Page 4 - 1..PRESENTATION (ENGLISH)
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5
Biblioteca Islámica Félix María Pareja. But this particular goal was set aside in light of the
surge of online resources, including manuscript digitalizations, that began to be offered by
libraries all over the world. We realized that researchers would be gaining direct access to the
manuscripts they sought, at an earlier or later date depending on the economic situations and
6
cultural priorities of countries that possessed Arabic manuscript collections. In connection with
this goal, the series Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas published its first volume in 1991. Originally a
joint venture of the CSIC and the AECI intended for editions and translations of Andalusi
7
works, it has issued 34 volumes so far. This activity followed a tradition begun by nineteenth-
century Spanish Arabists who sought to gather the materials needed to study the history of al-
8
9
Andalus, a goal which they considered the chief justification for their endeavours. This concern
was of course shared by all researchers of what was then called “Muslim Spain,” a field in which
5 252 manuscripts from the Institut Mauritanien de la Recherche Scientifique (IMRS) were deposited in the same
library; these had been sent to Spain to be catalogued, microfilmed and restored under the auspices of the program
Cooperación Cultural, Educativa y Científica between Spain and Mauritania. See M. Fierro, “Los manuscritos
árabes de Mauritania,” Awrāq 12 (1991), pp. 205-7.
6 One sign of the new interest in Islamic-themed manuscript collections was the publication of G. Roper (ed.), World
Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, vols. I-IV (London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1992-1994). A second
hopeful development was the 2006 founding of The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA), associated with the
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge:
http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/home.aspx
7 Jesús Zanón, “La colección de Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas,” Sharq al-Andalus 9 (1992), pp. 277-82:
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/la-coleccion-de-fuentes-arabicohispanas-0/
8 F. Fernández y González, Plan de una biblioteca de autores árabes españoles o estudios biográficos y
bibliográficos para servir a la historia de la literatura arábiga en España (Madrid, 1861); F. Codera, Catalogue de
quelques livres d’Histoire de Espagne dont on désire l’acquisition ou au moins la connaissance de leur existence
pour en tirer copie (Madrid, 1888); F. Codera, “Anteproyecto de trabajos árabes y publicaciones árabes que la
Academia debiera emprender,” BRAH 16 (1890), repr. in Estudios críticos de Historia árabe-española (Zaragoza-
Madrid, 1903-1917), Colección de Estudios Arabes, vols. VII-IX, vol. IX; “Proyecto de coordinación para la
publicación de manuscritos árabes referentes a la historia de al-Andalus,” BAEO 13 (1977), pp. 252-52 (with a list of
planned editions and re-editions). The famous Misión histórica en Argelia y Túnez was specially planned in order to
obtain those materials; for the occasion, J. Ribera drew up a lithographed list of the works considered most
important based on information from the sources available at the time, and several copies of the list were made. One
of them reached the German scholar G. Kampffmeyer, who mistook it for an ancient source: “Eine alte Liste
arabischer Werke zur Geschichte Spaniens und Nordwestafrikas,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für or. Sprachen,
Westas. Studien 9 (1906), pp. 74-110; he later corrected his error in Mitteilungen des Seminars für or. Sprachen,
Westas. Studien 10 (1907), pp. 296-98, and in OLZ 10 (1907), pp. 38-41. M. Asín Palacios provided an account of
these events in his prologue to J. Ribera, Disertaciones y opúsculos, pp. xxvii-xxviii.
9 On Spanish Arabism see the monographic section “Después del 92: arabistas y estudios árabes,” AQ 13 (1992), pp.
377-503; M. Marín, “Arabismo e historia de España (1886-1944). Introducción a los epistolarios de Julián Ribera
Tarragó y Miguel Asín Palacios,” in M. Marín, C. de la Puente, F. Rodríguez Mediano and J. I. Pérez Alcalde, Los
epistolarios de Julián Ribera Tarragó y Miguel Asín Palacios. Introducción, catálogo e índices (Madrid, 2009), pp.
11-434; M. Marín, “Reflexiones sobre el arabismo español: tradiciones, renovaciones y secuestros,” Hamsa. Journal
of Judaic and Islamic Studies 1 (2014), pp. 1-17.
