Project Overview
Project Description: Moroccan Manuscript Database
The Moroccan Manuscript Database Project aims to list all catalogued Arabic manuscripts in Moroccan libraries, with the aim to expand later into including relevant West African and Iberian collections. It draws substantially on the structure and aims of the West African Arabic Manuscript Database (WAAMD), but in addition to dealing with different collections aspires to add a visual aspect by providing the geographic coordinates of the contributing collections that will allow the presence of individual authors or works to be mapped geographically.
The following are the collections that will initially be targeted for entry and is a list based on the review articles (see here and here) of Jocelyn Hendrickson and Sabahat Adil, invaluable resources that also lay out the challenges of determining the exact contents of Morocco’s libraries (downloadable catalogs from select libraries can be found here) :[1]
1. The Moroccan National Library (Rabat): approximately 34,000 titles.
2. The Hasaniyah (Royal) Library (Rabat): approximately 40,000 titles.
3. The ʿAllal al-Fasi Institute (Rabat): 2,403 titles.
4. The Sbihi Library (Salé): over 2,000 titles.
5. The Qarawiyyīn Library (Fez): approximately 5,600 titles.
6. The Ibn Sūda Library (Fez): 467 volumes.
7. The Library of the Great Mosque of Meknes: 663 titles.
8. The General Library and Archives (Tetouan): 3,500 titles.
9. The Dāwūdiyah Library (Tetouan): 752 titles.
10. The King ʿAbd al-Aziz Al Saʿud Foundation (Casablanca): approximately 1,980 titles.
11. The Ibn Yusūf Library (Marrakesh): approximately 1,840 titles.
12. The Library of the Nasiriyah Zawiya (Tamgrout): 4777 titles.[2]
13. The ʿAbdallah Gannun Foundation (Tangier): 512 volumes.
14. The Waqf Library of the Mosque of Mawlay ʿAbdallah Sharif (Wazzan): 651 titles.
15. The Waqf Library in Asfi: 419 titles.
16. The Waqf Library of the Islamic Institute (Tetouan): 183 titles.
17. The Waqf Library of Zarhun: 169 titles.
18. The Waqf Library of the Islamic Institute (Salé): 149 titles.
19. The Library of the Ḥamziyya-ʿAyyāshiyya Zawiya (south of Midelt): 1,908 titles.[3]
20. The Waqf Library of the Mosque of Essaouira: 126 titles.
21. The Waqf Library of the Great Mosque of Tangier: 115 titles.
22. The Library of the Madrasa of the Qa’id al- ʿAyyadi (Kelaa Sraghna): 85 titles.
23. The Waqf Library of al-Qasr al-Kabir: 22 titles.
24. The Library of the Mausoleum of Sidi Awsidi (Taroudant): 15 titles.
25. The Library of the Regional Council of Scholars of Casablanca: 142 titles.
26. The Library of the Great Mosque of Taza: 840 titles.
27. The Library of Muhammad V University: 395 volumes.
28. The Library of Mohamed Sekkat, University Hassan II, Casablanca: approximately 550 manuscripts.
[1] See Jocelyn Hendrickson, “A Guide to Arabic Manuscript Libraries in Morocco, with Notes on Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Spain,” MELA Notes 81 (2008), 15–88; Jocelyn Hendrickson and Sabahat Adil, “A Guide to Arabic Manuscript Libraries in Morocco: Further Developments,” MELA Notes 86 (2013), 1–19.
[2] For the Nasiriyah Zawiyah, unlike for the other libraries where I have relied on the numbers given by Hendrickson (and Adil), see the new catalog of Ḥamīd Laḥmar, Al-fihris al-waṣfī li-l makhṭūṭāt khizānāt al-zāwiya al-nāṣirīya.
[3] Here I have relied on Ḥamīd Laḥmar, Al-fihris al-waṣfī li-l makhṭūṭāt khizānāt al-zāwiya al-ḥamzīya al-ʿayyāshīya.
Justin K Stearns 