Newsletter No. 11 - Autumn 2012

Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation Glorious Past, Brighter Future

Newsletter

Issue No. 11

In this Issue: Al-Furqān Recent Activities Co-operation Al-Furqān Lectures Training Courses Al-Furqān Projects Al-Furqān Publications Book Review Profile Foundation Profile In Memoriam Al-Furqān and its Centres

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Message from the Chairman....................................................................................................................................................3 Latest Visits....................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 The visit of His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Hassan bin Mohammed Al-Thani.................................4 The hosting of the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group..............................................................4 Co-operation between Al-Furqān Foundation and the Islamic Cultural Centre in London.................................................................................................................................................................................................4 Co-operation................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Agreement of Co-operation and Understanding between Al-Furqān Foundation and Al-Az’har.......................................................................................................................................................................5 Book Fairs...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................6 Addresses of Distribution of Al-Furqān’s Publications.................................................................6 Al-Furqān Lectures.......................................................................................................................................................................................7 Al-Maqrīzī and his book Al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār.........................................................................................7 Reflections on the book Kitāb al-‘Ibar wa-Diwān al-Mubtada’ wa-al-Khabar of ibn Khaldūn............................................................................................................................................................................................................8 Islamic Manuscripts Studies for the 21st Century.......................................................................................9 Training Courses............................................................................................................................................................................................12 6th Training Course on the philosophy of Islamic law (Maqāšid alSharī‘ah)..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................12 Al-Az’har’s First Training Course on the Critical Edition of Manuscripts ........................12 Al-Furqān Projects.....................................................................................................................................................................................14 The Project of Cataloguing and Digitising Majāmī‘ al-Funūn (Collections ) at the National Library of Egypt (Dār al-Kutub al-Mišriyah)......................................................................................14 The Cataloguing and Digitising projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina..........................15 Al-Furqān Publications....................................................................................................................................................................16 Recent Publications.................................................................................................................................................................................17 Bibliography for Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah...................................................................................................................................17 The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in the Perspective of the Islamic Schools of Thought –Various Studies...................................................................................................................................................................17 The Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of al-Fakhri al-Musili Family in the National Centre of Manuscripts in Baghdad .............................................17 Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah,, volume 5...........................................................................18 Upcoming Publications...................................................................................................................................................................19 Book Review.............................................................................................................................................................................................................20 The Detailed Defters of the Liwa’ of Noble Jerusalem............................................................20 Profile.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................21 His Excellency Prof. Dr. Abdul-Wahab Abu-Sulaiman...............................................................21 Foundation Profile......................................................................................................................................................................................23 The Aleppo Waqf Library..................................................................................................................................................................23 In Memoriam..........................................................................................................................................................................................................25 Sheikh Dr. Mohammed al-Habib bin al-Khojah......................................................................................25 Al-Furqān and its Centres...........................................................................................................................................................26

Al-Furqān

Islamic Heritage Foundation

Newsletter Issue No. 11, Autumn 2012 Publisher

Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation

Board of Directors Chairman H.E. Ahmed Zaki Yamani

Members Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu Mr. Sharaf Yamani

Managing Director Mr. Sali Shahsivari

Address 22A Old Court Place London, W8 4PL England – UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3130 1530 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7937 2540 Email: info@al-furqān.com www.al-furqān.com

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Autumn 2012 Al-Furqān also established an Award to recognise outstanding intellectual achievements in the field of the written heritage. The Award is offered in four disciplines: Qur’ānic disciplines, Islamic fiq’h (jurisprudence) and its fundamentals, History and Science.

The Centre for Compiling the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah represents a civilization and culture project established by the Foundation to present the merits of two of the most holy sites to Muslims, the city of Makkah, the sanctuary of the House of God, and Madinah, the city of the Prophet Moħammed peace be upon him. It aims to document the great contributions these two cities made to Islamic civilisation and humankind. The work also highlights the important role that these two cities played in supporting scientific, cultural and Islamic initiatives throughout the centuries, as the origins of Islamic civilisation and its source of enlightenment. The work is being carried out by collating and recording the numerous roles that Makkah and Madinah played in the various arenas of environment, social life, economy, culture, religion, politics, infrastructural and urban planning, all of which were dependent on the intellectual output of the two cities and intermediaries that stemmed from them.

The Encyclopaedia has published to date a number of studies in this area. The most recent of these was volume five, with the sixth being prepared for printing.

The aim of establishing the Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law was to serve jurisprudence associated with the field (Maqāšid) and to encourage research in that field. It was also to broaden its reach, as it is a necessity to properly understand the texts of the Qur’ān and Sunnah.

It is also needed to understand the ongoing method of contemporary juridical reasoning which aims to realise the interests of humankind and to mitigate any harm to them. It also invites to ijtihād (juridical reasoning) which relies on insight into the philosophy of Islamic law and an appreciation of its priorities. It aims to develop a method to place each rule of law reached through juridical reasoning in its proper place by realising the wider objectives of Sharī‘ah (Islamic Law) or the higher objectives of individual laws. As ijtihād will always continue to serve the continuing needs of humankind and help them in realising their interests, the continuous renewal of research in the field of the philosophy of Islamic law should continue likewise in serving ijtihād and facilitating its establishment and, in doing so, attain the main objective that the Prophet upon whom be peace was sent for.

The centre has produced a large number of studies related to the philosophy of Islamic law, the most important of which was the completion of the Bibliography for Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah, which is an encyclopaedia on the philosophy of Islamic law which records all that has been written in the field. This will soon be supplemented by two books: Dictionary of the Methodologies of the Maqāšid Scholars and Dictionary of the Rules of Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah. The centre has also organised many training courses and numerous lectures.

With a clear strategy and flexibility in its implementation, Al-Furqān continues to work to meet its objectives in documenting the world’s Islamic heritage, in promoting greater consideration of the philosophy of Islamic law and in promoting the correct understanding of Islam. In doing so it aspires to contribute substantially to these fields.

Indeed God says what is true and guides the path.

Ahmed Zaki Yamani

Message From the Chairman It gives Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation great pleasure, as it reaches its 25th Anniversary, to present this new issue of the Newsletter to its esteemed readership. Through this Newsletter, Al-Furqān wishes to keep readers up-todate, connect with them and share ideas. We also present current work being undertaken by the Foundation in its endeavour to fulfil its goal in the field of preserving our collective rich heritage, by documenting, editing and publishing it, as we believe that this written heritage represents the intellectual capital of the Ummah (Muslim World) and is a cornerstone of its identity and the source of its resurgence.

To realise this vision, at its inception, Al-Furqān initiated a plan with a clearly defined and extensively researched working strategy and time frame. To date, it has been able to meet its commitments to this plan, achieving its tasks without hindrance. It has also taken into consideration that uncovering our Ummah’s (Muslim World) great heritage, which lies hidden in obscure locations in libraries, is without doubt a challenging endeavour which requires meticulous conscientious work, integrity and patience.

In addition, to achieve these aims and objectives, the Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts was established. The most important of its goals was to survey all centres world-wide that hold manuscripts. This was followed by the project of cataloguing manuscripts in a large number of countries, a work that is still being carried out in several countries, some of the most prominent being Turkey, Egypt, Bosnia, India, Iraq amongst others.

The Foundation also has organised nine training courses in the field of cataloguing manuscripts, to enhance the skill set of current cataloguers. Moreover, it began to publish the most important and established manuscript works which carry great importance in terms of the knowledge they hold and their historic value. These books were verified according to the highest standards, using the most meticulous and thorough research methodologies. The last of these published was the series of The Detailed Defters of the Liwa’ of Noble Jerusalem, an in-depth and well researched documentation about Palestine.

Taking into consideration that editors of manuscripts are becoming scarce, the Foundation organised a number of training courses on the critical edition of manuscripts for young researchers. The last of these courses was held at Al-Az’har.

In order to further the cause of the Foundation in providing information to scholars and researchers on the importance of their heritage, the Foundation organised five conferences on the theme of Islamic manuscripts. These were contributed to by renowned international specialists. In addition, a number of lectures, symposiums and exhibitions were organised to introduce the contributions of the Islamic civilisation and those made by its scholars in various fields of science and literature over the course of its history. The most recent of these was a lecture on Al-Maqrīzī and his book Al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār by Prof.

Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid. Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Chabbouh also delivered a lecture entitled ‘Thoughts on the Book “Kitāb al-‘Ibar wa-Diwān al-Mubtadā wa-al-Khabar” of ibn Khaldūn. Another lecture was delivered by Prof. Dr. François Deroche entitled Islamic Manuscripts Studies for the 21st Century.

