Khalidi Library

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Khalidi Library
المكتبة الخالدية
Khalidi Library, 2015
Map
31°46′07″N 35°12′51″E / 31.768519653720578°N 35.21406404958221°E / 31.768519653720578; 35.21406404958221
LocationJerusalem, Israel
Established1900

The Khalidi Library (

Old City of Jerusalem. It was established in 1900, under Ottoman rule.[1]

Location

The Turba Baraka Khan/Khalidi Library is on the south side of the Chain Gate Street (Tariq Bab es-Silsileh); at the junction between this street and Aqabat Abu Madyan street.[2] It is opposite the Kīlāniyya and the Ṭāziyya.[3]

Overview

The Khalidi Library was established c. 1900 as one of

Palestinian literary and historical documents in the Levant built by Palestinians.[5] Today, Khalidi Library holds the largest private collection of manuscripts in Jerusalem.[7][2]

Turba Baraka Khan

The Khalidi Library was and continues to be housed in a

al-Said Barakah. In 1265 a son, Emir Badr al-Din Muhammad Bi received all of the revenues from Deir al-Ghusun from Baibars. This son established a waqf; giving the revenues of Deir al-Ghusun and a mosque and a tomb (turba), now the Khalidi Library, for "the cure of the sick and the preparing of the dead for burial in Jerusalem."[9]

History

Khalidi Library, from the opening c. 1900. From right: Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi, Sheikh Taher al-Jaza’ireh (from Damascus), Sheikh Musa Shafiq al-Khalidi, Sheikh Khalil al-Khalidi, Sheikh Muhammad al-Habbal (from Beirut)[10]

The Khalidi family's long-time prosperity and prominence in

Arab society enabled them to collect and preserve one of the finest private libraries in Palestine.[7] Each generation of Khalidis made contributions to the collection. Sun Allah al-Khalidi, Chief Secretary to the Religious Court of Jerusalem until his death in 1726, was responsible for securing the foundation of the early collection.[5] Shortly before his death, Sun Allah al-Khalidi set up a waqf, bequeathing revenue from his substantial land holdings across Jerusalem to pay for the trusteeship of eighty-five manuscripts in perpetuity.[11] According to Lawrence Conrad, a British historian who catalogued many of the Khalidi's treasures, the Khalidi patriarchs actively built their manuscript collection by bargaining in the medieval literary markets of Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul.[11]

The establishment of the Khalidi Library as a public institution was made possible by a vast sum bequeathed to Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi (1866-1952) by his grandmother, daughter of the

Abbasids in founding a library to spread their wealth of knowledge.[11] The announcement of the public opening of the library emphasized this connection between libraries, cultural progress and prosperity by invoking great libraries of the Hellenic and medieval Arab Mediterranean worlds.[4] The year of the Khalidi's public opening is often cited as 1900, however in a recent study, Conrad suggested that the library may have opened a few years earlier.[12]

The library was among the first non-Western buildings in Palestine to have an exterior sign with text; its original sign announced its name in both French and Arabic as well as the phrase "within are precious books."[6][11]

The library was private in that it was formed, funded and managed by the Khalidi family; however, it was open to the public. The introductory statement in the library's first published catalogue emphasized the library's openness to "any person desiring to read."[6] Books were not allowed to circulate outside of the building.[6] The Khalidi Library operated in this fashion for over half a century. With the death of Shaykh Khalil al-Khalidi in 1941, Ahmed Samih al-Khalidi had help from Stephan Hanna Stephan in managing and copying the collection, before both had to flee the Nakba.[13]

The library survived the turbulence of 1947-1948, during which the contents of many of Jerusalem's Palestinian libraries, both public and private, were transferred to the National Library of Israel.[7][14]

Shortly after the

mutawilla or guardian of the Library, Shlomo Goren, during his time serving as Chief Rabbi of the Military Rabbinate of the IDF, attempted to purchase the property, but was rebuffed by the Khalidi family.[5]

Beginning in 1987, the

folios of manuscripts were discovered in the loft of the library.[15] Renovation and refitting of the library building took place over two periods, 1991–1994 and 1995–1997, and consisted of restoring the Mamluk-era building, building an annex to house Khalidi family archival documents, and installing modern shelving units and furniture.[16]

The Khalidi Library is financially supported by a combination of grants, family contributions, and private donations. Since 1989, the Friends of the Khalidi Library (FKL), a

non-profit organization registered in Massachusetts, has acted as a conduit for this support.[5][17] The FKL's current chair of the board of trustees is Professor Walid Khalidi.[17]

