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44
unexplored; little research has been done, for example, into reading practices, or into the
45
physical format of books, for example their division into sections (ajzā’).
While HATA serves as a guide that allows the researcher a first approach to the
information contained in its sources, it does not replace those sources, which the scholar should
consult directly so as to understand the HATA reference, place it in context and complete it.
Some of these sources have been digitized and are accessible through collections like al-Warrāq
and al-Maktaba al-shāmila. Updated information about collections of this type can be found in
46
the Digital Islamic Humanities Project (Brown University).
To read or consult HATA means to acquire a panoramic view of research conducted by
Spanish Arabists, since these have essentially devoted themselves to al-Andalus. Therefore
abundant references are culled from Spanish periodicals, but also from Arabic ones, since al-
Andalus is naturally viewed with great interest in the Arabic-Islamic world. Perhaps no other
medieval Islamic society has been the object of as many studies as that of al-Andalus; some of
these centre on extremely concrete and detailed issues, yet even now many gaps exist. HATA
aspires to fill some of those gaps.
4. Manuscripts
We have also consulted a great number of catalogues of manuscripts. We have developed
a “catalogue of catalogues” to indicate which ones we have been unable to see and in which ones
we have found no relevant information. The largest number of references has been found,
naturally enough, in those from libraries in North Africa, followed by those in Egypt, Turkey,
Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Many catalogues contain references only to the Andalusi “best-
sellers”: Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyya, a grammatical work in verse (by far the most widely circulated
44 F. Rosenthal, The Technique and Approach of Muslim Scholarship, Analecta Orientalia, 24 (Rome: Pontificium
Institutum Biblicum, 1947); G. Vajda, Les certificats de lecture et de transmission dans les manuscrits arabes de la
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1957); J. Zanón, “Formas de transmisión del saber
islámico a través de la Takmila de Ibn al-Abbar de Valencia (época almohade),” Sharq al-Andalus 9 (1992), pp.129-
49; K. Hirschler, The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands. A Social and Cultural History of Reading
Practices (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).
45 G. Humbert, “Le ǧuz’ dans les manuscrits arabes médiévaux,” in F. Déroche and Y. Richard, Scribes et
manuscrits du Moyen Orient (Paris, 1997), pp. 77-85, and “Copie ‘à la pecia’ à Bagdad au IXe siècle?,” Gazette du
Livre Médiéval 12 (1988), pp. 12-15; Kohlberg, Ibn Ṭāwūs, p. 79.
46 http://islamichumanities.org/resources/
44
unexplored; little research has been done, for example, into reading practices, or into the
45
physical format of books, for example their division into sections (ajzā’).
While HATA serves as a guide that allows the researcher a first approach to the
information contained in its sources, it does not replace those sources, which the scholar should
consult directly so as to understand the HATA reference, place it in context and complete it.
Some of these sources have been digitized and are accessible through collections like al-Warrāq
and al-Maktaba al-shāmila. Updated information about collections of this type can be found in
46
the Digital Islamic Humanities Project (Brown University).
To read or consult HATA means to acquire a panoramic view of research conducted by
Spanish Arabists, since these have essentially devoted themselves to al-Andalus. Therefore
abundant references are culled from Spanish periodicals, but also from Arabic ones, since al-
Andalus is naturally viewed with great interest in the Arabic-Islamic world. Perhaps no other
medieval Islamic society has been the object of as many studies as that of al-Andalus; some of
these centre on extremely concrete and detailed issues, yet even now many gaps exist. HATA
aspires to fill some of those gaps.
4. Manuscripts
We have also consulted a great number of catalogues of manuscripts. We have developed
a “catalogue of catalogues” to indicate which ones we have been unable to see and in which ones
we have found no relevant information. The largest number of references has been found,
naturally enough, in those from libraries in North Africa, followed by those in Egypt, Turkey,
Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Many catalogues contain references only to the Andalusi “best-
sellers”: Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyya, a grammatical work in verse (by far the most widely circulated
44 F. Rosenthal, The Technique and Approach of Muslim Scholarship, Analecta Orientalia, 24 (Rome: Pontificium
Institutum Biblicum, 1947); G. Vajda, Les certificats de lecture et de transmission dans les manuscrits arabes de la
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1957); J. Zanón, “Formas de transmisión del saber
islámico a través de la Takmila de Ibn al-Abbar de Valencia (época almohade),” Sharq al-Andalus 9 (1992), pp.129-
49; K. Hirschler, The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands. A Social and Cultural History of Reading
Practices (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).
45 G. Humbert, “Le ǧuz’ dans les manuscrits arabes médiévaux,” in F. Déroche and Y. Richard, Scribes et
manuscrits du Moyen Orient (Paris, 1997), pp. 77-85, and “Copie ‘à la pecia’ à Bagdad au IXe siècle?,” Gazette du
Livre Médiéval 12 (1988), pp. 12-15; Kohlberg, Ibn Ṭāwūs, p. 79.
46 http://islamichumanities.org/resources/
