Mujam Tarikh al-Turath al-Islami fi Maktabat al-Alam - al-Makhtutat wa al-Matbuat
- Author died
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- Editions
- Dar al-Aqabah
Mujam Tarikh al-Turath al-Islami fi Maktabat al-Alam - al-Makhtutat wa al-Matbuat (Dictionary of the History of Islamic Heritage in the World's Libraries: Manuscripts and Printed Books) is an Arabic bio-bibliographical reference work prepared by Ali Rida Qarah Ballut and Ahmad Turan Qarah Ballut . Completed in 1422 AH (2001 CE), the work indexes Islamic scholarly heritage by documenting authors, their writings in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, and the locations of their manuscript and print copies across libraries worldwide .
Scope and Structure
The authors completed the compilation in Kayseri, Turkey, on 9 Shawwal 1422 AH (24 December 2001 CE) . The dictionary spans six volumes and comprises entries for 11,136 authors, approximately 49,000 works (including books, treatises, poetry collections, and odes), and roughly 350,000 manuscript copies recorded in libraries around the globe .
The sequential numbered entries for authors are distributed across the volumes as follows:
- Volume 1: entries 0001–2065
- Volume 2: entries 2066–4350
- Volume 3: entries 4351–6582
- Volume 4: entries 6583–8132
- Volume 5: entries 8133–11136
- Volume 6: Indexes (al-faharis)
Methodology
Each author entry opens with a sequential code number followed by the author's full name, patronymic, lineage, tribe, kunya, nisba, pen name, poetic talent, legal school (madhhab), spiritual affiliation, place of origin and study, official occupations (such as judgeship, fatwa issuance, teaching, secretarial service, or vizierate), primary field of expertise, and date of death in both the Hijri and Gregorian calendars along with the place of death when known . If the death date is unknown, the entry notes the century in which the author lived or the ruling monarch of that era .
Each biographical notice lists external reference works that documented the author and their titles, such as Kashf al-Zunun by Katib Chelebi, Hadiyyat al-Arifin by Isma'il Pasha al-Baghdadi, Mujam al-Mu'allifin by Umar Rida Kahhala, and al-A'lam by Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli .
Under the section heading "From his compositions" (min تصانيفه), the authors list extant titles alphabetically, recording:
- Full titles and variant titles in parentheses .
- The subject in brief (e.g., Quranic exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence, theology, history, biography, rhetoric, logic, Sufism, geography, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, or music) .
- The language of composition, indicated by the letter (T) for Turkish and (F) for Persian, while Arabic works remain unmarked .
- Dates of composition, translation, or abridgment, alongside stated occasions for writing or dedications to rulers and dignitaries .
- Manuscript repositories, holding library names, shelfmark numbers, folio counts, volume divisions, and copyist dates; if the work has been printed, the publication location and date are supplied .
Commentaries (shuruh), glosses (hawashi), translations, versifications, abridgments, and refutations are given independent entries under their respective creators; if the contributor's identity is anonymous, the title is subsumed under the author of the original base text .
Publication
The first edition of the work was published in 1422 AH (2001 CE) by Dar al-Uqbah in Kayseri, Turkey .
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