The Golden Age of Islam. 125 New Arabic Manuscripts at Qatar Digital Library

Imran Abdullah

The second phase of the Digitization of Arabic Manuscripts project has been successfully completed. The list currently available to visitors on the Qatar Digital Library website includes 80 Arabic manuscripts digitized in partnership between the British Library and the Qatar Foundation.

During the project, the Arabic scientific manuscripts that preserved the written texts from the ninth to the 18th century, which show the scientific endeavors of the Muslim peoples from Andalusia, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, Anatolia, Iran, Central Asia and India, were numbered.

Arabic Scientific Manuscripts
In the third phase of the project, the Qatari and British libraries continue to digitize the classics of Arab scientific literature, such as Ibn Sina's book "The Law of Medicine" and an eclipse of Ibn al-Haitham. A new collection of 125 Arabic scientific manuscripts, numbered and available Qatar Digital Library site.

The Qatar Library is developing a wide archive of the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and the surrounding region, to be available without restrictions on the Internet for the first time.

The library contains archives, maps, manuscripts, audio recordings and photographs accompanied by articles, explanatory notes and related links in both English and Arabic.

In its presentation of the third phase, the British Library Code stated that the Arabic language continued to be the language of scientific discourse beyond the period of time and geographic range traditionally associated with the so-called "Golden Age of Islam".

The manuscripts of Arab scientific literature have been expanded to include related topics such as animal science, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry and other subjects whose manuscripts have been digitized, published and made available for electronic search on the digital library site.

The third phase of the British Library and Qatar Foundation partnership is currently being finalized in the numbering project, which will include some prominent manuscripts, such as the early versions of the letters of the Safa Brothers, a large guide and an early interpretation of dreams and others.

The Golden Age of Islamic Sciences
In his article entitled The Golden Age of Science in the Islamic World, the Arabic Scientific Manuscripts Officer at the British Library, Pink Halom, says that the golden age of science in the Islamic world is through a series of sciences studied in Arab, Persian, Syriac, Indian and Greek societies.

Halom added that the Islamic lands formed a political unit in which economic and cultural exchange flourished. The traditional barriers between the East and the West were removed and Islam surpassed Alexander the Great's empire. He said that the translation into Arabic played a key role in the cohesion of this new empire and helped to perform its functions properly. .

The British Library has some 15,000 Arabic manuscripts classified in about 14,000 volumes. The collection consists of two historical collections, the manuscripts of the Old British Museum Library and the India Office of the former British Foreign Office.

Due to the British political and commercial interests in the Middle East and the Islamic world, early manuscripts of the Arabic manuscripts and Oriental studies began to be drawn up. The manuscripts began with the efforts of officials, missionaries, researchers, orientalists and travelers to gradually form a collection of the finest manuscripts in the Qur'an, Along with music, history, arts, science, medicine and even archery and interpretation of dreams.