2016/01/01 by John-Paul Ghobrial · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Hispanic-African Historical Relations
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pastj/gtw023
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Among the Arabic manuscripts preserved today in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, MS 13 stands as a witness to the contributions made by Ottoman subjects to the development of early modern orientalism. Catalogued in 1889 by the Spanish historian and orientalist Francisco Guillén Robles, the work is a copy of the Kitāb al- ḥulla al-siyarā’, a biographical dictionary by the medieval Andalusian scholar Ibn al-Abbār (d. 1260). We learn something interesting about the history of this manuscript on the last folio where an Arabic colophon reveals that the copy had been ‘completed by the hand of the presbyter Būlus, son of Ilyās al-Haddār of Laodicea, of the Maronite nation, on 22 April 1765’. Colophons, short passages inscribed by a copyist at the end of a manuscript that present the circumstances of the manuscript’s completion, often end with such information. However, the scribe of MS 13 also included a further detail for anyone likely to cast their eyes on the manuscript. Let it be known to all that this manuscript and many others, copied by my own hand, have not yet been catalogued for reasons that are unnecessary to relate. But if God had willed it that I could remain in this country, I would not cease until I had catalogued every last manuscript here. However it seems that my stay here is not secure, owing to my indiscretions and my lack of correspondents.1 Three individuals, three marginal notes — yet we would know nothing at all about the scribe of MS 13 and his ‘indiscretions’ were it not for the fact that the Biblioteca Nacional also preserves an archive of records pertaining to all of its employees. Here, in a file related to the Arabic scribe, we learn that al-Haddār was banished from Spain in 1779 after having been found guilty of a fraud involving a circle of Eastern Christians with links to the library.3 The affair involved a document forged by al-Haddār, which purported to be a letter from the Patriarch of Antioch recommending that one of al-Haddār’s friends be issued with a licence to collect alms in the New World. Driven out of Spain, al-Haddār took refuge in Portugal where he was appointed to a lectureship in Arabic and Syriac. Even today, al-Haddār is regarded as one of the early founders of Portuguese orientalism, although it is unclear whether his contemporaries at Coimbra ever knew of the scandal that brought an end to his decade-long career as a record-keeper in Madrid.4 Scribe, migrant, record-keeper, orientalist and suspected forger, the career of Būlus al-Haddār captures many of the themes raised in this essay: the contributions of informants and experts from the Ottoman world to the development of manuscript collections in Europe; the importance of archives and libraries in wider social histories of migration and mobility; and the potential overlap between the practice of record-keeping and the act of recording the self. Clearly, the margins of oriental manuscripts tell stories about the archive of orientalism and the circumstances of its production. Nevertheless, colophons in oriental collections in Europe have rarely been the subject of any systematic study. Instead, scholars have tended to focus on the content of oriental manuscripts and how they contributed to developments in European scientific, historical and religious thought. The reason is not surprising: the sheer size and distribution of such sources, scattered as they are across thousands of manuscripts in dozens of archives — and not easily susceptible to the technology of scanning and text recognition that has revolutionized the study of early modern Europe — makes for a formidable task. Even so, al-Haddār’s colophon reveals just how valuable are such small details when it comes to reconstructing the social history of the earliest oriental collections in Europe, not to mention the record-keepers who copied, translated and managed these collections. Indeed, a social history of oriental manuscript collections promises to transform our understanding of orientalism. Long the preserve of intellectual historians, the study of early modern orientalism traditionally has focused on ‘knowledge of the East’ as it developed among a circle of scholars based in European universities and centres of learning. Often told as a story of European curiosity and its extension to the distant shores of the Mediterranean, it has also been a story of adventurers: triumphant monarchs such as Louis XIV or enterprising companies such as the Dutch East India Company and their collaboration with antiquaries and explorers in pursuit of manuscripts and antiquities. In recent years, however, the study of orientalism has experienced something of a major transformation in at least three important ways. Firstly, where the historiography has tended to focus on printed works, recent approaches have paid more attention to the importance of manuscripts in the study of the East.5 Secondly, there has been an expansion in the range of actors considered to be involved in orientalism. Merchants, chaplains, informants, agents and a host of intermediaries have complemented the earlier study of orientalists and their libraries.6 Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there has been a dynamic reassessment of the social spaces of orientalism. Historians now recognize that knowledge of the East circulated far beyond the confines of universities and libraries and in myriad forms ranging from language study in secondary schools to popular ethnographies of the East to vernacular translations of the Qur’ān.7 Drawing on the momentum of these developments, this essay engages with a wide variety of issues broadly related to record-keeping in order to explore how the social history of archives might contribute