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Autumn 2012 The meeting began with a lecture, entitled MS Leiden 2070 as an example for the transmission of knowledge from Greek and Syriac into Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew, delivered by Prof. Dr. Peter Pormann, professor of Greek and Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester.

After the group ended its meeting, all participants attended an open lecture delivered by Prof Dr. François Deroche, entitled Islamic Manuscripts Studies for the 21st Century, which was organised jointly by the two foundations.

Latest Visits The visit of His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Hassan bin Mohammed Al-Thani On the 19th January 2012, His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Hassan bin Mohammed Al-Thani., Vice Chairman of Qatar Museums Authority, and the delegation accompanying him visited Al-Furqān. He was received by the Managing Director of the Foundation and its working team.

Both sides discussed what they were working on in their respective institutions, as they also explored the possibility of collaboration in the fields of mutual interest. They also looked into strategies to activate this cooperation.

At the end of this meeting, His Excellency Sheikh Al-Thani invited the Managing Director of the Foundation to visit Qatar at the soonest possible opportunity.

Co-operation between Al-Furqān Foundation and the Islamic Cultural Centre in London Within the programme of visits between Al-Furqān and the Islamic Cultural Centre in London, the General Director of the Centre, Dr. Ahmed al-Dubayan, paid a visit to the Foundation on the 8th August 2012.

He was received by the Managing Director of Al-Furqān, Mr Sali Shahsivari, and the Head of the Projects and Publications Department, Mr Mohammed Drioueche. Both sides looked at several subjects related to cultural activities that both institutions were undertaking. They also looked at methods for collaboration and organising joint events, such as lectures, seminars, symposia and conferences. The meeting also considered the importance of organising training courses in the field of the philosophy of Islamic law for Imams and students of Islamic studies, with the aim to raise and develop their abilities and skills in this area.

In turn, the Managing Director and the Head of the Projects and Publications Department of Al-Furqān visited the Islamic Cultural Centre on the 4th September 2012, where they were shown the facilities available in the Centre, such as its lecture halls, the seminar rooms, the exhibition space, as well as the library.

The General Director of the Islamic Cultural Centre, Dr. Ahmed alDubayan, said that the Centre will place all its administrative and logistic capabilities at the disposal of the Foundation. It would also include the possibility for Al-Furqān’s publications to be sold at the Centre.

The Managing Director expressed his pleasure of having the meeting and his intention to agree a memorandum of understanding and cooperation that brings benefit to both institutions, as well as to the academics and students it will reach out to.

The visiting party expressed its thanks and appreciation to the General Director of the Centre for the warm welcome and the support the Foundation received.

The Managing Director of Al-Furqān with His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Hassan bin Mohammed al-Thani

hosting the Islamic Heritage Awareness Group In an effort to widen its scope of relationships with other foundations that share common interests, and with the aim to strengthen the bonds of friendship and collaboration, Al-Furqān hosted at its headquarters office in London the meeting of the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group (MHAG), which is a part of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, located in Manchester.

The meeting took place on 24th May 2012 and was chaired by Prof. Dr. Salim al-Hassani, President of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation.

The Managing Director of Al-Furqān Foundation and the General Director of the Islamic Cultural Centre in London, Dr. Ahmed al-Dubayan

Prof. Dr. Peter Pormann delivering a lecture on the Transfer of Knowledge

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of manuscripts delivered the training. Among the professors attending were Prof. Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid, Director of the Centre for Critical Editing, and Prof. Dr Hassan al-Shafi‘ī, Head of the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo, senior consultant to the Sheikh of Al-Az’har, member of the Board of Senior Scholars and previous Dean of Dār al-‘Ulūm in Cairo.

Both establishments also agreed to initiate courses in Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah (philosophy of Islamic law), starting from 2013. This

Co-operation Agreement of Co-operation and Understanding between Al-Furqān and Al-Az’har On the 13th March 2012, Al-Furqān and Al-Az’har signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in a number of areas of mutual interest. The Agreement included a number of points on several areas, such as the organisation of conferences, workshops, symposia, training courses and lectures in both manuscripts and Maqāšid fields.

The memorandum was signed by His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Chairman of Al-Furqān, and His Excellency Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Az’har.

Prior to this Agreement, the Managing Director of the Foundation, Mr. Sali Shahsivari, the Head of the Projects and Publications Department, Mr. Muhammad Drioueche, and the Al-Furqān Cairo Office Manager, Mr. Amgad Mohammed, had visited Al-Az’har on 28th February 2012 and met with His Excellency Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Az’har, and Dr. Mohammed alSulaimani, his personal advisor.

The Managing Director of Al-Furqān and the Head of the Projects and Publications Department with His Excellency Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Az’har, and Dr. Mohammad al-Sulaimani, his personal advisor.

would be undertaken in co-operation with the World League of Al-Az’har’s Graduates, which was established in 2007 by a number of senior scholars, among whom was Prof. Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb, head of the University of al-Azhar at the time. The League aims to reach the thousands of Al-Az’har’s graduates of postgraduate studies. Through this network, it aims to include them in cultural events and invite them to attend conferences, meetings and training courses. The League also provides awards of excellence in the fields of the Islamic sciences to the highest achievers in the form of the ‘Best Masters Thesis’ and ‘Best Doctorate Thesis’ award.

At the end of the meeting, the Managing Director Mr. Sali Shahsivari expressed his pleasure on the agreement, thanked His Excellency the Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb for his reception, and presented to him some of the recent publications of the Foundation.

Al-Az’har

Both sides considered methods for bilateral co-operation and subjects that were of mutual interest. His Excellency the Grand Imam promised to deliver a lecture on maqāsid under the title “Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah in the Perspective of the late Abdullah Draz”.

The two sides also agreed to implement the points of the agreement by initially organising an intensive training course on the critical edition of manuscripts, in collaboration with the Centre for Critical Editing at al-Azhar, entitled The Methods of the Critical Edition of the Texts and Its Rules, which was successfully held between the 2nd and 7th July 2012, with 42 participants who were highly skilled and academically experienced. A number of notable professors and specialists in the field of the critical edition 5

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Book Fairs Al-Furqān participation in the International Book Fairs Book fairs are considered a landmark occasion and of no less importance than conferences and international meetings, as they bring together a large number of academics, writers and publishers, and show that the book remains the main reference point for any research project or development.

This year, Al-Furqān took part in three international book fairs, namely in Cairo, Morocco and Algeria, and the Foundation’s book stand enjoyed a great amount of interest

1- Promoting its unique publications, in particular its specialization in manuscript catalogues and Maqāšid books.

2- Presenting the Foundation’s efforts in preserving the Islamic heritage and spreading the Maqāšid thought.

3- Providing the best intellectual thought drawn from amongst the academics and experts with whom it cooperates. The Foundation also offers an insightful view into their writings, experience and scientific achievements, through organising public lectures, such as the lecture delivered during the Cairo Book Fair by Prof. Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid on Al-Maqrīzī and his book ‘Al-Mawa‘iż wa al-I‘tibār’. Furthermore, at the book fair in Morocco, the Foundation had the pleasure of presenting a lecture by Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Chabbouh on ‘Reflections on the book ‘Kitāb al-‘Ibar wa-Diwān al-Mubtada’ wa-al-Khabar’ of ibn Khaldūn’.

4- Introducing the Foundation to new visitors and networking with other heritage foundations, universities and centres working in the same field.

by the visitors from the very start of each book fair..

The Foundation’s participation in book fairs is considered a great opportunity for several reasons, the most important of which include:

Addresses of Distribution of Al-Furqān’s Publications United Kingdom 22A Old Court Place London W8 4PL, England - UK Tel: +44 (0) 203 130 1530 Fax: +44 (0) 207 937 2540 E-mail: info@al-Furqān.com

Egypt 20 Ibrahim Nagy St., Zaker Hussain Road, Nasr City, 11528 Cairo- Egypt Tel: + (202) 24721609 Fax: + (202) 24721609 E-mail: cairo.office@al-Furqān.com

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Saudi Arabia Muhyi Ad Din Nadhir Street, AlHamra District, Jeddah, 23212 Saudi Arabia Tel: + 966 (0) 26670522 E-mail: info@al-Furqān.com WWW.AL-FURQĀN.COM

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Al-Furqān Lectures Al-Maqrīzī and his book Al-Mawā‘iz.

wa al-I‘tibār

On 3rd February 2012, Dr. Ayman Fouad gave a lecture at the Cairo Book Exhibition entitled “Al-Maqrīzī and His book Al-Mawā‘ iż wa alI‘tibār.” The lecture was chaired and moderated by Dr. Muhammad Hamza al-Haddad, Dean of the Antiquities Faculty at Cairo University and Dr. Qassim Abduh Qassim, Professor of History at Zaqaziq University.

