National Day of United Kingdom

Share this:

2nd June: National Day of United Kingdom

A brief about United Kingdom’s Islamic written heritage

The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies was founded in 1985. It is a registered educational charity and its Patron is His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Among the 106 countries included in the “World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts” (the flagship project undertaken by Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation between the years 1989 – 1994) was United Kingdom .

United Kingdom’s Islamic written heritage was surveyed in 1990, by G. J. Roper and C. H. Bleaney.

This survey brought to light a wealth of information about the Country’s collections of Islamic manuscripts, by indicating: the cities and libraries that hold these manuscripts, the approximate number of manuscripts within each collection, the subjects and languages in which they are written, the conditions in which they are and whether they have been catalogued and studied, the particular significant manuscripts which they contain, etc.

According to this Survey, United Kingdom has just over 44,600 manuscripts, held in 91 libraries (private and institutional). These libraries have mostly been established between 1100 – 1979, and their collections vary between 1 and 23,250 manuscripts.

Source note:
This information was published in the following book:
“World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts” (English version), 1997-2002, Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, London, UK, Vol. 3, pp. 429-534.

Please note that some of the images used in this online version might not be part of the published version of this article within the respective book.

Disclaimer:
The data figures, the names, and other details are reflecting overall those of the time when the Survey was conducted.

Important note:
The Foundation is striving to update these details in progress; and, Your help in this regard would be much appreciated.

Please use the feedback form (below) to send us your comments and feedback.

Feedback Form

We would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, concerns or any problems so we can improve.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Back to Top