A Neo-Fatimid treasury of books : Arabic manuscripts among the Alawi Bohras of South Asia / Olly Akkerman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Akkerman, Olly, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manuscripts, Arabic--History.

Manuscripts, Arabic.

Manuscripts, Arabic--India .

India--Gujarat.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 382 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Neo-Fatimid Treasury of Books

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh University Press 2023

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book tells the story of a manuscript repository found all over the pre-modern Muslim world: the khizanat al-kutub, or treasury of books. The focus is on the undisclosed Arabic manuscript culture of a small but vibrant South Asian Shi'i Muslim community, the Bohras. It looks at how books that were once part of one of the biggest imperial book repositories of the medieval Muslim world, the khizanat of the Fatimids of North Africa and Egypt (909CE-1171CE) ended up having a rich social life among the Bohras across the Western Indian Ocean, starting in Yemen and ending in Gujarat. It shows how, under strict conditions of secrecy, and over several centuries, one khizana was turned into another, its manuscripts gaining new meanings in the new social realities in which they were preserved, read, transmitted, venerated and copied into. What emerged was a new distinctive Bohra Ismaili manuscript culture shaped by its local contexts.

Contents:

Frontmatter i

Contents v

Maps and Figures vii

Acknowledgements xii

Notes on Transliteration and Dates xv

Sources xvi

Prologue: Fatimid Encounters across the Indian Ocean xix

Introduction Reading Sijistani in Gujarat: The Bohra Treasury of Books 1

Inside the Treasury of Books: Reflections on the Ethnography of Manuscripts 21

Chapter 1 Community: Introduction to the Alawi Bohras 45

Chapter 2 Treasury of Books 98

Chapter 3 Secret Universe 158

Chapter 4 Manuscript Stories 209

Chapter 5 Materiality of Secrecy 249

Chapter 6 Script and Scribal Politics 300

Conclusion: A Jihad for Books 345

Epilogue: A Case for Social Codicology 351

Glossary 353

Bibliography

359

Index 374.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.