Dr. Fouad began his lecture by highlighting the importance of the work of Al-Khiŧaŧ in Egypt’s history, geography and its capital Cairo, in the Islamic period, using the original sources, this work is the only one to have provided a comprehensive presentation of Egypt’s history of the Islamic era and on the foundation and development of its cities under the reign of Islam and until the 9th century AH. Al-Khiŧaŧ is today considered as an indispensable work for Islamic Egypt archeologists. Indeed, the work provides a detailed and precise descriptive list of the palaces, the mosques, the schools, the khāniqas (prayer halls), the districts, the public baths, public places and market places which existed in Egypt’s capital for nine centuries. This list rests essentially on Al-Maqrīzī’s personal observations and on sources that until now eluded us. In this way, alMaqrīzī preserved for us writings of note by old authors whose works have disappeared.

In addition, Al-Maqrīzī’s work is one of the sources of pride in Arab legacy. Indeed, it is the greatest and most comprehensive work ever written on an Islamic city. In this work, the author dealt in a wonderful way with the city’s historical, social organisation (‘umrān) and topographical aspects. It is a book that is different form Al-Khaŧīb al-Baghdādī’s The History of Baghdad just as it is different from Al-Hāfiż ibn ‘Assākir’s The History of Damascus.

The lecturer pointed out afterwards that Al-Maqrīzī focussed mainly in his book on social organisation in the city of Cairo which had become the cultural and political centre of the Muslim World of his time. In this respect, Al-Maqrīzī gave a detailed account about everything related to his Cairo-his birth place. He left no vestiges or institutions without describing them with impressive precision, going over the history of their building and all the changes that they went through in detail, relating in so doing the biographies of the princes and the important figures who had built them or resided in them. Meanwhile, Al-Maqrīzī recorded the major events, traditions and drawings associated with such edifices and institutions. As Quatremère put it, “there is no other oriental city than Cairo to boast to have an author who produced a work similar to AlKhiŧaŧ from the point of view of the thoroughness and originality.”

Dr. Fouad went on to describe Al-Maqrīzī’s book as a leading and unprecedented work in its field, stating: “This book, is one which has broken ground in the history urbanism (‘umrān) and there is no older book. As for the book The History of Florence, the first to be written in the history of cities in Europe, it was written in 1840 CE, that is to say, some 400 years after the demise of Al-Maqrīzī.”

Furthermore, the lecturer dealt with the new edition of Al-Khiŧaŧ, which

Prof. Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid (centre), Prof. Dr. Muhammad Hamza al-Hadad and Prof. Dr. Qasim Abduh Qasim

the Al-Furqān Islamic Foundation plans to publish in the near future, describing it as an extended, revised version, properly edited, in which the previous typos were removed and which includes new sources and recent studies which came out after the previous edition had been published. He also indicated that new photos of the buildings mentioned by Al-Maqrīzī were added. Meanwhile, he pointed out that an outstanding feature of this edition is that it is based on new manuscript copies of the book: the most important one is the third volume, which was hand-written by the author and only recently discovered in 2010 in the Michigan University library in the USA; the other one is an old copy of the first volume, also hand-written by the author and located in the Faiżallah library of Istanbul.

For his part, Dr. Qassim Abduh Qassim said that Al-Maqrīzī is indeed the only historian to deserve the title of the leader of historians. In fact people are all indebted to his knowledge and his works which are considered to be the best sources of Egypt’s Islamic history up to the advent of the Ottoman period. The lecturer explained in this respect that in spite of the fact that Al-Maqrīzī was of Lebanese origin, most of his books reflected his Egyptian personality. He went on to say that ‘Al-Maqrīzī was a researcher in sociology and as such he dealt with the religious sects, administration, churches, the Jews and their festivals, politics and statesmen, war and the military establishment… Al-Maqrīzī was said to be knowledgeable about all the existing cultures’.

Meanwhile, Dr. Muhammad Hamza al-Haddad pointed out that AlMaqrīzī was born in one of Cairo’s districts and that his upbringing conditioned his thought and orientations. His books reflected the importance of archaeology, included poetical writings, were based on reports and observation, and demonstrate a great care in selecting data.

Comments and questions followed the lecture and centred around the confusion surrounding Al-Maqrīzī’s period. Dr. Ayman attempted to shed light on the realities of that period.

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Autumn 2012 The second point was about the term “i‘tabara” which recurs frequently in the final chapters of the Muqaddimah. Dr. Chabbouh pointed out that this term occurs in well-defined meanings which, in his view, is a sign of intellectual flexibility, and of invitation to research and to debate.

Meanwhile, the lecturer specified that the term ‘ibar, which is part of the book title, is not confined to the usual meaning of ‘maw‘iżah’ as used by Ibn Khaldūn’s student Al-Maqrīzī in his book Al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār; but rather extends with Ibn Khaldūn to mean the examination the reality of things and their evolution, and the way these things are utilised in the organisation of societies and urbanism.

The third point pertains to the issues surrounding Ibn Khaldūn’s intellectual sources. Admitttedly, some biographical works denigrated him, accusing him of having used academic sources without citations.

These in additions to other voices which claimed that the intellectual structure of the Muqaddimah originated in the letter of the Ikhwān Al-Šafā’, which Ibn Khaldūn did not acknowledge. Dr. Chabbouh answered such claims, pointing out that Ibn Khaldūn arrived in Egypt in 784 AH, that is to say, well after the Fatimid dynasty had disappeared and along with its jurisprudential heritage, at a time when the Ayyubi colleges were set up to review the Sunni jurisprudential schools. Therefore, the lecturer said, no room was left for the already banned Fatimid literature to influence the intellectual life, especially the Sunni literature spread far and wide.

The fourth point was regarding Ibn Khaldūn’s division of the ‘Arabs into four entities or ‘ages’: the Arabising Arabs (al-‘arab al-‘āribah), The Arabised Arabs (al-musta‘ribah), the Arabs that became successors to the Arabs (al-‘arab al-tābi‘ah lī al-‘arab) and the de-Arabised Arabs (al-‘arab almusta‘jamah) .

The lecturer went on to say that Ibn Khaldūn’s intellectual endeavour while in the Maghreb was focussed on the Arabs and the Berbers; whereas during his Egyptian period, he devoted his thinking to the non-Arabs and their background. This enabled him to get a glimpse the vast Muslim world with all its territories and its peoples, and to update his theory of history in an unprecedented fashion, after which he re-organised his work into an introduction and three books.

Dr. Chabbouh ended his lecture by showing some examples of Ibn Khaldūn’s writing as well as a table for the dated manuscripts on which he based his work. An animated debate followed on the lecture, which was attended by professors, PhD students, researchers and other prominent personalities from the cultural and political spheres. Important among these was his excellency Mr. Rafi‘ Ben Achour, Tunisia’s ambassador to Morocco.

Reflections on the book Kitāb al-‘Ibar

wa-Diwān al-Mubtada’ wa-al-Khabar

On 13th February 2012, Dr. Ibrahim Chabbouh, member of the Board Experts of AlFurqān’s Manuscripts Centre, gave a lecture at the Faculty of Arts of the Mohamed V University of Rabat on Ibn Khaldūn’s book Kitāb al-‘Ibar wa Diwān al-Mubtada’ wa-al-Khabar. The lecture was organised by the Manuscripts Centre of the Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation

as part of the Moroccan Book Exhibition.

The session was chaired by Dr. Djilali Adnani, Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts. Dr. Adnani introduced the lecturer and his academic background, pointing out that Dr. Chabbouh was carrying out the revision and editing of Ibn Khaldūn’s Al-‘Ibar, on the basis of the author’s original copies containing Ibn Khaldūn’s revision notes and addenda. Dr. Chabbouh spent some three decades on this task and has so far published 12 out of 14 volumes of Al-‘Ibar, and he is expected to prepare their tables of content which come out in two volumes.

In his critical revision of Al-‘Ibar, Dr. Chabbouh relied on the contribution of a group of experts both from the Arab world and Europe who specialise in the issues dealt with in the book. After laying down a scientific working methodology for this work, Dr. Chabbouh used his expertise on Ibn Khaldūn to tackle the part of it that particularly deals with African states, Arab and Berber lineages. Al-‘Ibar is a work on the history of History.

