Arabic language research centres

National Manuscripts Centre

Ministry of Culture and Arts

Inventories, catalogues, collects, restores and digitises Algerian manuscripts, and makes them available to researchers.

Algeria · Adrar

Mauritanian Institute for Research and Training in Heritage and Culture (IMRFPC)

Mauritanian Ministry of Culture

Collects, catalogues and digitises Mauritanian manuscripts, including those of Chinguetti, Ouadane and Tichitt.

Mauritania · Nouakchott

Heritage Library, Qatar National Library

Qatar National Library

Library of rare heritage materials holding over 3,500 manuscripts in Islamic sciences, Arabic and other fields, some digitised for researchers.

Qatar · Doha

National Library of Syria (formerly Al-Assad National Library)

Syrian Ministry of Culture

Keeps Arabic manuscripts, including the Zahiriyya collection, and shares digital images of them with researchers in and outside Syria.

Syria · Damascus

Supreme Council for Heritage Revival, al-Abbas Holy Shrine

Al-Abbas Holy Shrine

Oversees heritage centres in Karbala, Hillah and Basra that edit and publish manuscripts, and issues peer-reviewed heritage journals.

Iraq · Najaf

Beit Al Quran

Museum and research library holding Qur'anic manuscripts from many periods and regions, with rooms for researchers and a school of Qur'anic studies.

Bahrain · Manama

Iraqi House of Manuscripts

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities

Preserves, restores and digitally documents tens of thousands of manuscripts and makes them available to researchers.

Iraq · Baghdad

King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah)

Research foundation on the history of Arabia that collects and restores manuscripts and documents and publishes edited texts.

Saudi Arabia · Riyadh

Imam Zayd bin Ali Cultural Foundation

Collects, digitises and makes available Yemeni manuscripts held in private libraries, and publishes texts from the Zaydi heritage.

Yemen · Sanaa

King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries

Gathers, preserves, digitises and catalogues endowed libraries and their manuscripts, and supports research on editing and publishing manuscripts.

Saudi Arabia · Madinah

Manuscripts Laboratory

Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Algiers 2

Studies Maghrebi manuscripts — their history, cataloguing and preservation — across history, library science, archives and language.

Algeria · Algiers

Laboratory of Algerian Manuscripts in Africa

Ahmed Draia University of Adrar

Inventories, catalogues and studies Algerian manuscripts in Algeria and West Africa, including the Touat manuscripts.

Algeria · Adrar

Raqqada Manuscripts Conservation Laboratory

National Heritage Institute (INP)

Restores and treats the Kairouan parchments and manuscripts, and inventories, catalogues and digitises them.

Tunisia · Raqqada (Kairouan)

Centre de documentation et de recherches arabes chrétiennes (CEDRAC)

Université Saint-Joseph — Faculty of Religious Sciences

Edits and studies Christian Arabic manuscripts, researches the intellectual history of Christian Arabic traditions, and trains researchers.

Lebanon · Beirut

Center of Papyrological Studies and Inscriptions

Faculty of Archaeology, Ain Shams University

Studies papyri, inscriptions and writing across periods, Arabic inscriptions on buildings among them, through a peer-reviewed journal and conferences.

Egypt · Cairo

Centre for Studies, Research and Heritage Revival

Rabita Mohammadia of Ulema

Editing and publishing Moroccan and Arabic manuscripts, and research on the textual heritage and editing methods.

Morocco

Manuscripts Center, Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Studies Arabic-Islamic manuscript heritage through cataloguing and editing, holds conferences and courses, and keeps the Alexandria Municipal Library manuscripts.

Egypt · Alexandria

Centre for Manuscripts, Heritage and Documents

Private centre collecting manuscripts in original and copy, cataloguing them, and publishing catalogues, bibliographies and heritage books.

Kuwait · Kuwait City (Jabriya)

Center for Documents, Manuscripts and Bilad al-Sham Studies

University of Jordan

Preserves, catalogues and opens to researchers manuscripts, documents and Sharia court registers, and publishes studies on Bilad al-Sham.

Jordan · Amman

Heritage Editing Center, Egyptian National Library and Archives

General Egyptian Authority for the National Library and Archives (Dar al-Kutub)

Edits Arabic heritage texts, runs specialised courses in textual editing and has held an annual conference on the field since 2019.

