Eleazar Birnbaum began studying Arabic in 1947 at the age of 17, later followed by Turkish and Persian, all at the University of London. He has been an Islamics librarian at the Universities of Durham (England) and Michigan. Since 1964 he has been Professor (now Emeritus) of Turkish Studies at the University of Toronto. Among his recent publications is a catalogue of his own collection of Ottoman Turkish manuscripts: Ottoman Turkish and Çaĝatay MSS in Canada. A Union Catalogue of the Four Collections (Brill, 2015).

• List of IllustrationsCatalogueArabic ManuscriptsIntroduction to the Arabic ManuscriptsA GeographyB Language and LexicographyC Literature: PoetryD Literature: ProseE QurʾānF TafsīrG Islām: Other (Ḥadīth, ʿAqāʾid, Fiqh, Fatwā, Eschatology, Prayer, etc.)H SufismI DruzeJ EthicsK Encyclopedic; Sciences and Pseudosciences; Medicine; MixedL IjāzaM CalligraphyN Persian PhilologyPersian ManuscriptsIntroduction to the Persian ManuscriptsA HistoryB LiteratureC Islam; ReligionD EthicsE Language, Lexicography, and ProsodyF EncyclopediaG AstrologyH DocumentI Addendum: [Majmūʿa]Bibliography and SiglaArabic Manuscripts: Author IndexArabic Manuscripts: Title IndexConcordance of Arabic ManuscriptsPersian Manuscripts: Author IndexPersian Manuscripts: Title IndexConcordance of Persian Manuscripts