Edward Granville Browne's first Muhammadan MSS catalogue on the world-famous collection of Cambridge University.

Hard truth: an uncatalogued manuscript collection is of little use to the scholar!

Published in 1900, this valuable reference work gives brief descriptions of some 1,422 acquisitions made by Cambridge University. The Hand-List was compiled by Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926), an Orientalist and professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, England. The MSS here described are for the most part in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu or Hindustani, with a few in Pushto, Punjabi, Eastern Turki, etc.

English, fully bookmarked, facsimile PDF eBook, 27 Megabytes, xvii, 440 pages - £4

A HAND-LIST

OF THE

MUHAMMADAN MANUSCRIPTS

INCLUDING ALL THOSE WRITTEN

IN THE ARABIC CHARACTER

PRESERVED IN THE LIBRARIES

OF THE

UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGES

OF CAMBRIDGE

BY EDWARD G. BROWNE

CAMBRIDGE:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1900

From the PREFACE

IN the Introduction to my Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge, published by the University Press in 1896, I traced with some detail the history and growth of this department of our Library from 1625, when the munificence of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, secured for us the precious Erpenius collection, down to the date of publication, since which period we have acquired (mostly by purchase) about 40 MSS. written in the Arabic character … 

The cataloguing of manuscripts, though one of the most useful tasks of the Orientalist, is at the same time one of the most irksome and tedious … I resolved to work up the rough notes of all MSS. written in the Arabic character (whether Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Pashto, Malay or Panjabi) which I had already made when engaged in the construction of my Persian Catalogue, and issue them, in a compact and condensed form, as a Hand-list of Muhammadan Manuscripts which I decided to adopt in the construction of this Hand-list aimed primarily at concision, but proved in practice much more troublesome than I had anticipated. By arranging all the books of which the proper titles could be ascertained in alphabetical order (according to the plan adopted by that great bibliographer Haji Khalifa) it seemed to me that a considerable economy of space might be effected, both by removing the need of a separate Index of titles, and also by avoiding any repetition of the bibliographical refer­ences …

Of course it was evident from the first that there would remain a considerable residue of ""untitled"" MSS … These ""untitled manuscripts"" had, therefore, to be arranged according to subjects (the system employed by Dr Rieu in his British Museum Catalogues being generally followed) in a separate class, which constitutes Part II of this volume.

… The title of this Hand-list, again, is open to criticism, since it includes a good many Christian and some Hindu and Parsi works. The epithet ""Muhammadan"" is, therefore to be understood as meaning ""written wholly or partly in the Arabic character,"" which character is essentially the vehicle of Muhammadan literature … Of all MSS. written with Arabic letters which came within my ken I was bound to take note, but it would have been impossible for me to wade through those written in the Syriac or Hebrew character, on the chance of coming upon Karshuni treatises in the former or Judæo-Persian or Arabic compilations in the latter. I have also included in the Hand-list two MSS. written chiefly in the Pahlavi script (Add. 328 and Add. 329), and one ancient Egyptian fragment (Add. 1859), as well as certain others (e.g. Mm. 4.11 and Mm. 5.26), which, though essentially Muhammadan, are written in Latin or some other Western language …

EDWARD G. BROWNE

CAMBRIDGE,

August 3, 1900.

______________________________________

CONTENTS

Preface – p. vii

Addenda & Corrigenda – p. xviii

Part I: Titled MSS in Alphabetical Order – p. 1

Supplementary list of Titled MSS, acquired too late for insertion in their proper place – p. 250

Part II: Untitled MSS in Order of Subjects – p. 273

I. Jewish & Christian Scriptures, Commentaries, Homilies, Prayers, etc.

i. Books of the Old and New Testaments, and excerpts therefrom Mysticism
ii. Christian Commentaries Ibadi Works
iii. Christian Offices, Liturgies, Homilies, Prayers, etc.
iv. Islamo-Christian Controversy

II. Muhammadan Theology & Law

i. Exegetical and devotional Works
ii. Mysticism
iii. Ritual and Law
iv. Ibadi Works
v. Druze Works

III. History & Biography
IV. Geography & Topography
V. Science
 
i. Philosophy, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Calendars Mysticism
ii. Botany, Medicine and Gastronomy Ibadi Works
iii. Occult Sciences
iv. Philology

a. Dictionaries
b. Grammars
c. Arabic Philology and Proverbs
d. Persian Philology
e. Hindustani Philology
f. Calligraphy

VI. Fermans, Letters, Epistolatory Manuals & State Papers
VII. Poetry & Anthologies
VIII. Stories, Anecdotes, Fables, etc.
IX. MSS of Mixed Contents, Miscellanea, Collectanea etc.
X. Collections of Letters, isolated letters, & fragments

Part III: Class-Marks of all MSS, arranged consecutively – p. 363

Most Recent Acquisitions, acquired too late for description in the Hand-list – p. 397

Index – p. 401