Egypt · Cairo

Juma Al Majid Center for Culture and Heritage

Centre collecting Arabic and Islamic manuscripts in original and copy, cataloguing and restoring them, making them available to researchers and publishing on heritage.

United Arab Emirates · Dubai

Oman Thakira Centre

Scholarly institution for Omani intellectual heritage: collecting, digitising and restoring manuscripts, cataloguing them in Al-Khizana Al-Omaniya, and editing and publishing texts.

Oman

Institute of Arabic Manuscripts

Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)

Catalogues, digitises and conserves Arabic manuscripts, publishes critical editions and library catalogues, and runs training in codicology.

Egypt · Cairo

Institute of Manuscripts and Revival of Islamic Heritage

Umm Al-Qura University

Collects, catalogues, edits and publishes Islamic heritage texts, Arabic-language works among them, and keeps the university's manuscripts.

Saudi Arabia · Makkah

Al-Ahqaf Library of Manuscripts

Preserves, catalogues and opens to researchers Hadrami manuscripts gathered from Tarim family libraries and the Qu'aiti sultan's library.

Yemen · Tarim

Al-Azhar Library

Al-Azhar

Keeps, restores, catalogues and digitises Al-Azhar's manuscripts, and gathers manuscripts from within and beyond the Islamic world.

Egypt · Cairo

Al-Rawda al-Haydariyya Library — Heritage Revival Division

Imam Ali Holy Shrine

Edits and publishes manuscripts, reprints rare books, and catalogues the library's manuscripts and makes them available digitally.

Iraq · Najaf

Oman National Library (successor of the Manuscripts Department)

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth

Preserves, restores and digitises Omani manuscripts, having absorbed the Manuscripts Department that began in 1975 as a collecting body.

Oman · Muscat

Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Bodleian Libraries (Oxford) and Cambridge University Library

Open union catalogue of Islamic and Middle Eastern manuscripts in UK libraries, searchable in Arabic and English.

United Kingdom · Oxford

Section arabe – Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes (IRHT)

CNRS

Studies, catalogues and digitises Arabic manuscripts, incl. French public libraries and Timbuktu collections.

France · Aubervilliers (Paris)

DREAMSEA – Digital Repository of Endangered and Affected Manuscripts in Southeast Asia

PPIM, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, with CSMC, Universität Hamburg

Digitises and catalogues endangered manuscripts in Southeast Asia, including Arabic Islamic manuscripts from pesantren, with open access.

Indonesia · Jakarta

Qalamos – Connecting Manuscript Traditions

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Leipzig University Library

Union portal for metadata and images of Asian and African manuscripts in German institutions, including Arabic.

Germany · Berlin

The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA)

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge

International non-profit association for the preservation, cataloguing and access of Islamic manuscript collections; conferences and workshops.

United Kingdom · Cambridge

SAVAMA-DCI (Sauvegarde et Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la Défense de la Culture Islamique)

Association of private Timbuktu library owners supporting the conservation and cataloguing of their Arabic manuscripts; inventories added to WAAMD.

Mali · Timbuktu

Dairatul Maarif il Osmania

Osmania University, Hyderabad

Edits and publishes Arabic manuscripts in Islamic sciences, philosophy, Sufism and science; about 240 titles in some 800 volumes.

India · Hyderabad

Arewa House – Centre for Historical Documentation and Research

Ahmadu Bello University

Preserves and digitises Nigerian Arabic and Ajami manuscripts; holds about 1,600 manuscripts.

Nigeria · Kaduna

Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı

Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye

Runs manuscript libraries such as Süleymaniye, acquires and preserves manuscripts, and publishes editions, many Arabic.

Türkiye · Istanbul

Oriental Manuscripts Fund, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Dagestan Federal Research Centre RAS

Dagestan Federal Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences

Largest collection of oriental manuscripts in the North Caucasus, mostly Arabic (grammar, lexicography, law, history, medicine), enlarged by field expeditions.

Russia · Makhachkala

Oriental Collections, St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library

National Library of Bulgaria

Holds and catalogues some 3,000 Arabic manuscripts alongside Ottoman and Persian ones; catalogues include one on hadith sciences.

