SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Ashrafiya Library Database is a tool enabling users to search the entries contained in the catalogue of the Ashrafiya mausoleum, a late Ayyubid endowment in the heart of Damascus. The catalogue itself was written in the 670s/1270s and is a unique document of a medieval Arabic library. For further information on the library and the catalogue see the monograph Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library. The Ashrafīya Library Catalogue (Konrad Hirschler, Edinburgh University Press, 2016). The ALD contains a total of 2096 entries which are fully searchable for a variety of criteria, such as title (in Arabic/transliteration/translation), author, copyist, language (Arabic or Persian) and whether the manuscript was illustrated. The ALD is hosted by the Khalili Research Centre (Oxford) as part of the Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah-The Literary History of Medicine Project (University of Oxford/University of Warwick).