Such a surprise 😮 !! An Arabic inscription dated 364/971 (according to the notice) mentioning a man called Hassan b. Ali b. Hunayn as-Siqili (the Sicilian). Found in the in Agrigento’s Cathedral, and today in the Diocesan museum

In our Ottoman Turkish reading group today we came across a fāl-i Qur'ān, a versified guide to doing fāl- a specialized form of prognostication via the Qur'an- with similar exemplars at the end of other Qur'an manuscripts, in Persian and Arabic as well:

Thrilled to share that my first article on Moroccan Qur'an manuscripts has been published in Journal of Islamic Manuscripts! I examine a fascinating dispersed fragment endowed to the Great Mosque of Malaga. brill.com/view/journals/… Feel free to reach out if you want to know more!

I am glad to announce the imminent publication of the new issue of the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts which includes a paper of mine on a second (!!) coded Qur’an ms. Hope you will enjoy the whole issue!

أقدم نسخة من (صحيح البخاريّ) في المكتبة البريطانية، منسوخة في القرن السادس الهجري، وعليها سماعات كثيرة في آخر النسخة. أهديها لكل محبّ للسنة النبوية، ولإمامنا البخاريّ، ولكلّ محبّ للمخطوطات.

Big news from HMML: we've now completed scanning our library of microfilms from Ethiopia (EMML), and the images are available for free viewing in our online Reading Room.

Alexander the Great's tomb? There was a place in Alexandria that the Arabs called “the Mosque of Ḏū ’l-Qarnayn” soon after the seventh-century conquests. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. AD 871) places it “near the lebbeck trees at the imperial market” near one of the city's gates ...

صفة الكويت وطبائع أمرائها وأهلها في رسائل الأديب محمد أمين عالي إلى أبيه الشيخ عبدالله ضياء الدين باش أعيان عام (١٣٣٣هـ = ١٩١٥م) مقالةٌ شرفت بنشرها في العدد ٩١ من مجلة رسالة الكويت الصادرة عن مركز البحوث والدراسات الكويتية (ص١٣-٢٣). #تاريخ_الكويت

Integrating archaeometry and philology to gain deeper insights into a deteriorated, multi-layered Qur’anic codex: Four of our colleagues just published this paper in the European Physical Journal Plus: link.springer.com/article/10.114… Open access!

Out in the reading room recently, Isl Ms 259, manuscript copy of a selection of texts on qirāʼāt with stunning lacquerwork covers. Browse the description and entire manuscript online! hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015… #ManuscriptMonday

Guess where I am now..

I spent hours today visiting the Batha Museum in Fez, which has a magnificent collection of Moroccan artefacts and some very interesting manuscripts...

Se me está hundiendo el corazón viendo esto. Que logren apagarlo pronto y los daños sean lo más mínimos posibles. La Mezquita de Córdoba tiene un valor histórico-cultural incalculable. Me duele el alma ver esto. #MezquitaDeCordoba #Cordoba