Bulgaria · Sofia

Département des Manuscrits Arabes et Ajami (MARA), Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines (IRSH)

Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni

Collects and studies Arabic and Ajami manuscripts from family libraries; about 4,000 described in an eight-volume catalogue.

Niger · Niamey

Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation – Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts

Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation

Surveys, images, catalogues, edits and publishes Islamic manuscripts, mostly Arabic.

United Kingdom · London

Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI)

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Database of authors, works and manuscript witnesses in the Islamicate exact sciences, mostly in Arabic.

Germany · Berlin

Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)

Saint John's University

Digitises endangered manuscripts, including an Islamic (largely Arabic) manuscripts programme in Mali, Jerusalem and Harar.

United States · Collegeville, Minnesota

Princeton Geniza Lab

Princeton University

Transcribes and catalogues Cairo Geniza documents, mostly in Judaeo-Arabic, in a public database.

United States · Princeton

Islamology Department, Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop (IFAN)

IFAN Cheikh Anta Diop, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar

Holds and studies a manuscript collection, mostly Arabic, with Ajami texts in Pulaar and Wolof.

Senegal · Dakar

Imom Buxoriy xalqaro ilmiy-tadqiqot markazi

Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan

Collects, restores and studies hadith and heritage manuscripts; has a manuscripts department, museum and library.

Uzbekistan · Samarkand

Centre of Arabic Documentation, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Founded by John Hunwick to microfilm, catalogue and study Arabic manuscripts from northern Nigeria; holds Arabic and Ajami collections.

Nigeria · Ibadan

Centre for Islamic Studies, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto

Research on the writings of the Sokoto jihad scholars; collects and microfilms Arabic manuscripts of the Sokoto Caliphate.

Nigeria · Sokoto

Written Heritage Research Center (Mirās-e Maktub)

Edits, publishes and catalogues Arabic and Persian manuscripts and studies codicology.

Iran · Tehran

Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

Universität Hamburg

Research institute for manuscript cultures worldwide, including Arabic and African Ajami manuscripts and Islamic seals.

Germany · Hamburg

Tombouctou Manuscripts Project

Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), University of Cape Town

Studies, translates and digitises Timbuktu's Arabic manuscripts and the history of the book in West Africa.

South Africa · Cape Town

Abu Rayhon Beruniy nomidagi Sharqshunoslik instituti

Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan

Holds, studies and catalogues about 26,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Turkic.

Uzbekistan · Tashkent

Institut des Hautes Études et de Recherche Islamique Ahmed Baba (IHERI-ABT)

Government of Mali

Collects, restores, digitises and studies the Timbuktu manuscripts, trains Arabic teachers, and publishes Revue Sankoré.

Mali · Timbuktu

Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA)

Northwestern University

Scholarship on Islamic learning in Africa; catalogues and translates African Arabic and Ajami manuscripts.

United States · Evanston

AMEA Məhəmməd Füzuli adına Əlyazmalar İnstitutu

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Collects, preserves, catalogues and publishes manuscripts, with a dedicated catalogue of Arabic manuscripts.

Azerbaijan · Baku

Институт восточных рукописей РАН (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS)

Russian Academy of Sciences

Holds and studies a large collection of Oriental manuscripts, including Arabic ones such as an early Qur'an codex.

Russia · St Petersburg

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Arabic Persian Research Institute

Department of Art and Culture, Government of Rajasthan

Preserves, catalogues and publishes handlists and studies of Arabic and Persian manuscripts.

India · Tonk

Gazi Husrev-begova biblioteka

Library holding about 17,000 manuscript works in Arabic, Turkish and Persian; catalogues and publishes studies.

Bosnia and Herzegovina · Sarajevo

Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library

Ministry of Culture, Government of India

Library of about 21,000 manuscripts, half in Arabic; catalogues, digitises and publishes catalogues.

India · Patna

Rampur Raza Library

Ministry of Culture, Government of India

Library of about 17,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and other languages, with a multi-volume Arabic catalogue.

India · Rampur

Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit

Cambridge University Library

Conservation, cataloguing and research of Cairo Genizah fragments, many in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic.

United Kingdom · Cambridge