to a reassessment of early modern orientalism. It does so by focusing on the people and practices that lurked beneath the development of oriental manuscript collections in Europe. In particular, the focus here is on the ways in which these collections were shaped by individuals, traditions and practices based in the Ottoman Empire. Part I explores the mechanics behind this process: oriental collections in Europe were built around the inheritance of Ottoman family archives, pieced together with the help of Ottoman agents, interpreted according to the tools of Ottoman scribal and bibliographic traditions, and assembled from new, original and sometimes forged by Ottoman subjects in Europe. In this the social history of archives to beyond the of orientalism as a from the and of European and a of it as a of in with the Ottoman In I focus on the raised by the of oriental manuscripts in Europe, and the contributions of one of Eastern in to Finally, in I a ways in which these collections also contribute to our understanding of wider in social such as al-Haddār who had their in and record-keeping at least one of it a to the and often that they out for in Europe. The they behind of their — scattered today across the manuscripts on which they — a the of a of in Europe about we would know The of in oriental was a of to more just scholars and in Europe. in could in his of the to having in among of and issued by Ottoman which he to his in and in a of the orientalist would how of these something to of manuscripts among and Long the early modern in the of a early modern their own of how the of manuscripts Europe to the In to his how he had the stories of and in an Arabic manuscript in a in we such were in the of Spain, by a — a popular work that circulated in and in the — purported to be the translations of a of Arabic by an Ottoman and in a in regarded as fact or such stories the of oriental in Europe, at least in the of We lack a of how oriental manuscript collections developed across Europe in this and how this from one of Europe to Even so, it is that the early development of oriental collections in Europe something to of and many of which in and circumstances such as in the of and In for a Spanish the of a that a of earlier had a of manuscripts to the of manuscripts were in the the of one of collections of Arabic The an of with that had in for with the of by European in the of and with the Ottoman Empire. the that the from the for manuscripts were sometimes and they might a wide of ranging from to to in and Dutch could in their own archives collections of Ottoman and that had been assembled by collections are to be in any systematic they the to which the earliest of oriental manuscripts in Europe was as a of European in the East as it was a of more such as and such collections of the the of and systematic by and to collect and manuscripts from the Ottoman to Europe. and a as that the of oriental manuscripts to Europe. of the earliest Arabic manuscripts in for were by a to the Company who on his in and to manuscripts after his to in the pursuit of a archive as in the of the of about the East as the in the of one to the East of all its manuscripts and of the earliest oriental manuscripts by the in the of agents such as and The of these complemented out on a by based at European and in the Ottoman Empire. his as Dutch in for assembled one of the collections of oriental manuscripts of his which today a of the of oriental manuscripts at the of The importance of the is in the fact that of the earliest to Arabic manuscripts also took in this Indeed, the development of we would today the of manuscript collections included on Arabic these further attention as they the development of oriental collections in Europe in their is when these early however, is just how the of these collections to and practices based in the Ottoman Empire. In most it if not to how any manuscript made its from the copyist who it in the Ottoman to its in a European a host of related to the social history of these collections how to the Ottoman their who in this and how they know they were to these are by the fact that in their own European the contributions of the Ottoman agents and informants who the the help of a Maronite his across the and his is ever in of his work has been in this however, the importance of Arabic in of these in is study of the and manuscripts of which has how in the on the of a of agents and experts based in most a scholar known as had a of manuscripts also as an and who of the most popular among Ottoman scholars in for and such behind the in the development of Arabic manuscript in history of orientalism that such and European collections the of agents and in the Ottoman they were also shaped by practices of and in the Ottoman European collections were built as around the of manuscripts as of manuscript family archives and are in In a of the Dutch for managed to the libraries of Ottoman he had known in among that of the scholar and Even collections were built around the libraries of the in a of Arabic manuscripts that to an from In Ottoman subjects to Europe their libraries with as was the in when the Patriarch of brought his of manuscripts with to In this oriental manuscript collections in Europe the of Ottoman and the was that they to the archives and libraries of and the history of archives in the East is in its is is that oriental collections in Europe were shaped in ways by practices that had a of their own in the Ottoman is of the potential of collaboration between European and in Arabic the history of orientalism has tended to the study of manuscript of or is perhaps most about this is just how wide a of found its oriental collections in important subject is the in which this out of the religious and of the The a in Eastern not least the practices and of the Eastern could and in between and Among the earliest in European we an of in the of such as notes on to of and of by Eastern and for about the of the Eastern