Dr. Chabbouh began his lecture with an introduction of the importance of Ibn Khaldūn, describing him as one of the symbols of enlightenment at a global level whose reputation spread far and wide in the East and in the West where his scholarship was received with a degree of interest and respect previously unheard of for a Muslim scholar. Afterwards, Dr. Chabbouh dealt with the question of the gathering of Ibn Khaldūn’s truly original manuscripts in the libraries of different countries, as well as recording their various publications and their translations. In the wake of his the translation of his first book, which became famously known as the Muqaddimah, his name started to appear in the writings of Western researchers and scholars who spread the view that Ibn Khaldūn was the founder of sociology and that the Muqaddimah was an original leading work which was the first to lay the foundation of this discipline.

The lecturer went on to deal with four issues regarding Al-‘Ibar.

The first issue concerns the question of with which book Ibn Khaldūn actually began writing his work. In this respect Dr. Chabbouh indicated that his initial book was the Muqaddimah, which Ibn Khaldūn said he isolated himself to complete it in five months in 779 AH, after revising (itlā‘), editing and proof-reading it. He is said to have then written Akhbār al-‘Arab wa al-Barbar wa al-Zanata.

Several attendees of the lecture

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Autumn 2012

Islamic Manuscripts Studies for the 21st Century Dr Francois Deroche, a world expert on Islamic codicology, member of the Board of Experts at the Al-Furqān Foundation’s Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts and Director of Studies at the Paris-based Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, gave a lecture on the study of Islamic manuscripts in the 21st century at the new premises of Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation (IHF) in London. The lecture which took place on 24th May 2012 was organised jointly by Al-Furqān Foundation and the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) and was chaired by Mr. Sali Shahsivari, director of Al-Furqān Foundation.

Mr Shahsivari welcomed the distinguished audience before calling upon Mr. Sharaf Yamani to take the floor. Speaking in lieu of Al-Furqān Foundation President Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani and representing the Foundation’s Board of Directors as well as its personnel, Mr Sharaf Yamani also welcomed the participants before moving on to give a survey of the efforts made by Al-Furqān Foundation in the preservation of the Islamic heritage. He mentioned especially the field of manuscripts which he said were surveyed, recorded, catalogued, critically edited and then published, using scientific methods, while also investigating ways of preserving them and means to facilitating access to them for the sake of the future generations. Mr Yamani indicated that this was one of the reasons which led to the setting up of the Al-Furqān Foundation, which realised that the Islamic manuscripts are at the core of the Ummah’s legacy and a fundamental part of its identity, apart from being a historical, cultural and archaeological document which essentially reflects the soul and the specificity of the Islamic civilisation. He pointed out that this civilisation managed to integrate the worldwide Islamic heritage with all its various fields of knowledge and became the receptacle that incorporated the best of the scholars’ production and the essence of their experiences across the ages. In this respect, he insisted that this patrimony represents the Ummah’s soul as well as its intellect, charting out its thought and its conscience, and ultimately representing an essential component of the Ummah’s memory just as it is the firm bedrock for its present and future flourishing.

Sharaf Yamani, member of the Board of Directors

method and planned stages, saying that Al-Furqān Foundation began by surveying the libraries which preserve manuscripts throughout the world.

This was followed by the cataloguing stage which had never been carried out before. Finally, the manuscripts were edited and published.

In parallel, training courses were held on manuscript cataloguing and a number of conferences and seminars were organised.

Mr. Yamani reminded the participants that the first step Al-Furqān Foundation made when it was set up in 1988 was a devise to an ambitious and comprehensive research project aimed at recording all of the Islamic manuscripts located in 106 countries of the world. It started with the cataloguing phase, focussing on the regions where instability, deprivation and financial hardship prevailed. When it ran into difficuties finding skilled cataloguers, it launched training courses in this field. So far, nine training courses have taken place in Cairo, Istanbul, London Rabat, Kuala Lumpur, Aleppo and Amman. At the end of the nine training sessions, 380 cataloguers acquired cataloguing skills, originating from the Arab countries, Africa, India, the Balkans, turkey, the former Soviet Union, EU, USA, Malaysia, Indonesia and Burma.

As far as publications are concerned, Al-Furqān Foundation has so far managed to publish more than 200 volumes in various fields, including manuscripts, the Sharī‘ah objectives, and encyclopaedic works on Makkah and Madinah. Among these, some 70 volumes were devoted to the cataloguing of a total of 65,000 manuscripts in different countries of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Mr Yamani then went on to explain the plan which Al-Furqān Foundation laid out for itself at the time of its inception in accordance with a scientific

At the same time, Al-Furqān Foundation embarked on the critical editing of manuscripts of historical and scientific nature, covering disciplines like medicine, mathematics, history, geography, Qur’ānic exegesis and so on.

This was done in cooperation with distinguished scholars with the aim of publishing the best works in our heritage, which are numerous, works that had been critically revised in accordance with the best scientific practices.

Meanwhile, in the first few months of 2012, Al-Furqān Foundation published the first part of the manuscripts of Dār al-Kutub of Egypt in four volumes and will soon publish those existing in the Dār affiliated libraries in 8 volumes. Furthermore, Al-Furqān Foundation will start in the next few months cataloguing some 22,000 documents related to the arts collections. Meanwhile, it has completed the cataloguing of Ayasofya’s manuscripts and other collections at the Suleymaniye Library, which are expected to be in 16 volumes, including a total of 8,000 documents.

Sali Shahsivari Managing Director of Al-Furqān Foundation.

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Autumn 2012

In parallel, Al-Furqān Foundation organised five conferences on Islamic manuscripts, which brought together a number of prominent researchers specialising in codicology from all over the world. Furthermore, Al-Furqān Foundation organized over 30 lectures and awareness seminars in the field of the history of science, the fine arts, music, architecture, calligraphy, human rights, culinary art and so on, with a view to popularising the contribution of the scholars in the building of the Islamic civilization. In addition, Al-Furqān Foundation held a number of exhibitions covering painting and calligraphy.

When it realized that the field of Islamic heritage was in dire need for young experts in critical editing, the Foundation set up two training courses in the critical editing of manuscripts at Dār al-Uloom in Cairo.

As for the next training course, it took place in June 2012 at Al-Az’har University.

As the Foundation’s activities had achieved the various stages of its workplan, it became apparent that prizes should be offered to prominent scholars who had published the most illustrious items of the Islamic heritage, thus bringing about awareness to it. The first prize went to Dr. Ihsan Abbas for his important contributions in editing Manuscripts.

The second prize rewarded Dr. Salaheddin al-Munajjid, one of the early pioneer writers on our Islamic patrimony. Another prize, specially reserved for cataloguing in the first training course, was granted to Dr. Ramazan Şeşen, director of the Ghazi Husrev Beg Library in Sarajevo and the team that helped him in the cataloguing of his library manuscripts.

Prof. Dr. Francois Deroche Khairāt among others. In spite of the existence of an enormous corpus of manuscripts hidden in various public and personal libraries, which may deteriorate with time, the current estimates show important discrepancies.

For example, Pakistan believes it has two million manuscripts, Timbuctu reckons it possesses close to one million, while realistic estimates range between 75,000 and 80,000 manuscripts in Mali.

Last but not least, Al-Furqān Foundation took yet another bold step to set up an international prize for critical editing. This is aimed to encourage workers in the field of codicology to undertake the critical editing of their cultural and civilizational heritage.

Dr. Deroche concluded saying that codicology has progressed and become the subject of attention of a great number of researchers and students, owing to the importance attached to technical and scientific manuscripts. In the last 25 years of the last century, a great many scientific centres and heritage institutions came to being in the West, including the Melcom Foundation (Middle East Libraries Committee), and the work of Turkish scholar Fu’ad Fuad Sezgin, author of the book The History of Arab Heritage. There is also the case of the facsimiles of the most important Arab manuscripts existing in a number of the world libraries. Worth mentioning as well are very important Islamic archives on geography which have been published since the beginning of the 19th century. Other projects came to being which include the Qur’ān Project, the Timbuktu Project, Shahnameh Project, the Hamburg centre and finally, the Islamic Heritage Foundation, which has played a great role and made substantial efforts in publishing a great many catalogues, edited manuscripts and organised training courses in the fields of codicology and critical editing.

Mr. Sharaf Yamani concluded his talk by pointing out that Al-Furqān Foundation had recently began to transfer the all the catalogues completed on paper to digital databases that will be made available on the internet.

Next to take the floor was Dr. Peter Fell, Deputy Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilization (FSTC) for Strategic Affairs and member of its Board of Trustees. Dr. Fell welcomed the participants and praised their presence before giving a survey of the FSTC endeavours to revive Islamic scientific legacy, especially what is widely known as “the forgotten 1000 years” in the history of sciencethrough various scientific and educational tools such as the exhibitions like the “1001 Inventions-Islamic Heritage Today”. Finally Dr. Fell welcomed the cooperation between his foundation and Al-Furqān Foundation.

