Manuscripts

Among the notable manuscripts are:

• The oldest items housed at the library, a Mamluk-era Quran dated to the fourteenth century and an Ethiopian New Testament bound between wooden covers, of similar dates. 

• A collection of 19th and early-20th century Arabic legal documents from Egypt related to issues of marriage, inheritance, etc.

• Arabic and Persian manuscripts on subjects like astrology and poetry.

• An account of the battle of Abukir by French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, and a mid-nineteenth century petition by the descendants of French officer Blanquet du Chayla defending his performance during the hostilities.

• The Iryan Moftah Collection of Coptic Books and Manuscripts, which contains handwritten religious commentaries and Coptic language grammars authored and collected by that nineteenth-century scholar.
   

For guidance, contact our specialists and see visiting and doing research.

Search our collections via the Library Catalog and Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library.