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In the course of the coming three years, the German Research Foundation will fund the development of a union catalogue and of a portal "Orient-Digital" for oriental manuscripts. It is intended to establish common cataloguing standards, to convert printed catalogues into electronic ones and to pool all existing electronic catalogue entries. Under the direction of the Oriental Department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Gotha Research Library, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich and the University Computation Center (URZ) Leipzig will be cooperating closely.

The e-book collection includes over 2,000 titles on Islamic law, Islam studies and Islamic theology, predominantly in Arabic and partly also in English. Most of them are publications of the last decade. The books were already published in print, but only a small part of them has been available in Germany.

The astronomic manuscript in the Arabic language was created in Isfahan between 1630 and 1650. It comprises 100 sheets, contains numerous illustrations with graphical drawings of the planets' orbits and very finely drawn allegoric representations in human form.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has newly acquired a poetry manuscript by the Persian poet Ahli Shirazi (1454 – 1535). Little is known about him: He lived a solitary life and was presumably poor. In contrast, the present collection of poems is crafted luxuriously.