As for Dr. Francois Deroche, he started talking about the beginning of his own interest in Islamic manuscripts in the last quarter of the 20th century. It was a copy of the Qur’ān he found in the Paris national Library that captured his attention at a time when few universities concerned themselves with manuscripts in general. Dr. Deroche said that the importance of manuscripts lie in the fact that they are a cultural and civilizational legacy , emphasizing the need to make use of all the available means and techniques to preserve the sizeable number of manuscripts cramming many libraries, archive centres and museums across the world.

He went on to warn about a tendency to exaggerate the number of existing manuscripts, saying that these do not exceed three million pieces, including manuscripts that consist of several copies such the manuscript Dalā’il al-

Regarding the reason which led to the development of codicology, Dr. Deroche referred to many. First and foremost was the work of AlFurqān Foundation which has consisted in conducting a comprehensive survey of Islamic manuscripts in 106 countries. This survey produced detailed information on the manuscripts content, which supplied heritage researches with priceless data. Then came the introductory book to codicology in the French language, which Al-Furqān Foundation had translated into Arabic and English along with Adam Gacek’s book Taqlīd al-Makhŧūŧ al-‘Arabī (The Arabic manuscript tradition).

The second factor contributing to over the expansion of codicology may be the development of information media, prominent of which may

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012 As regards the fourth factor, Dr. Deroche mentioned the training courses which raised the level of awareness among the scholars interested in codicology and endowed cataloguers with the necessary skills. He pointed out that Al-Furqān Foundation plays a leading role in this field.

He pointed out that he himself organized three training courses in Cambridge, Madrid and Hamburg within a short period of time.

be the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts issued by Brill and which is similar to the publication of the Manuscript Institute in Cairo and to the Iranian one. The third factor is, according to Deroche, the cataloguing of the manuscripts by a number of institutions. In this respect, Dr. Deroche mentioned Al-Furqān Foundation which has catalogued manuscripts never catalogued before. Al-Furqān Foundation began with cataloguing those manuscripts threatened with irreparable damage and loss, especially those in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. Dr. Deroche emphasized that the information contained in the catalogues is of great importance, particularly if the work on the catalogues is analytical and comprehensive in a way that gives a full and detailed description of the manuscripts.

Indeed, whenever a manuscript is recorded in a comprehensive way,

The fifth contributing factor is the organization of exhibitions, while the sixth and final one is the use of the internet where many pages on codicology have been set up.

Sharaf Yamani presenting Prof. Dr. Salim al-Hassani a collection of the foundations publications

Dr. Deroche ended his lecture by calling for increased precision in the approach to codicology, saying that while in the past the focus was on the text, that is to say, the scholarly content of the manuscripts, our attention should henceforth shift towards the study and analysis of the content as a subject-matter. This a great challenge for us because we are at the beginning of the journey, he said, adding that in view of the great number of manuscripts, we must know where to begin.

Several attendees of the lecture

it gives clear indication as to its real content and facilitates a better understanding of its scope, all of which enhances its value a great deal.

This is especially so concerning the description of the physical form of the manuscript, which covers the study of the physical paper, the various inks used, the kind of calligraphy and the method of numbering, the golden decoration, the binding and decoration, the size of the pages and the comments. This description also involves everything noted on the cover page: notes on reading certificates (samā‘āt), readings certificates (qirā’āt), certifications (ijāzāt), certificate delivery ceremonies (munāwalāt), text collations (muqābalāt), text confrontations (mu‘aradhāt), reading notes (mutala‘āt), recorded facts (taqyeedāt), religious endowment notes (waqfiyāt), the colophon and mention of the library copies. To be added to all this is the study of the ownership which bears a great importance in this it is likely to be of help in monitoring the influence of a manuscript on the writings of its various owners. And by following the different dates of ownership, it would be possible to know the way followed by a particular manuscript, and to determine an approximate date for it if not dated already.

Following the lecture, important questions were raised and debated extensively, including the issue of the transfer of the sciences and the manuscripts to Europe.

After Dr. Deroche’s speech, Mr. Sharaf Yamani offered a set of AlFurqān Foundation publications to Dr. Salim al-Hassani, President of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, who in turn offered Mr. Yamani a copy of the book 1001 Inventions.

It is incumbent on the cataloguer to mention the date of completion of a particular copy, the name of the scribe, and to determine- in so far as he can- the likely period and the place of the writing of the manuscript.

Such data will help dating the copy with precision just as it will increase the knowledge of scholars and researchers.

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Training Courses The 6th Training Course on the philosophy of Islamic law (Maqāșid al-Sharī‘ah) The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in the Perspective of the Islamic Schools of Thought

Several attendees of the training course

Al-Furqān Foundation Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law has organized a special training course on the Sharī‘ah objectives in cooperation with the Centre for Studies, Research and Legal Services of the Faculty of Law of Alexandria University. The course, which took place from 25th to 29th April 2012, ran under the title “The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in the the Perspective of Islamic Schools of Thought”. The lecturers were prominent scholars in this field and the course was a great benefit for the numerous participants, who included lawyers, students, researchers and other experts in Islamic studies.

Al-Furqān Foundation was represented by its director, Mr. Sali Shahsivari, Mr. Mohamed Drioueche, Head of Projects and Publications, and Mr. Amjad Mohamed, the coordinator of Al-Furqān Foundation Cairo office. The Law Faculty was represented by Dr. Mohamed Kamal Imam, Sharī‘ah professor at the Faculty.

In an introductory speech to the course on the first day, AlFurqān Foundation director welcomed the participants, the teaching team, the Faculty’s administrative personnel as well as

other attendants. He praised the cooperation with the Centre for Studies, Research and Legal Services and thanked its representative for hosting the training session, before introducing Al-Furqān Foundation and the story behind it. He mentioned in this respect the role played by Al-Furqān Foundation in surveying the Islamic manuscripts in many parts of the world, identifying them, cataloguing, recording them and preserving them, in addition to the Foundation’s keen determination to strengthen the basis of the Sharī‘ah objectives through various events, including the organization of training courses, lectures, conferences, seminars and book publications.

Next to speak on behalf of the Faculty was its dean, Dr. Ahmed Hindi who welcomed the participants, praised AlFurqān Foundation director and assured him of his commitment to consolidate the cooperation between the two institutions.

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Kamal Imam introduced the aims of the course, indicating that this type of training and other events related to the Sharī‘ah objectives which Al-Furqān Foundation has been undertaking have had an impact on researchers and scholars.

The session started off with Dr. Mohamed Slimani’s lecture under the title of “Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī and his book Maħāsin al-Sharī‘ah” (the Fascinations of Sharī‘ah). After the break, Dr. Mohamed Kamal Imam gave his lecture on the Sharī‘ah objectives in the Ibadhi jursprudential trend.

The various studies presented to the course centred around the concept of the Sharī‘ah objectives in the different schools of thought: the Mālikī, Shāfi‘ī, Hanafī, Hambalī, Zāhirī, Zaidī . and Ibādhī. Also tackled was the Sharī‘ah objectives thinking of al-Qādhī Sharīħ and of Abu Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī as well as these objectives according to the Bibliography.

The opening ceremony of the training course

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Al-Az’har’s First Training Course on the Critical Edition of Manuscripts In implementation of bilateral cooperation agreement between Al-Furqān Foundation and the leadership of AlAz’har University, over the holding of training courses, AlFurqān Foundation organised a course on the critical editing of manuscripts at the Salah Kamil Centre jointly with Al-Az’har University’s Critical Editing Centre under the title of “Rules and Method of the Critical Editing Islamic Manuscripts”.

42 prominent specialists took part in the training, which was held between 2nd- 7th June 2012. These experts in various disciplines joined the training course from Egypt but also from Morocco, Nigeria and Indonesia. A group of professionals in

the critical editing of manuscripts delivered the training. They included Dr. Hassan Al-Shafi‘ī, Dr. Hussein Nassar, Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid, Dr. Abdelhamid Madkur, and Dr. Muhammad Abdelwahab Jalal among others, who taught about the origins of the Textual analysis of manuscripts and their rules and on the methods of the critical editing of the jurisprudential, theological (kalām), historical and geographical texts as well as chronological biographies (ŧabaqāt) and scientific and literary texts.

A training opening ceremony was organized in the morning of the 2nd June at the Salah Kamil Centre. The ceremony was

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Ahmad Zaki Yamani, President of Al-Furqān Foundation for his material and moral support for this training. In addition, they thanked the members of the Administrative Council, the Council of Experts, Al-Furqān Foundation administration and its personnel as well.

