Thread by @HistorianofIran

In order to get a better understanding of the manuscript trade in (and beyond) Cairo around 1900 and especially of how European libraries got to contain so many Arabic manuscripts, we have to look at the Yahuda family fo Jerusalem.~tw 1/23

https://twitter.com/HistorianofIran/status/1266700825230966788

In particular, the two brothers Isaac Ezekiel (1863-1941) and Abraham Shalom (1877-1951) are central in this regard. Both were scholars of Semitic languages as well as manuscript collectors. At different points both traveled to Germany but neither stayed there.~tw 2/23

I.E., the older brother, first dealt in MSS in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1904 and a member of the German Orientalist Society (DMG). In 1906, he set up his store close to al-Azhar and engaged in scholarship and MS collection until 1920.~tw 3/23
blog.nli.org.il/en/yahuda/

It seems that I.E. Yahuda mostly sold to Western libraries and collectors. Not only manuscripts but also printed works, which often only survive in his copies (e.g. @yalelibrary), as @RaphaelCormack shows I this thread.~tw 4/23

https://twitter.com/RaphaelCormack/status/1252617779221577729?s=20

The @BLAsia_Africa bought its catalogue of the Damascus Public Library from I.E. Yahuda. (@dan_a_lowe's tweet is eve cited in Konrad Hirschler's latest book) His bookshop, in the center of Cairo book culture, was thus providing access for non-locals.
5/

https://twitter.com/dan_a_lowe/status/839870731882233856?s=20

However, more important for the emergence of Western collections of Arabic MSS, I.E.'s brother A.S. Yahuda was much more influential. Regard his quote below in which he describes where he obtained his manuscripts (from: blog.nli.org.il/en/yahuda/)
~tw 6/23

Very late yesterday evening, I came across this exciting publication which is accessible #openaccess until end of June. Unfortunately, I had no time to read those articles in time.~tw 7/23

https://twitter.com/mrustow/status/1266199784723025926?s=20

Instead, I will mostly rely on @eckropf's article on the provenance of 3 Yemeni manuscripts, @UMichLibrary
bought from A.S. Yahuda and the article linked above.~tw 8/23

journals.openedition.org/cmy/1974

A.S. Yahuda was a true polymath, speaking Arabic, Hebrew, German, English, and more. He published his first monograph at age 16 and his first scholarly translation at 18. At this point, he traveled to Germany for his studies at different universities. His doctoral adviser was...

Ignaz Goldziher whose library he would eventually acquire in 1921. Shortly before #WW1 he lectured at the Berlin Higher Institute for Jewish Studies and was appointed as the first professor of Judaic studies in Madrid (1915-1920). An invitation to Hebrew University, Jerusalem,

in 1920 went nowhere and he left the next year. Over the next decade, he moved around between several places, including Jerusalem, Cairo, London, and Heidelberg. He had homes at least in the latter two.~tw 11/23

Although academically he was active in Jewish studies, as an MS collector and trader, he engaged in Arabic and other languages as well. A.S. Yahuda's involvement in the MS trade can be dated to ca. 1920 through the 1940s, starting with Goldziher's books.

https://twitter.com/HistoryCMU/status/1184499691049889792?s=20

Let's see if I can list all the libraries that benefitted from Yahuda's involvement in the manuscript trade (please add in the replies):
@UMichLibrary, @PULibrary, @CBL_Dublin, @britishlibrary, @NLIsrael, U.S. National Library of Medicine.~tw 13/23

We can order those sales/donations chronologically:
ca. 1921: Goldziher's library > @NLIsrael
ca. 1921-24: "about 200 Mss." > @britishlibrary (then still @britishmuseum)
1926: 265 MSS > @UMichLibrary
ca. 1928-29: "numerous" MSS > @CBL_Dublin👇
~tw 14/23

https://twitter.com/CellardEleonore/status/1196844254573813761?s=20

1940-41: ? MSS > U.S. National Library of Medicine
1942: 5,321 MSS > @PULibrary
1951-1967: 1,400 MSS, 1,100 documents, 3,000 letters, rare books, scholarly literature, and personal papers > @NLIsrael
~tw 15/23

A.S. Yahuda's influence on our current knowledge on Arabic literary traditions can thus not be overstated, and his correspondences, in particular, might contain valuable information for #bookhistory and the provenance of MSS and entire MS collections.
~tw 16/23

He is also a controversial figure because those activities were not always entirely legal. Governments in the region also tried to stop the MS trade, as Konrad Hirschler describes re the establishment of the Damascus Public Library. ~tw 17/23

https://twitter.com/MichaelDPress/status/1000728633651138561?s=20

Finally, there is an intriguing connection between A.S. Yahuda and the Photostat used by Aḥmad Taymūr for copying Ibn Ṭūlūn autographs in 1927. You remember the Photostat from earlier?
~tw 18/23

https://twitter.com/HistorianofIran/status/1265555162548101121?s=20

In 1928, Yahuda wrote to Chester Beatty that he had some manuscripts of interest (blog.nli.org.il/en/yahuda/). Were the Ibn Ṭūlūn MSS among those? Several of them were indeed sold to Chester Beatty. So the question is, were they in Yahuda's possession when Taymūr copied them? 19/23

At the very least, it is safe to assume that both knew each other (Taymūr might have been a customer of I.E. Yahuda earlier) and might both have been present when the manuscripts were offered for sale.
If it was, however, Yahuda who first brought the MSS to Cairo, ...
~tw 20/23

this connection would indicate a much more collaborative and cosmopolitan side of the MS trade. Taymūr was given time to select and copy those Ibn Ṭūlūn autographs for Egyptian scholarship before they were offered for sale. And in fact, those copies have circulated much more...

than the actual manuscripts and have been used for a number of editions of Ibn Ṭūlūn works since then (especially after they were reproduced as microfilms).
~tw 22/23

https://twitter.com/HistorianofIran/status/1265625044325224449?s=20

With that, we have come almost full circle from where we started this week. Thanks for indulging my excuses on #bookhistory and #globalbookhistory during this week. If you want more, there will be more @DrWorsTen. For the final day, we'll change the subject (somewhat).
~tw 23/23