The Second Training Course for Cataloguers 29th August - 30th September 1994 - Istanbul

The Second Training Course for Cataloguers (compilers) was held in Istanbul under the supervision of Professor Ihsanoglu and in co-operation with IRCICA and the Suleymaniye Library.  A total of 22 students, mostly from the Asian Muslim Republics and the Balkan region, took up this course.

It is now becoming evident that the skills involed in the cataloguing of manuscripts are gradually disap¬pearing. Traditionally, these skills were passed down from Master to Pupil in the course of an apprentice¬ship, which is becoming increasingly rare. Out of a desire to give young cataloguers the broad cultural and scholarly background, which they often lack as a result of this change, the Chairman envisaged a specialist post-graduate course in the cataloguing of Islamic manuscripts, to be aimed at librarians who have not been specifically trained in the handling of manuscripts. Procedural guidance was sought from the International Advisory Council, and the found¬ations for the Course were laid at a meeting of the Board of Experts at IRCICA, Istanbul.

The Course
The curriculum for the course was designed with the co-operation of IRCICA, the Department of Library Science, Cairo University, and several members of the Foundation's Board of Experts and International Advisory Council.

The course lasted for five weeks and is divided into a theoretical (2 weeks) and a practical (3 weeks weeks) section. in the theoretical section the following topics were covered:

  • The history of Arabic, Turkish and Persian manuscripts.
  • The history of the Islamic manuscript in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and the rest of the world.
  • The history of Arabic-script calligraphy, in its various schools.
  • Materials used in Islamic manuscripts ' (paper, ink, leather, etc.
  • Binding
  • Illumination and aesthetics.
  • The history of the cataloguing of Islamic Manuscripts.
  • References used in the cataloguing of Islamic manuscripts.
  • The history of the major collections.
  • Some thoughts on preservation and conservation.

The practical section of the course was undertaken with the co-operation of a library holding Islamic manuscripts. The participants were able to work with the manuscripts for four hours every day, and with the guidance of an experienced cataloguer went through the process of cataloguing, and exploring the particular difficulties that arose during the work.
The Foundation intends to publish an edited version of the Course Notes as a contribution to the discipline of cataloguin

The Candidates
The Course was advertised in a number of professional journals and letters were sent to libraries with holdings of uncatalogued manuscripts. It was stipulated that candidates should have a degree in Library Science or in Arabic or Islamic Studies. They had to have enough Arabic to be able to follow the course - and, indeed, to catalogue Arabic manuscripts. (This condition was difficult to enforce and was not always fulfilled.)

The Teaching Staff
The Foundation was very fortunate in being able to recruit a core teaching staff of highly qualified and practised professionals to teach this course. Among this staff have been: Professor Ibrahim Chabbuh (Tunisia), Professors Abdel-Sattar al-Halwagi and Nasr Allah Mubashir al- Tarazi (Egypt), Professor Mohammed Bencharifa (Morocco), Professor Qasim al-Samarrai (The Netherlands), Professor Iraj Afshar (Iran), Professor John Hunwick (USA), Professor Yahya al-Sa'ati (Saudi Arabia), Mr Muammer Ulker (Turkey).