TERMINOLOGY

FOR THE CONSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION OF ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS

• HOME
• INTRODUCTION
• USER'S INSTRUCTION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY & THANKS
• TERMINOLOGY
  • The manuscript
    • Types of Manuscripts
  • The Manuscript Codex
    • Parts and positions
    • Materials
    • Textblock
    • Structure
    • The Binding
    • Textual Indicators, Decorative Forms and Techniques
    • Enclosures
  • Conservation
    • Examination, Condition Issues, Treatment
    • Conservation Materials and Material Chemistry
• BROWSE BY IMAGES
• INDEX OF TERMS

Bibliography

The definitions for the terminology were written by the authors to show how these words are used specifically in their application to Islamic manuscripts. When a source was consulted in the preperation of a specific definition, the citation is given on the page of that definition.

To refine and develop the lay-out of the glossary and its particular point of view, the authors also conculted important sources which cover some of the same material but from a different perspective. These are:

- the Glossary of Bookbinding Terms: "The Language of Bindings Thesaurus" by Ligatus; the hard copy is forthcoming.

- Adam Gacek, "Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers", Leiden: Brill, 2009.

- Denis Muzerelle, "Vocabulaire codicologique du français", Paris: C.E.M.I., 1985.

 

Acknowledgements

The University Library of Leiden (UBL) kindly gave permission to use the images Karin Scheper took of the manuscripts from the Oriental Collections. These images can be recongnised by the preceding UBL Or. and then the classnumber. We are also grateful to other institutions who allowed us the use of images taken by Paul Hepworth: the Mevlana Museum in Konya, the Yusuf Iyilik collection in Istanbul, the Vakif Eserleri Museum in Ankara, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and to Shahrzad Tehrani, who took photographs of manuscripts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Library of Political and International Studies, Iran.

Mojdeh Mohammadi, Senior Librarian & responsible for the Manuscripts Section in The Library of Political and International Studies ( Ministry of Foreign Affairs-IR.IRAN), and Sadra Zekrgoo, University of Melbourne, are in the process of translating the terms and definitions into Persian.

The authors would like to thank those colleagues who kindly read the list of definitions and made useful comments to it: Kristine Rose, John Mumford, Jake Benson, Muhammad Isa Waley and Nicholas Pickwoad.

Finally, the authors are grateful for all the work Femke Prinsen has done to create this website.

 

AUTHORS: PAUL HEPWORTH AND KARIN SCHEPER

webdesign: Femke Prinsen