Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem

Said Aljoumani is Research Associate at Universität Hamburg (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures) and holds a PhD in Library Studies from Cairo University. He is the author of numerous journal articles as well as books in Arabic such as The Oeuvre of Ibn Abd al-Hadi and his Contribution to Preserving Intellectual Heritage (Brill, 2021), The Library of a Madrasa in Aleppo at the End of the Ottoman Era (German Orient Institute Beirut, 2020; awarded the 2021 Book Price of the Middle East Librarians Association) and Syrian Libraries in the Zangid and Ayyubid Era (Damascus: Dar Nur Hawran, 2014). Konrad Hirschler is Professor of Middle Eastern History at Universität Hamburg (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures) and previously held professorships of Middle Eastern History at SOAS (University of London) and Freie Universität Berlin. He is amongst others author of award-winning books such as A Monument to Medieval Syrian Book Culture – The Library of Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī (EUP, 2020), Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library (EUP, 2016), The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices (EUP, 2012) and Medieval Arabic Historiography: Authors as Actors (Routledge, 2006).

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Argument and Historiographical Setting: Books, Documents and Social Practice Part I The Narrative1 Making a Living in Endowments 2 Beyond Endowment 3 Archival Practices and Pragmatic Literacy4 Lists and Inventories: The Sale Booklet’s Documentary Logic 5 The Making and Unmaking of a Prestige Library 6 Book Prices Looking Beyond Jerusalem: The Dynamics of the Written Word and its Materiality Part II The Documents7 Analysis and Edition of the Sale Booklet8 Analysis and Edition of the Documentary Network around the Sale Booklet Appendix 1 Overview of Documents Linked to Burhān al-Dīn’s Life  and Estate Appendix 2 Edition of Sixteen Documents Linked to Burhān al-Dīn’s  Life and Estate Appendix 3 List of Edited Ḥaram al-sharīf DocumentsBibliography General Index Index of Authors in Burhān al-Dīn’s LibraryIndex of Book Titles in Burhān al-Dīn’s LibraryIndex of Buyers in the Auction of Burhān al-Dīn’s EstateIndex of Subjects in Burhān al-Dīn’s LibraryIndex of Objects Other than Books in Burhān al-Dīn’s EstateIndex of Ḥaram al-sharīf Documents

Hirschler and Aljoumani transform a seemingly humble library inventory into a window on a lost written culture - a window that allows us to glimpse a wide network of social exchange. The important findings of this book and the provocative questions it raises will keep historians busy for a long time.