Current activities

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.

In 2016, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek acquired nine Ethiopian parchment manuscripts in Ge'ez, the ancient literary language, which is still used today by Ethiopian Christians as their liturgical language. With respect to content, the manuscripts are psalms and liturgical texts.