around the of such as of It is interesting to how such that were in the act of an archive of Eastern which today how study the history of the in the these were of such importance that the scholar a Maronite from to a and of in his The sheer size of work — which was in in folio — the and of the as early as the Even today, the of medieval and early modern that have not by the of or the of monarchs and this was a which Europe was to a wide range of from the Ottoman in by a of European of such a of — not in the of record-keeping also in all the related practices of perhaps most importantly, the of a manuscript. The of these Eastern a host of who would and these might they be copied, and could and these who could the the In a wide range of the to with such European to and European who had in the Ottoman But among such Eastern Christians were to the by Arabic manuscripts in European collections. is perhaps of the earliest of Arabic manuscripts were by Eastern early also the of Eastern Christians in Europe as of a wider of and in this an Eastern to Europe, record-keeping one of a range of to with the of they the most important of these was the of and oriental as at the of and as in with small of a in is from the three of his between a range of in libraries and universities in and however, their in Būlus al-Haddār had a as a to in and a Maronite of in the of had to in would focus on as was the with a from who in in and the three of his in to the and in the of these were and an might and between in the of a was the with a from who was the to in in the not from work in the as the of oriental in the Spanish with a range of out by Eastern Christians in early modern Europe. Even so, there are reasons to that record-keeping was a of to Eastern In the this was Eastern Christians had links to the manuscript traditions that in this It is that by the the of early orientalists had a more of for the of a scholar such as in history and Arabic Nevertheless, this was also a of in the and history of the a of history in he was to his contemporaries a major work of Arabic history by a Eastern Christians such Arabic traditions, and the libraries of their such is one reason they were to in Arabic In for the the help of the Maronite on a to collect Arabic and manuscripts from the of the East in his the for It was after he had found refuge with a who that was with the help of the to the manuscripts he was with such on the of the not although his in the history of the development of oriental collections in Europe might the of today, we not that contemporaries might have been by his in the of manuscript collections from the — the of manuscripts in European libraries and their from the libraries of in the East — were of the that Eastern Christians was that many of who to Europe had and with had as with in the Ottoman Empire. the content of this an important subject for further it is that Eastern Christians who had with to Europe not with knowledge of Eastern — and — also European and study in European such as the Maronite of would to their of this their of in Europe. Indeed, there is to that the of Eastern Christians out for by in the Ottoman Empire. the Maronite the that he could a for in one of Louis in an that he had been to from to Europe by promises made to by the is a to the to which on from Eastern at least as in Arabic the importance of when it to the often these in European In this was Eastern Christians had to with forms of as from as from Eastern In Spain, for of the family the of Arabic in the for after their from in the The of the family until the from in of a Maronite who had at the Maronite and was by a of a the were from their and and his were in of the after in in European present in Arabic is the that Eastern Christians with orientalists for such after his in that the of the of the had been involved in a to to it had that would be appointed to a in the that he for It is to know to of such they are a of the potential for that between Eastern Christians and the European orientalists they The act of an Arabic manuscript was as an of understanding the content of the work as of the text of Here, collaboration with Eastern informants was not least the variety of and in oriental a manuscript’s in or the between a or a manuscripts might be in and The importance of the of a manuscript were to wider about and as were issues related to the of the of Arabic in these included a wide range of and many of which would have been to European orientalists with the of Arabic in In this an Arabic manuscript a range of that the most orientalist might have in this the act of and the of a wider of contributions made by Eastern Christians to oriental collections in Europe. important involved the of Eastern Christians in the of manuscripts and of Eastern the of this the affair in Spain, which involved a of Eastern Christians in whether or not a of the of were they purported to that in Arabic and to the In that the were a modern Eastern Christians such as the of the Arabic in the as of their among Spanish In so, his as an Eastern with knowledge of was a wider in on which the by Eastern Christians for also made to the work of Būlus al-Haddār had his knowledge of the to a letter of from the Patriarch of But the potential for had when it to European for new, manuscripts such as the popular Arabic of or of his of the in and for manuscripts with stories to to the of The potential for from the fact of the of which a the that there in fact to be In the and Eastern Christians in Europe with they to be manuscript of of that had not been in original In one such a who had to with when it from to have such a manuscript in his study of the manuscript has it to be a of of the a of the between and in the practice of and could easily to forms of is in the that Eastern Christians and original that would be collections of oriental an between and his a dictionary of Arabic with their has how the work a of the Arabic language that was of any of The was to an of which