Regarding the participants’ impression about the overall course, Dr. Abul Wafa took the floor on behalf of all the participants to praise Al-Furqān Foundation for its efforts to protect the manuscripts treasures, the books and the rarities, their availability for researchers and their publication. The participants also thanked Al-Furqān Foundation for providing them with such impressive skills and knowledge, for this training which linked theory to practice and for the high calibre lecturers. They noted that the course played a seminal role in bringing about awareness of the world of manuscripts for some, whereas it constituted a refresher course for others, which is the most important achievement of this course.

Prof. Dr. Hassan al-Shafi‘ī delivering a talk on the difficulties faced by manuscript editor

inaugurated by Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid who, on behalf of Al-Az’har University Centre of Critical Editing, welcomed the cooperation with Al-Furqān Foundation to hold this training course. He praised the noticeable cultural work Al-Furqān Foundation had embarked on, including its heritage preservation, its active manuscript surveying, cataloguing, and conservation, as well as its scientific programmes and projects that are worthy of interest.

For his part, Mr. Mohamed Drioueche took the floor on behalf of Al-Furqān Foundation to welcome the participants and the lecturers, and praised the Grand Imam of Al-Az’har University, Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyib as well as Dr. Ayman Fouad Sayyid, director of the Centre of Critical Editing. Mr. Drioueche then explained to the participants the aims and objectives of Al-Furqān Foundation, the steps taken since its inception and how it proceeded in the achievement of those objectives unreservedly. It started with an ambitious research project for surveying the Islamic manuscripts over the world, then commenced cataloguing them, and afterwards moved on to select some scientifically important manuscripts for critical editing and publication. In parallel, Al-Furqān Foundation organised a number of lectures, conferences and symposia. The training courses in the critical editing of manuscripts have so far reached nine.

When Al-Furqān Foundation felt the need for young critical editors among the corps of scholars, it decided to hold training courses in the critical editing of manuscripts.

It therefore organised two training sessions at the Dār al-Uloom in Cairo. The present initial training course is considered to be an introductory one for specialised intensive training courses to be held locally every year.

These courses are intended to be in-depth, whereby each one of them will be devoted to each speciality.

At the closing ceremony, certificates were handed out to the participants, who then praised his Excellency Sheikh

Several participants in the training course

Dr. Abul Wafa also praised the organisational aspect, whereby Al-Furqān Foundation had supplied to the participants all the necessary training material. The same impression was aired by the training staff who praised Al-Furqān Foundation for its planning, the choice of the science-based programme topics and for the selection of the technical staff and participants.

A group photo of the participants in the training course on the critical edition of manuscripts

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Autumn 2012 and Mr. Mohamed Drioueche, Projects and Publications Manager at Al-Furqān. The signature took place after all the necessary amendments were entered, after agreement about all the details and method of implementation of the project and after putting in place the required checks and balances so the cataloguing process would take place within a precise scientific framework. It was equally agreed that a workshop would be organized by Al-Furqān Foundation Head of Projects and Publications which would involve the

Al-Furqān Projects Cataloguing and Digitizing Project for the Manuscripts Collections of Dār al-Kutub in Egypt Through its cooperation with Dār al-Kutub of Egypt to establish a catalogue for its arts collections, AlFurqān Foundation aims to achieve the higher objectives of recording and preserving the Islamic heritage, thus conserving for the future generations a precise picture of this human heritage of scientific and literary knowledge.

This is an endeavour which will facilitate the mission of researchers an scholars to obtain the treasures of this distinguished heritage. This is undoubtedly an impressive enterprise which enriches libraries and the researchers in the field of Islamic manuscripts. Al-Furqān Foundation turned to tackle this weighty 3 - year project after completing the cataloguing of Dār al-Kutub’s collections in four volumes.

This is in addition to the work accomplished at the Dār’s affiliated libraries of Halim, Khalil Agha, al-Shanqiti, Mustafa Fadhil, Qawala, Tal‘at and Taymur, which will appear in eight volumes. Worth noting is that the Dār alKutub manuscripts consist of 67 kinds of collections which are classified according to their subject-matter: language, literature, Sufism, collections, etc. After the completion of the first stage of the cataloguing of these collections, 66 had remained, keeping in mind that some manuscripts have several titles which had not been spotted yet. Therefore, it happened that Dār al-Kutub recorded the first title only as shown by its own catalogues and its database. The Dār undertook to record the number of arts collections which is estimated to be 22,220 letters, in addition to sorting them

Collections of books and manuscripts at the Egyptian national library (Dār al-Kutub al-Mišriyyah)

cataloguing team, the revisers, the reviser-general as well as the electronic and data-processing teams. The aim is to iron out all the difficulties which the cataloguers face at all stages of their work.

Al-Furqān Foundation welcomed this cooperation for the sake of the recording of this Arab Islamic patrimony which is full of seminal manuscripts in the fields of Arabic literature, practical and experimental sciences in their various branches of medicine, astronomy, physics, chemistry… all these manuscripts reflect a leading role which influenced the progress of science in the Islamic period.

At the end of the signature ceremony, Al-Furqān Foundation director expressed his great satisfaction for the continued cooperation with Dār al-Kutub, while in his turn the Dār al-Kutub Director thanked Al-Furqān Foundation generously and promised to work relentlessly to overcome all the difficulties this project may face.

Egyptian national library (Dār al-Kutub al-Mišriyyah)

out so as to keep each art separate from the others.

On 25th February 2012, Dār al-Kutub signed the nd 2 Executive Addendum of the Memorandum of Understanding concerning cooperation over the cataloguing of its arts collections and the numbering of a selection from it. The signature protocol took place in the presence of Al-Furqān Foundation’s Director Mr. Sali Shahsivari,

Part one of the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts in the Egyptian national library (Dār al-Kutub al-Mišriyyah) collections (majāmi‘)

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Autumn 2012 Beg Library catalogue. The photographic and cataloguing operation will come to completion with the publication of the 18th volume of the catalogue. Al-Furqān Foundation also took upon itself the task of printing out the catalogues of both the National Library and of the Institute of Oriental Studies, as well as two volumes from the catalogue of the Sarajevo Historical Archives. The last volume of the Husrev Beg Library catalogue is expected to be published in the middle of next year. No sooner did the photography team finish its work at the Husrev Beg Library than it began a new manuscript and cataloguing operation in the other institutions mentioned above.

Cataloguing and Digitizing Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina The Ghazi Husrev Beg library of Sarajevo, Bosnia, ranks among the largest in Europe. Indeed, it is considered to be one of the biggest and most important Islamic institutions for the preservation of a varied part of the Islamic heritage in the Balkans. It is also considered as the memory of the Bosnian people in view of it being a synthesis of their cultural and civilizational achievements, represented by the impressive number of manuscripts which reach 10,000 copies in Arabic, Turkish, Farsi and Bosnian languages, originating in various parts of the Muslim world. Among these are numerous works authored by Bosnians themselves in the fields of Islamics, medicine, pharmacy, paediatrics, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, logic, history, language and literature. Some of these documents date back to the fourth and fifth centuries AH, being seminal treasures which have never been published before. The library also holds a number of old, printed documents of historical, scientific and literary nature, authored

by Bosnian scholars, as well as ancient Bosnian periodicals.

Al-Furqān Foundation’s contribution in these projects and the Foundation’s cooperation with the Sarajevo of cataloguing team is quite significant in that it has left an indelible imprint on the preservation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s cultural heritage. Indeed, Al-Furqān Foundation considers the Husrev

It is worth noting at this stage that Bosnia- Herzegovina was the victim of a war of aggression in the 1992-1995 period, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, and the forcible expulsion of hundreds of thousands whose houses had been destroyed. In addition, the war entailed the looting and the burning of the scientific and educational institutions and libraries, which led to the loss of a great number of ancient books, thousands of manuscripts and other historical documents, all of which constitutes a great loss of a sizeable part of Bosnia’s cultural assets and of its spiritual memory. In this respect two cases are worth noting: the National University Library and the Institute of Oriental Studies in Sarajevo, which were the victim of arson that destroyed thousands of manuscripts and over a million books.

No sooner did the media report the news of the arson that his Excellency Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani rushed to help protect the Husrev Beg Library’s remaining manuscripts. Al-Furqān Foundation straightaway sent metallic shelving systems for the storage of the printed manuscripts and books. Meanwhile, Al-Furqān Foundation electronic library offered the Husrev Beg Library an advanced electronic system, including sophisticated photography equipment, compact discs and microfilm systems, which made this library the only one in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina to own such state-ofthe-art material. Owing to this project, the library managed in a short period of time to record the manuscripts digitally and on microfilms. The fact is that Al-Furqān Foundation did not stop there. It initiated another project which consisted in cataloguing all the collections and manuscripts of the Husrev Beg Library, the National Library, Sarajevo’s historical archives and the Institute of Oriental Studies. So far 17 volumes (c.