5
Biblioteca Islámica Félix María Pareja. But this particular goal was set aside in light of the
surge of online resources, including manuscript digitalizations, that began to be offered by
libraries all over the world. We realized that researchers would be gaining direct access to the
manuscripts they sought, at an earlier or later date depending on the economic situations and
6
cultural priorities of countries that possessed Arabic manuscript collections. In connection with
this goal, the series Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas published its first volume in 1991. Originally a
joint venture of the CSIC and the AECI intended for editions and translations of Andalusi
7
works, it has issued 34 volumes so far. This activity followed a tradition begun by nineteenth-
century Spanish Arabists who sought to gather the materials needed to study the history of al-
8
9
Andalus, a goal which they considered the chief justification for their endeavours. This concern
was of course shared by all researchers of what was then called “Muslim Spain,” a field in which
5 252 manuscripts from the Institut Mauritanien de la Recherche Scientifique (IMRS) were deposited in the same
library; these had been sent to Spain to be catalogued, microfilmed and restored under the auspices of the program
Cooperación Cultural, Educativa y Científica between Spain and Mauritania. See M. Fierro, “Los manuscritos
árabes de Mauritania,” Awrāq 12 (1991), pp. 205-7.
6 One sign of the new interest in Islamic-themed manuscript collections was the publication of G. Roper (ed.), World
Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, vols. I-IV (London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1992-1994). A second
hopeful development was the 2006 founding of The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA), associated with the
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge:
http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/home.aspx
7 Jesús Zanón, “La colección de Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas,” Sharq al-Andalus 9 (1992), pp. 277-82:
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/la-coleccion-de-fuentes-arabicohispanas-0/
8 F. Fernández y González, Plan de una biblioteca de autores árabes españoles o estudios biográficos y
bibliográficos para servir a la historia de la literatura arábiga en España (Madrid, 1861); F. Codera, Catalogue de
quelques livres d’Histoire de Espagne dont on désire l’acquisition ou au moins la connaissance de leur existence
pour en tirer copie (Madrid, 1888); F. Codera, “Anteproyecto de trabajos árabes y publicaciones árabes que la
Academia debiera emprender,” BRAH 16 (1890), repr. in Estudios críticos de Historia árabe-española (Zaragoza-
Madrid, 1903-1917), Colección de Estudios Arabes, vols. VII-IX, vol. IX; “Proyecto de coordinación para la
publicación de manuscritos árabes referentes a la historia de al-Andalus,” BAEO 13 (1977), pp. 252-52 (with a list of
planned editions and re-editions). The famous Misión histórica en Argelia y Túnez was specially planned in order to
obtain those materials; for the occasion, J. Ribera drew up a lithographed list of the works considered most
important based on information from the sources available at the time, and several copies of the list were made. One
of them reached the German scholar G. Kampffmeyer, who mistook it for an ancient source: “Eine alte Liste
arabischer Werke zur Geschichte Spaniens und Nordwestafrikas,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für or. Sprachen,
Westas. Studien 9 (1906), pp. 74-110; he later corrected his error in Mitteilungen des Seminars für or. Sprachen,
Westas. Studien 10 (1907), pp. 296-98, and in OLZ 10 (1907), pp. 38-41. M. Asín Palacios provided an account of
these events in his prologue to J. Ribera, Disertaciones y opúsculos, pp. xxvii-xxviii.
9 On Spanish Arabism see the monographic section “Después del 92: arabistas y estudios árabes,” AQ 13 (1992), pp.
377-503; M. Marín, “Arabismo e historia de España (1886-1944). Introducción a los epistolarios de Julián Ribera
Tarragó y Miguel Asín Palacios,” in M. Marín, C. de la Puente, F. Rodríguez Mediano and J. I. Pérez Alcalde, Los
epistolarios de Julián Ribera Tarragó y Miguel Asín Palacios. Introducción, catálogo e índices (Madrid, 2009), pp.
11-434; M. Marín, “Reflexiones sobre el arabismo español: tradiciones, renovaciones y secuestros,” Hamsa. Journal
of Judaic and Islamic Studies 1 (2014), pp. 1-17.
