On Some Manuscripts in the Libraries of Kairouan and Tunis

Abstract

THE Library of the Great Mosque in Kairouan is unique in several respects. Its manuscripts are still preserved in the room of Aglabid construction, attached to the qibla wall, in which the Library was established soon after 400 A.H. 1. Notwithstanding the depredations of time and of men, the Library still contains manuscripts which were deposited there when it was founded. Some of them even were written much earlier and are among the oldest Arabic manuscripts in existence 2. Most of them are written on parchment, and the sheets are sometimes of slightly irregular shape, or pierced by small oval holes, where considerations of economy had made it advisable to use a skin to the largest possible extent. The manuscripts written about the year 400 A.H. often show a feature which was pointed out to me by the Librarian, Sidi Othman Jrad, and which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been identified before: a whole line or part of a line is left empty in the middle of each page. Some of these manuscripts were written by a father for the benefit of his 3, a practice which is first attested by the example of 'Abd Alldh b. 'Abd al-Hakam (d. 27I), who copied the books of Sdfici for himself and for his son 4. Above all, the Library contains an almost incredible number of ancient works of the MMliki school the existence of which has been unknown so far 5; and a number of the manu-