2022 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Learning from Failure: What Happened when Manuscripts in Arabic Script were (not) Cataloged?

Riedel, Dagmar A.

The continuing absence of bibliographic control over manuscripts in Arabic script in European and North American collections deeply affects research in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, because we do not even know what has survived and is accessible in western depositories. Unfortunately, the pressures of competing for grant funding make it strategically unwise to conduct a public post-mortem of those cataloging initiatives that failed to deliver. As there are no publicly accessible results like printed catalogs or library websites to be reviewed, it becomes difficult to understand why seemingly well-designed projects did not thrive. Against this background I will discuss the mixed history of creating finding aids and catalogs for the manuscripts in Arabic script of Columbia University, which their libraries acquired from the 1880s onwards.