EAP1216/1

Mhinni El Barouni Library. Date range note: When the date was unknown, the range 18th-19th century was used for manuscript volumes, since this represents the majority of items in the collection.

Extent: 365 items comprising 301 manuscripts (bound and unbound); 65 lithograph or typset print volumes.

Condition of original material: These responses were based on comparison of the original item with images of items in different conditions.

Custodial history: Many if not most works in the library originally belonged to Saʿīd b. ʿĪsā al-Bārūnī (d.1865), a scholar from the Jabal Nafusa in what is today Libya. He spent several years in Cairo, Egypt, where he collected many of the books in this library and it was through his students, family, and network that he acquired additional manuscript and later lithograph print books. The collection is thus historically linked to the better known "El Barounia" library, also located on the island of Djerba, Tunisia. Unlike that collection, however, it is today in the possession of Shaykh Mhinnī al-Bārūnī.

Arrangement: The collection came to the EAP1216 project team in stages over the course of 2020 and 2021. The original two series (EAP1216_B_1 and EAP1216_B_2) were those planned out from the beginning based on the basic division into manuscript and lithograph print works. The subseries of EAP1216_B_1_A and EAP1216_B_1_B distinguished the arrangement of the library into manuscript works with covers and without covers, respectively. The two additional subseries, EAP1216_B_1_C and EAP1216_B_1_D, had to be created as the al-Bārūnī family provided the team with two additional batches of unbound manuscript fragments stored in blue folders. While there is likely some overlap between these categories (i.e. some fragments are likely original part of the same manuscript book), the team elected to respect the current arrangement of the library by creating these two subseries.

Related place note: Some items in the collection were produced locally while others were produced outside of Djerba, including in places like Cairo, Istanbul, Algiers, or Tunis. In most cases, however, it is difficult to be certain of this. Since all materials are currently located in Djerba, Tunisia is given as the default on the file level. Since all materials are current located in Houmet Souk, Djerba, this is given as the default.

Alternative calendar and date: Alternative Hijri (Islamic) calendar dates were only given when specifically mentioned. In case of ranges, their equivalents in the Hijri calendar are not provided.

Scribe(s): In cases where the copyist of the manuscript appears in the text, it is noted. Otherwise, the default is unknown. "Various" refers to composite manuscript volumes for which there are three or more authors, whose names may or may not be identified.

Publisher(s): Applicable only to printed volumes and only given if the printer is identified in the text.