This study is the first to examine the history and composition of the library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār (d. 1804), the famous governor of northern Palestine in the late eighteenth century, on the basis of the inventory of the library’s holdings. The chapters in the first volume situate the library, one of the largest in Palestinian history prior to the end of the nineteenth century, in its historical context, examine the materiality of the collection based on a study of the extant manuscripts and other historical sources, and analyse the contents of the library. The second volume consists of a facsimile of the inventory, a critical edition and index.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Contributors Introduction: The City, the Endowment and the Manuscripts  Said Aljoumani, Guy Burak and Konrad Hirschler Part1 The History of al-Jazzār, His Library and the Inventory 1 Al-Jazzār’s Library and Its Ottoman Context  Berat Açıl, Nimet İpek and Guy Burak 2 The Inventory: Documentary and Bibliographical Practices in al-Jazzār’s Library  Said Aljoumani 3 From Whom and for Whom? The Audience and Provenance of al-Jazzār’s Manuscripts  Boris Liebrenz 4 Historical Representations of al-Jazzār: ‘Butcher’ or Patron of the Poor?  Feras Krimsti 5 Uncovering al-Jazzār’s Wealth: Confiscation and Power Struggle  Yasin Arslantaş 6 The Library of Abū Nabbūt in Early Nineteenth-century Jaffa  Benedikt Reier 7 A (Mostly) Local Story: The Translocations of al-Jazzār’s Books in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries  Konrad Hirschler Part2 The Materiality of al-Jazzār’s Manuscripts 8 Notes on Materials: How Brief Descriptions Indicate Substantial Losses  Karin Scheper 9 Calligraphic Descriptions  Nimet İpek and Guy Burak 10 The Endowment Seals  Boris Liebrenz 11 By the Keepers’ Hands: Comparing the Inks of Endowment Statements, Mottos and Seals  Claudia Colini and Kyle Ann Huskin Part3 The Intellectual Profile of al-Jazzār’s Library: The Inventory’s Sections 12 The Qurʾan Section (maṣāḥif)  Walid A. Saleh 13 A Foreshadowing: The Qurʾan Commentary Section (tafsīr)  WalidA. Saleh 14 The Recitation Section (qirāʾāt)  ShadyH. Nasser 15 The ḥadīth Section  Garrett Davidson 16 The Section on Islamic Law (fiqh)  Ahmed ElShamsy 17 Books on Islamic Theology (tawḥīd) and Sufism (taṣawwuf): Rational Verification and Experiential Learning in Ottoman Palestine  Hadel Jarada 18 Textbooks of Grammar, Morphology and Lexicography: Cosmopolitan Arabic Philology in Early Nineteenth-century Acre  Christopher Bahl 19 Manuals for Manners: Books on adab  Berat Açıl 20 Logic in the Jazzār Collection (manṭiq)  AsadQ. Ahmed 21 The Poetry Section (al-dawāwīn wa-al-qaṣāʾid): Pedagogy and Devotional Piety  Khalil Sawan 22 The Pasha’s New Clothes: The History Section (tārīkh)  Dana Sajdi 23 Amassing Medicine (ṭibb): Selections from an Ottoman Governor’s Medical Collection  Deborah Schlein 24 The Occult Sciences  Liana Saif 25 A Language-oriented Approach: The Section on Persian and Turkish Books  Berat Açıl Edition of the Inventory  Said Aljoumani Facsimile of the Inventory Index of the Inventory’s Book Titles List of Identified al-Jazzār Manuscripts and Their Current Location