Al-Budeiri Library () is a small private library and archive located in the Old City of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Its collection includes some 900 manuscripts, dating from as early as the 12th century C.E. The library began as the personal collection of the Jerusalemite

sharif Sharīf or Sherif (, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the fami ...

, Sheikh Mohammad Ibn Budeir Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mahmud Ibn Hubaysh, also known as Ibn al-Hubaysh or Sheikh Budeir (1747–1805). Today, like many of Jerusalem's old family libraries, al-Budeiri seeks to increase scholarly access and awareness of its valuable collection of historical documents through partnerships with international cultural heritage organizations.

History

Al-Budeiri Library sprung from the personal library of an 18th-century

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

scholar, Sheikh Mohamed Ibn Budeir Al Budeiri, a man of faith and knowledge who came from a noble family in Jerusalem that lived in the old city for nine hundred years originally from Hijaz, he studied at

al-Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque (), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic Islamic core of the city. Commissioned as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970, it was the first mosque established in a city that ...

. He also inherited lots of properties from his father and bought many others on his own which shows the great inherited wealth of Al Budeiri and the honorable family status in Jerusalem . Sheikh Mohamed Ibn Budeir began collecting manuscripts at age 15, and he continually added to his library until his death in 1805. For a long period prior to 2003, the library was shuttered and neglected. The Budeiri family renovated with family members fund and re-opened the library in 2003. Since then, the library acquired and repaired an additional 520 manuscripts, solicited mainly from members of the extended Budeiri family. Al-Budeiri Library continues to operate out of the home of Sheikh Mohamed Ibn Budeir Al Budeiri , as specified in his will. The library is open to the public by appointment. Since late 2008, al-Budeiri's collection has been undergoing

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

and

digitization Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ ...

as part of the Manumed Project, itself under the auspices of a collaborative partnership between the European Union-funded program, Euromed Heritage IV, and its local partner, the Arab Studies Society. The collection is now digitized and available for viewing on the website of the

Hill Museum & Manuscript Library The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) is a nonprofit organization that photographs, catalogs, and provides free access to collections of manuscripts located in libraries around the world. HMML prioritizes manuscripts located in regions enda ...

Collection

Al-Budeiri Library's collection includes approximately 900 manuscripts from as early as the 12th century C.E., as well as dozens of printed books from the 20th century, and a host of documents related to the history of the Al Budeiri family, including diaries, personal correspondence, and legal documents dating to the

late Ottoman period The Late Ottoman period (c. 1750 - 1918) is the archaeologically and historically defined periodisation of areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire and its dependencies, primarily in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans ...

. The bulk of the manuscript collection is written in Arabic, though there are a few in

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. A catalog of the library's manuscript holdings was published in 1987; however this does not include the hundreds of manuscripts acquired since the library's post-2003 revitalization. The 636 manuscripts recorded in the 1987 catalog were copied onto 35 mm microfilm. The library management embarked on the creation of a new comprehensive catalog in spring of 2010, concluding work on the draft catalog in January 2011. According to the Palestinian American Research Center, roughly half of the library's manuscripts are well-preserved, with another quarter needing only rebinding, and the remainder in total or partial disrepair. According to the Manumed Project website, Al-Budeiri's manuscript collection includes 6 unique manuscripts−(meaning that there are no other known copies of the work). The collection also includes 18 manuscripts copied by Sheikh Mohamed Ibn Budeir himself. The oldest manuscript in the collection, "The Qasheiri Message," was composed in 1167 C.E. The subject matter of the manuscript collection leans heavily towards

Islamic religion Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious populatio ...

, the Qu'ranic sciences, and Sufism. As part of the Manumed Project, 900 manuscripts were digitized. The files and

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

were to be hosted on an online platform developed by the Manumed Project, called the Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem, as announced by Christopher Graz, project manager of Euromed Heritage IV's regional monitoring and support unit, in June 2012. However, as of January 2015 the Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem still does not exist; instead the files and metadata of al-Budeiri's digitized manuscript collection are accessible through Manumed's Digital Library of the Mediterranean Sea.

References

External links

Virtual Library of the Mediterranean Sea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budeiri Library Libraries in Jerusalem Culture of Palestine (region) Private libraries Libraries established in 1762 1762 establishments in Asia 18th-century establishments in Ottoman Syria

History

Collection

See also

References

External links