About the Islamic Manuscript Collection

The world-class Islam and Middle East Collection of the National Library of Israel is home to 2,416 Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, dating from the 9th to the 20^th centuries. The largest collection of its kind in Israel, the NLI collection reflects the wisdom, creativity, and diversity of Islamic civilization.

The rich and multifaceted NLI holdings contain manuscripts copied across the Islamic world, spanning all major Islamic disciplines and literary traditions, as well as Christian, Druze, and Baháʼí religious writings. The collection also houses copies of important scientific, mathematical, and medical treatises; lavishly illustrated poems in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish; and legal and commercial documents. Illuminated manuscripts from royal Mamluk, Mughal, and Ottoman libraries; scholarly works copied during or near the lifetimes of their authors; and later autograph copies are among the collection’s particular highlights.

For decades, these manuscripts were overseen by one curator, Ephraim Wust, an outstanding and largely self-taught scholar of Islamic codicology, and viewed by a very small circle of researchers. With the manuscripts’ digitization, these precious items are now accessible by scholars, students, and the public at large.