The acquisition of a new collection of manuscripts

The acquisition of a new collection of manuscripts of the private library belonging to professor Mohamed El Abed El Fassi 1902-1975, the former curator of Al-Qarawiyyin library.

Recently, the Foundation collection of manuscripts has been enriched by acquiring a set of manuscripts from the private library belonging to professor Mohamed El Abed El Fassi (1902-1975), the former curator of Al-Qarawiyyin library. The collection consists of 51 volumes, including about 105 titles on the subjects of Arab-Islamic culture, and distributed chronologically from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The oldest of these manuscripts is Lisan Al-Din Ibn Al-Khatib’s « Raqm al-hulal fi nazm al-duwal ».

This collection is an important addition to that of Al-Abed Al-Fassi, which the Foundation started acquiring in 1999, thanks to what was gradually presented by the heirs of the professor. The collection has reached the total of 221 volumes, containing more than 600 titles.

In addition to its scientific importance, this collection embodies codecological and palaeographic data (lines, strokes, descriptions…) that form rich « written codes » for understanding the « network » of knowledge transfer and cultural interactions between El Fassi family since the founding of Abi Al-Mahasin Yusef (1530-1604 AD) of his zawiya in Fez.