Islamic manuscripts & rare books

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RBD MS Persian 0028

The Islamic manuscripts at McGill are in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and a few other languages:

• the Arabic manuscripts collection includes 280 codices covering the traditional Islamic disciplines (Qur'ans and Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic Law, Philosophy, Theology (Kalam), Natural History, Medicine, Mathematics, etc.) and a collection of over 200 pieces of Arabic calligraphy. Full list available here: Arabic Manuscripts, Blacker-Wood Rare Collection ; Arabic Manuscripts, Rare Books & Special Collections ; Arabic Manuscripts, Islamic Studies Collection ; Arabic Manuscripts, Osler Library.
• the Persian manuscripts collection is made of 334 codices embracing all aspects of the Islamic culture (Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic Law, Philosophy, Theology (Kalam), History, Literature and Sciences) as well as 81 fragments many containing miniature paintings: Persian Manuscripts, Blacker-Wood Rare Collection ; Persian Manuscripts, Rare Books & Special Collections ; Persian Manuscripts, Islamic Studies Collection ; Persian Manuscripts, Osler Library.
• the Turkish manuscripts collection includes 35 codices covering a wide variety of disciplines such as Sufism, Ethics, Islamic Law, Poetry, Medicine, etc.
• A few Malay, Urdu and Hindustani manuscripts complete the McGill collection.

Islamic manuscripts are preserved in the Rare Books and Special Collections library located on the 4th floor of the McLennan building.

شاہنامۂ اردو / فردوسي - PK6456.5 U73 1800

The Islamic rare books at McGill is made of a number of collections in a variety of Islamic and European languages:

• the Islamic lithographed books collection includes approximately 700 volumes of which 264 in Arabic, and the rest in Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu covering a wide range of literary and scientific topics
• the Islamic Studies Urdu collection includes approximately 3,700 printed volumes, of which 300 lithographed, embracing all aspects of the South-Asian Islamic culture
• the Ibrahim Müteferrika Incunabula collection includes 13 volumes published in Istanbul between 1729 and 1742 covering non-religious disciplines, primarily History and Geography.
• the Islamic Studies European collection includes approximately 1,800 volumes in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, etc.

McGill Islamic rare books are preserved in the Rare Books and Special Collections library located on the 4th floor of the McLennan building.

Suggested fonts for the romanization:

1. Unicode fonts
2. New Times Arabic

A tool for Mac users: The Arabic Macintosh: an informal resource centre

Arabic

• Fuzzy Arabic
• Yamli: smart Arabic keyboard

Persian

• Lexilogos
• Omniglot
• Persian Phonetic Keyboard Layout

• Conversion between Gregorian and Hijri calendars

• Conversion between Gregorian and Shamsi calendars