Prophets, Poets & Scholars

Currently, the Leiden University Library is the custodian of the largest Middle Eastern and Islamic cultural collection in the Netherlands, a unique position that is scarcely known to the audience. The year 2024 marks the opening of the new Middle Eastern Library of Leiden University, a purpose-built facility to serve the needs of all those who engage in the study of the Middle East and North Africa from the dawn of history to the present day. To celebrate the occasion, more than 40 authors from Leiden and beyond have contributed to this special volume on the library’s rich and multifaceted Oriental holdings. Topics range from the Ancient Near East to the material and conservational aspects of Oriental manuscripts, and the classical heritage of the Islamicate Middle East in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Persian. Other subjects include Berber languages, Jewish writerly culture in Hebrew and Aramaic, Eastern Christianity, the fascinating but often controversial world of Western Orientalism and the role of modernity in the twentieth-century Middle East. The essays and highlights are enhanced with more than 300 full-colour illustrations.