9,000 manuscripts) have been published from the Husrev

Manuscripts at the library of Ghazi Husrev Beg in Sarajevo

Beg Library a cultural beacon in the Balkans, since it is a repository of Islamic history in Europe.

In reward for this endeavour, and considering the Bosnian cataloguers’ consistent perseverance, Al-Furqān Foundation offered a prize to the library director and his team.

Another project ear-marked for Bosnia by Al-Furqān Foundation was the photographing and printing of one of the most beautiful copies of the Qur’ān at the Husrev Beg Library, which is known as the Fadil-Pasha Šerifovic copy.

The new building of the Ghazi Husrev Beg library in Sarajevo

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Al-Furqān Publications The Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts’ Publications

The Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law Publications ■ The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in the Perspective of the Islamic School.

■ The Detailed Defters of The Liwa’ of Noble Jerusalem

(6 volumes), Edited by: Muhammad Adnan al-Bakhit and Noufan Raja al-Sawariyyah

Research studies of the 6th training course

■ The Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of al-Fakhri alMusili Family in the National Centre of Manuscripts in Baghdad By: Usamah Nassir al-Naqshbandi and Dhamia Abbas al-Samarra’i

(6 volumes), Edited by: Dr. Mohamed Kamal Imam

■ The Manual Guide to the Sharī‘ah Objectives (al-Daleel al-Irshādī ilā Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah)

Upcoming publications:

■ The Consequences of Actions in al-Maqāšid Terminolgy

Upcoming publications:

By: Mohamed Kamal Imam

■ Rules and Methods of Edditing Islamic manuscripts

■ The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in Ŧāhir bin Ashūr’s Thoughts.

■ Al-Maqrīzī’s and his book Al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār

Research studies of the 5th training course

fi Dhikr al-Khiŧaŧ wa al- Āthār

■ The Purposes of Good and the Jurisprudence of Public Interest

Edited by: Ayman Fouad Sayyid

By: Ibrahim al-Bayoumi Ghanem

■ Catalogue of The Arabic, Turkish, Persian & Bosnian

Manuscripts in The Historical Archive Sarajevo

■ Lexicon of Methods of Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah Scholars

■ The Mechanical Corpus of al-Isfizārī in the Sciences of

■ Maħāsin al-Sharī‘ah book of Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī The Fascinations of Sharī‘ah

Edited by: Mohamed Kamal Imam

Catalogued by: Ali Gocic

Weights and Ingenious Devices

Edited by: Mohamed Slimani

Edited by: Mohammed Abattouy and Salim Al-Hassani

■ Lexicon of al-Maqāšid Rules

■ Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in The Egyptian National Library (Dār al-Kutub al-Mišriyyah) Collections (Majāmi‘) (8 vols)

Edited by: Mohamed Kamal Imam

The Centre for Compiling the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah’ Publications

■ Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Bosnian Manuscripts in the Ghazi Husrev-Bey Library Sarajevo (vol. 18) ■ Catalogue of Manuscripts Collections in The Suleymaniye Library (12 vols)

■ The Encyclopaedia of Makkah al-Mukarramah and alMadīnah al-Munawwarah (5th Vol.) Edited by: Abbas Saleh Tashkandy

■ New Edition of Al-Maqrīzī’s Al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār fi

Dhikr al-Khiŧaŧ wa al- Āthār

Upcoming publications:

(6 volumes), Edited by: Ayman Fouad Sayyid

■ The Encyclopaedia of Makkah al-Mukarramah and alMadīnah al-Munawwarah (6th Vol.) Edited by: Abbas Saleh Tashkandy

■ The House of al-Sayyedah Khadeejah bint Khowaylid in Makkah al-Mukarramah Edited by: HE Ahmed Zaki Yamani

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The Objectives of Sharī‘ah in the Perspective of the Islamic Schools of Thought – Various Studies

Recent Publications The Bibliography to the Sharī‘ah Objectives (al-Daleel al Irshādī ila Maqāșid al-Sharī‘ah)

Al-Furqān Foundation Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law recently published Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah fī al-Mathāhib al-Islāmiyah (Sharī‘ah Objectives in the Islamic schools of Law). This book represents the proceedings of the 6th training course The Bibliography to the Sharī‘ah objectives is a comprehensive organized by Centre for the Study of the Philosophy reference work and a historical record of what has been written of Islamic Law in cooperation with the Law Faculty in the field of the Sharī‘ah objectives. It is also a library tool at Alexandria University from 25th- 29th April 2012, which brings together the disparate intellectual production in under the same title name. The course was taught this field. This study project, supervised by Dr. Mohamed Kamal by a group of prominent scholars and attended by Imam, made a survey of all that has been produced in this field a great number of lawyers, students, researchers and from the 3rd century AH until today. The study covered all the experts in Islamic Studies.

Islamic schools of thought and included such various sources as The studies presented in this course focussed on manuscripts, theses, conferences and modern studies found in a the concept of the Sharī‘ah objectives in the various number of countries and in their languages. With the publication schools of thought, including the Mālikī, Shāfi‘ī, of the 9th volume of this encyclopaedic work, the research in this Hanafī, Hambalī, Zāhirī, Zaidī and Ibādhī. The field came to a close. next topic was the Sharī‘ah objectives thought as Al-Furqān Foundation will shortly publish two extra volumes to propounded by al-Qādhī Sharīħ and Abū Bakr alfinalise this impressive work. These are the Mu‘jam A‘lām al-Maqāšid Qaffāl al-Shāshī. Then a brief presentation was made (dictionary of the famous scholars in the Sharī‘ah objectives) and about the Manual Guide to the Sharī‘ah objectives the Qawā‘id al-Maqāšid (Sharī‘ah objectives rules). which deals with this subject in an easy way.   

The Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of al-Fakhri al-Mușili Family in the National Centre of Manuscripts in Baghdad This catalogue, which was published recently by Al-Furqān Foundation Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, contains the archives of the private library of the Fakhri al-Mawsili family in Iraq. It includes 222 manuscripts covering various topics, such as the Holy Qur’ān and its sciences, the doctrines, Islamic jurisprudence and its origins, fatwas, obligatory worship acts, Hadith and its sciences, as well as grammar.

This is considered to be the first catalogue of this library which details its many precious archives.

This library was set up owing to the contribution of most of the Fakhri family members and holds some of the rare manuscripts, hand-written by their own authors and bearing

their own comments. In addition, these items carry the record of their successive owners from 1150 to 1173 AH. The catalogue was prepared by Dr. Usamah Nassir al-Naqshbandi and Dr. Dhamia Muhammad Abbas al-Samarra’i

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

The 5th volume of

D the Encyclopaedia of Makkah E

al-Mukarramah and al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah The Centre for Compiling the Encyclopaedia of Makkah al-Mukarramah and al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, one of the centres of Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, is pleased to announce the publication of the fifth volume of its Encyclopaedia series.

This volume includes hundreds of entries under the letter bā’, starting with the first entry on al-Barīd (Postal-Mail service) and concluding with an entry related to the Bī’atu Makkah (Makkah Environment). It contains a lot of information about the history of the postal-mail service in the holy city of Makkah, including an account of known personalities who served in this industry. It also includes entries related to the gardens of Makkah, as well as the prominent locations and families.

What distinguishes the fifth volume is the fact that it contains entries that include information about the influential social groups that formed the backbone and foundations of the Hijazi society in both holy cities of Makkah and Madinah throughout history until the present time. This volume is printed in 662 pages of large format; prepared by many contributors and edited by Dr. Abbas Saleh Tashkandy.

By publishing this volume, the Encyclopaedia completed the subject entries related to letter bā’, while the first three volumes covered entries under the letter alif alone, followed by two volumes under the letter bā’. Therefore, the sixth volume, which is expected to be published soon, will contain entries under the two letters ta’ and tha’ and is rich with hundreds of subjects, supported by dozens of images and rare documents.

The Encyclopaedia series collection’s main focus is to bring to light and document the many roles played by both holy cities of Makkah and Madinah in various fields, such as the natural environment, the social, economic, cultural, scientific, religious and political life, as well as the architecture and planning, using sources which documented the history of both holy cities, based on variety of source material, such as books/publications, historical documents, photographs, maps and recordings.

