photos mounted on carton (acid-free, unbuffered, PAT) - Each photo in acid-free sleeve (PAT) - Stored in photographic archive boxes (a...
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CAIRO AND SUEZ CANAL FROM THE AIR in 1925/26

Collection of 23 vintage prints, half of them aerial photographs
Picture sizes around 11 x 17 cm
Package of original photos and digital files
1925/26

Rare aerial shots –

What makes this collection of 23 images from 1925/1926 special are the 12 aerial photographs of, among others, Cairo, Ismailia, the Walda Palace, Port Suez and Port Said. These images paint a very clear picture of the situation in the country at the time.  The collection is conservationally processed for archival purposes and is stored in PAT material (photographic activity tested):  - Original photos mounted on carton (acid-free, unbuffered, PAT)  - Each photo in acid-free sleeve (PAT)  - Stored in photographic archi...
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BAALBEK, DAMASCUS, TRIPOLI IN 1932

Private Album of French Army Officer with 99 vintage prints
Size: 24 x 18 cm
Package of original photos and digital files
1932

The album contains 99 pictures which, in addition to illustrative scenes from army and camp life, mainly contain impressions of excursions to Baalbek, Damascus and Tripoli with numerous details. The unknown photographer seems to have had a keen interest in archaeological sites. For cataloguing and digital availability, the album is offered with an electronic inventory in Excel and/or pdf format and a digital reproduction of each motif in high resolution (approx. 2 MB per item)....
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GRANDE TOUR AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN: Gibraltar, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Malta

Collection of 37 vintage prints by Lehnert & Landrock
Taken between 1910 and 1930.
Size of photos: 17 x 12.8 cm
Package of original photos and digital files
c.1910-1930

Lehnert & Landrock –

This very well preserved collection of 41 vintage prints by the famous photographers Lehnert & Landrock covers many well-known sujets in the Mediterranean.  Lehnert & Landrock was based in Tunis before WW I and moved to Cairo after the war. The foremost interests of Lehnert and Landrock were in the Maghreb and North Africa. However they covered the whole range of sites in southern Europe and around the Mediterranean. The collection is conservationally processed for archival purposes and is stored in PAT mater...
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ALGERIA IN THE 1880s

Photos taken in Stora, Biskra, Tlemcen, Mansoura, Algiers, and Tunis
55 Albumen Prints in Album (36 x 26.5 cm)
Picture size c. 17 x 28 cm
Package of original photos and digital files
1880s

This well preserved heavy album with 55 mainly private albumen prints covers among others sujets at Tlemcen, Biskra, Algiers and in the countryside.  The photographer had a good eye for composition and framing and a special interest in some unusual subjects such as the Trappist monastery in Staouli or the house of Lady Tennison, who was an English painter and well-known traveller. For cataloguing and digital availability, the album is offered with an electronic inventory in Excel and/or pdf format and a digital reprod...
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