reveals more about own any social of the Arabic language in this Indeed, the has in the of today, a to how the of such as the study of Eastern has been in in recent study of the of such of a of that not in collections in the Ottoman have also to perhaps traditions that were in the manuscript collections that the most attention from In this Eastern Christians managed to the archive of orientalism, to a of manuscripts that would to European of the history of the East the the social history of archives promises to our understanding of orientalism, the study of Arabic manuscript collections also important the history of migration and in early modern Europe. we know about Eastern record-keepers something to they behind in the manuscripts they copied, catalogued and far from their the act of record-keeping was to the act of about Colophons, marginal notes and of Eastern Christians a for their in European one of the reasons for the of such in about most of which were by a of to the and their from the of of Arabic scholars such as and that of that were as to any wider or historical The of Arabic was by a focus on whether or not the as which was often forms of this has the in the or so Arabic scholars have their approaches by the of the of In this has a recognition of the importance of a and of works, and in a just to a such an is important when the of Eastern to Europe, not least how of ever Instead, we a range of of their and in Europe scattered across of We lack a language for these works, not least they from in many important ways. — of in Arabic — of more passages the margins of included in Arabic and to be there are also of in European of these are found today in European archives, the most for a by an Eastern in and in a archive in However, these sometimes also be found in the libraries of and in the that they circulated among in the Ottoman Empire. In one an Eastern for a which has it was as in the as as in this has how the and of a the in and he so far as to the of such records to for the self. In this it is the importance of the colophon as a for is not the for a of the of the colophon in which at least to the It the the scribe son of the of this manuscript in with the help of God in such and colophons the of a manuscript by it to a the by colophons are and and they often with and could be as a of recording for such as developments or as as and In this the colophon one of the most forms of in Arabic and among Eastern In the of a record-keeper, of recording could be scattered across a wide of manuscripts preserved today in In this the archive a for the history of its the between and this of history a of It scholars to these colophons and together are of an In one of such an has together colophons from manuscripts at the in an to the of a copyist Ibn known as which is the he took his in was an who had been by in to and the of his Arabic for his in the colophons scattered across the copied by a to to something of the of the copyist in ways that are not least of his was he ever in the of his the that remain so to the history of the we would know nothing about the of this the study of colophons a history of oriental collections the and this be from the study of a It to our understanding of the and of early modern orientalism. In his study of the the of Louis has how a of Eastern who their to the and of and the scattered notes they behind as as own it is that the and of manuscripts in a as by own as by the of who to be at one or to any of a orientalism to in the of the circumstances that contributed in practice to the of oriental manuscripts in Europe in this Finally, a focus on the colophon the study of forms of by Eastern Christians in this not least and Eastern Christians in Europe were with the act of for a in from who a small in which he for the the of he at of these to to people had known in of was preserved in the in which copied and of his is a to one own practices of and and yet such could be to the of oriental collections in Europe. are also of that he had from his the of the Here, we a copy of a of a letter that had on of the for the Patriarch of the of the the letter the Patriarch had a of to the to his to The having been found now to how he it to it with the Patriarch to and a copy to there be any on the details of was so far as to a printed copy of an Arabic of that had been by the the Patriarch would it would be by the its In such the of the archive of the with the Eastern was a in the of Eastern Christians in the they these however, to beyond the archives of the or its and the of who Indeed, the of this letter today in Arabic manuscripts from the margins reveals as about oriental collections in Europe as it does about the of experts who were most to the study of behind in the archive of orientalism at least important about the of its Firstly, across all of these sources, there is an of the of these in early modern Europe. stories the themes of the of Būlus al-Haddār at the of this In the of an from the East was an and this is an important to in is a sometimes triumphant history of early modern orientalism. Secondly, manuscript collections a the by these record-keepers to an of their in the they this reason on the that the of the at a in he in his that his was now in the of the order — as if he were his to its Eastern Christians inscribed their the archives in which they were practice to in a scribal that the of a manuscript in the act of a of and his to a wider on al-Haddār’s ‘indiscretions’ at the of this colophons and marginal notes were to a of across and were Eastern Christians to the records they the of their to in ways. Indeed, there is a to the records of these inscribed as they were on the of oriental as a witness — for anyone to — to the of migration across in the early modern the social history of archives to in to a of the history of early modern orientalism as it took in a world of also a world together by the of agents, informants, and to be more in the of manuscript collections.