Catalogue of the Private Collections of Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library

Summary

This catalogue presents a description of 6993 titles in the manuscript collections of those libraries previously belonging to wealthy individuals, or scholars. Subsequently, these had been added to the manuscript holdings of Dār al-Kutub in the period 1876 – 1934, while preserving the name of the owner and collector. In addition, there are other private libraries that were incorporated in that time into the manuscript general holdings of Dār al-Kutub, without recording their provenance. The private libraries, comprising art collections, catalogued in these eight volumes, belonged to: Mustafā Fāḍil, al-Shinqīṭī, Qawalah, Ḥalīm, Khalīl Agha, Ṭalʿat, and Taymūr Pasha. The manuscripts in this catalogue are diverse, including the Noble Qurʾān and sciences, creed (ʿaqīdah), jurisprudence (fiqh) and legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), fatwā, inheritance rules (farāʾiḍ), prophetic traditions (Ḥadīth) and sciences, Sufism, Arabic grammar, etc.