According to the Khalidi Library's website in 2015, the premises were undergoing renovation, and therefore closed to the public.

book-binding, calligraphy, and manuscript restoration aimed at engaging not only academics, but the wider Jerusalem public.[7]

The library opened on 15 December 2018, and is open to the public on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 10.00 to 15.00.[18]

Collection

The Khalidi Library's first

catalogue was published in 1900, shortly after the institution's establishment. This first catalogue is significant for the insight it offers into the scholarly interests and literary tastes of the Palestinian elite at the turn of the 20th century.[6] The Khalidi Library continued in the classical tradition of Islamic learning in its collection of religious works and valuable manuscripts. However, the Khalidi Library departed from classical tradition in its accumulation of works concerning the histories and ideas of Europe, "thereby marking a nascent cultural trend in Palestine," as noted by historian Ami Ayalon.[6]

The original library comprised 2,168 items, of which 1,156 items appeared in the published catalogue and another 1,012 items in an unpublished list.

Orientalists.[6] The collection grew to approximately 4,000 items by 1917, and over 7,000 items by 1936.[6]

The Khalidi Library has the largest private collection of medieval manuscripts in Jerusalem,

Maliki school of Islamic legal thought.[5] Among the most treasured works in the collection are those manuscripts written in the hand of the original author, as opposed to a copyist; these are referred to as umm or "mother," manuscripts.[7] Makrumahs or presentation copies, are another category of treasured works. Makrumahs were often commissioned for royal libraries, and thus demonstrate especially fine craftsmanship. One makrumah is a gilded tribute to Saladin, dated to 1201 and grandiloquently titled The Spacious Lands of Commendations and the Garden of the Glorious and Praiseworthy Deeds Among the Merits of the Victorious King.[5] Approximately half of the manuscript collection is composed of religious works; the other half includes subjects such as disparate as medicine, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. Among the manuscript collection, are documents known as ijazahs, permits to teach a certain subject of Islamic knowledge.[5]

The library's collection also includes correspondence, private papers, and legal documents from generations of the Khalidi family, including Ruhi Khalidi and former Mayor of Jerusalem Yousef Khalidi.[5][20]

The manuscript collection is digitized and available on the website of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.[21]

Catalogues

The Khalidi Library's website hosts scanned copies of five old catalogues, including the original 1900 catalogue, as downloadable

PDF files.[22]

The most recent catalogue was published in 2006 by

online public access catalogue
.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Volgare, Vittoria (May 29, 2017). "The Khalidi Library: A Hidden Gem Preserving Palestinian Identity in Jerusalem". Arab America. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Kuttab, Daoud (January 29, 2021). "A restored Palestinian library in Jerusalem preserves heritage, encourages research". Arab News. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  3. ^ Burgoyne, 1987, p. 109
  4. ^ a b c "Welcome to the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem". Khalidi Library. Friends of the Khalidi Library. 2015. Archived from the original on February 5, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ajami, Jocelyn M. (1993). "Aramco World". A Hidden Treasure. Vol. 44, no. 6. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780292705937
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Khalidi library: Old City, old family, old texts". Prospero. The Economist. December 29, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Moudjir ed-dyn, 1876, p. 161
  9. ^ Burgoyne, 1987, p. 110
  10. ^ Establishment
  11. ^ a b c d Tabar, Sami (May 2011). "Within Are Precious Books". This Week in Palestine. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  12. ISBN 1901435032
    .
  13. ^ Sarah Irving (Spring 2018). "A Young Man of Promise: Finding a Place for Stephan Hanna in the History of Mandate Palestine" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly (73).
  14. ^ Mermelstein, Hannah (Autumn 2011). "Over Due Books: Returning Palestine's "Abandoned Property," of 1948" (PDF). The Jerusalem Quarterly (47). Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  15. ^
    JSTOR 195804
    .
  16. JSTOR 29785725
    .
  17. ^ a b c "Contact Info". Khalidi Library. 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  18. ^ Visits, Khalidi Library
  19. ^ Aslan, Hiba (23 July 2023). "Library restores Palestinian history one manuscript at a time". AFP (via Yahoo). Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  20. ^ "The Khalidi Library". Culture in Crisis. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  21. ^ "Reading Room". Virtual Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.
  22. ^ "Old Catalogues". Khalidi Library. 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  23. ^ "Khalidi Library Services". Khalidi Library. 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2015.

Bibliography

External links

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