The aim of the Encyclopaedia project – as described by His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the chairman of the Foundation - is to acknowledge the merit and grace of two of the most holy sites on Earth, the city of Makkah, the sanctuary of the House of God, and Madinah, the city of the Prophet Moħammed peace be upon him, upon the Islamic civilisation and humankind. The project also highlights the profound role that these two cities played in supporting scientific and cultural initiatives throughout the centuries, as the origins of Islamic civilisation and its source of enlightenment that enlightened the whole world.

Hence, the objectives of the project is bringing to light the cultural and scientific active role of both mosques, the sacred mosque located in Makkah and the prophet’s mosque located in Madinah, in encouraging and protecting the advancement of knowledge since the birth of the Islamic civilisation, and throughout its historical footsteps as it thrived further in other cities like

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Damascus, followed by Baghdad, then Cairo and Astana and thereafter.

The Encyclopaedia’s distinctive coverage and meticulous methodology established by the involved experts in the field makes it one of the authoritative, reliable and primary sources in its related knowledge area.

This is one of the largest projects of its kind. It is reasonably expected for this scale of project to be run by a state rather than one organisation single handed, when considering the high cost incurred by the research, the required long term planning and timescale. The project’s rigorous research carried by the experts and scholars is continuous and its outcome is expected to be published in around twenty volumes in due course.

The Encyclopaedia of Makkah al-Mukarramah and al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah is a pioneering and timely project aiming to provide above all an accurate knowledge and reference, hence contributing to the world knowledge and culture, creating opportunities for dialogue between civilisations. The collection series collates and references most of the works written on the subject of the two holy cities Makkah and Madinah.

Due to the extent of the preparatory work for the research, a centre in Jeddah was set up uniquely to oversee and ensure the continuity of the project. The Centre includes an executive administration and a team of scholars, specialist and support services to sustain and assistant the research.

The Centre also includes a reference service and a publication department. The Centre is run by the Encylopeadia’s chief editor Dr. Abbas Saleh Tashkandy.

The project is a work of a wide cooperation of a large scholarly community of specialists, high esteemed scholars, experts and academics, all working vigorously to produce the series.

This work has been a living dream and an inspirational vision of His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani for more than 40 years. Dr Abbas Saleh Tashkandy was the first with whom HE Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani - the Chairman and Founder of AlFurqān - raised the idea in 1978.

Later on, during the first conference organised by Al-Furqān Foundation in 1991, the late Sheikh Hamad al-Jassir, a member of Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, gave a keynote speech at the Foundation’s launch, in which he presented some of the most valuable manuscripts of Makkah and Madinah and urged the Foundation to undertake the task of producing an encyclopaedia of the two great cities.

This latter event encouraged His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the chairman of the Foundation, to fulfil his long-thought dream on publishing the Encyclopaedia of Makkah al-Mukarramah and al-Madīnah alMunawwarah.

After long studies, consideration and several international meetings in Makkah, Jeddah, Istanbul and London, the International Advisory Board and the Academic Board for the Mawsoa Centre was set up. This was closely followed by the creation of the executive administration of the Centre and immediate start of the project including the initiation of the centre adjacent activities that followed closely after.

From the day this project was conceived, set and initiated over 20 years ago, His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani remains the sole funder and the immediate director of the project, closely monitoring its progress and continuously nurturing its growth under his personal care and watchful eyes.

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

The 6th volume of the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah

Upcoming Publications

and other academic series on Madinah

New scientific series on Madinah on the occasion of its election as capital of Islamic culture

The new edition of al-Maqrīzī Book Al-Mawā‘iz. wa al-I‘tibār fī Dhikr al-Khitat . . wa al-Āthār

The sixth Volume of the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah will shortly appear and will cover entries under the letter ta and tha. The new Volume deals with hundreds of subjects whose exposition is supported by photographs and rare documents. As part of the encyclopaedia project scientific series, including advanced studies on Madinah on the occasion of its election as capital of Islamic culture will be also produced.

Al-Furqān Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts of the will publish in the next few months a second augmented and revised version of Al-Maqrīzī’s al-Mawā‘iż wa al-I‘tibār fī Dhikr al-Khiŧaŧ wa al-Āthār (a topographic and historical account of Egypt’s architectural heritage). The book was written by Taqī al-Dīn Aħmad ibn ‘Alī Al-Maqrīzī who was an Egyptian historian who died in the year 845 AH/1442 CE. The novelty of the new edition resides in its use of a new hand-written copy by the author which was discovered recently in the library of Michigan University. This copy provides insights into the way the author had produced his final manuscript. His extensive use of annotations gives an indication of the time scale taken to complete the manuscript.

The new edition also refers to an old manuscript by the author kept in the library of Faiż Allah in Istanbul. Unlike other copies, this manuscript has annotations added by the author to the margins of the original text.

The typing errors in the first edition were corrected. The margin annotations as well as the footnotes were updated in the light of the works and research which have appeared since the first edition. The book also includes recent photographs taken by the editor of the sites mentioned by Al-Maqrīzī.

The photographs are compared to the sketches made in the beginning of the nineteen century by the scholars of the French campaign of Egypt and by the painters Robert Hay and David Roberts. Documenting heritage sites on the basis of written descriptions and photographic records is an effective scientific method.

The new edition features an updated index and devoted one volume to the introduction of the book. In the introduction, one section deals with the subject matter of the book, the life of the author and his publications, his methodology in researching the book, the controversies of plagiarism by the author and their refutation, the references of the book, the copies handwritten by Al-Maqrīzī that have reached us whether in the form of drafts, notebooks, publications or third party publications handwritten by him, studies on the copies of the book and their locations in the world, the previous editions of the book and a codicologist description of the copies according to the adopted publishing norms.

The second section relates to the study of the Egyptian capital at the time of Al-Maqrīzī and the evolution of its architecture with reference to the principal mosques, the schools, religious institutions and the types of architectural forms that have reached us.

Lexicon of Methods of Maqāșid Al-Sharī‘ah Scholars Al-Furqān Foundation Centre for the Study of the Sharī‘ah Objectives (Maqāšid Centre) will shortly publish a Lexicon on the methods of Sharī‘ah objectives scholars, written by the eminent scholar Mohammad Kamal Imam.

The lexicon is the crowning achievement of a major project by the centre in the form of a bibliography of the Sharī‘ah objectives in nine volumes. The lexicon surveys the eminent scholars of the Sharī‘ah objectives and their followers in the various Islamic schools of thought. The eminent scholars include: Imam Al-Qaffāl Al-Shāshī, Imām al-Juwainī, Imām al-Ghazālī, Al-‘Iz Ibn Abdussalām, Shihāb Eddine Al-Qarāfī, Abu Isħāq Al-Shātibī, Ibn Taymiyya, Addahlawy, Imam Ashawkānī, Tahar Ben Achour and ‘Allal Al-Fassi. The lexicon starts first by introducing an eminent scholar, then describes his efforts in the field of the Sharī‘ah objectives and the deductive methodology, and finally lists his contribution to the subject.

Lexicon of al-Maqāșid Rules Al-Furqān Foundation Centre for the Study of the Sharī‘ah objectives will also shortly publish a lexicon of the rules of the Sharī‘ah objectives written by the eminent scholar Mohammad Kamal Imam. In this work the author covers all the Sunni, Shi‘a and Ibadhī schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The rules are confined to the areas of worship and human interactions in each school. The lexicon surveys the application of each rule in each school of thought with the aim of promoting the rules of the Sharī‘ah objectives in contemporary ijtihād and showing their deductive power in determining practical rulings.

The study of the rules of Sharī‘ah objectives is one of the most precise among the sciences of the origins of fiqh (ušūl).

Its objective is not only the deduction of rules from the global Sharī‘ah principles but it also seeks to understand the Sharī‘ah objectives and their status among the science of fiqh rules and the extent of their deductive power in determining practical innovative rulings.

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012 The accompanying study to the edited text has cross references and comparisons with various sources including history books and legal court records. Footnotes were added to provide details on eminent scholars, individuals, property owners, places, localities and population groups.

An annex of sources and references for further studies as well as detailed maps on the Al-Quds district accompanied with digitised maps is also provided.

Book Review the Detailed Defters of The Liwa’ of Noble Jerusalem With the publication of Volume 6, the last in the series on the District of Noble Jerusalem (Al-Quds), or the Ottoman Tapu records, Al-Furqān Foundation will have achieved the objective of editing this large documentary series, publishing all its volumes and maintaining the quality required.

The book is unique in the Arabic library. The study covers one of the most important periods in the history of AlQuds. Most of the existing and visible buildings of Al-Quds as well as the wall belong to this Ottoman period hence the importance of the study which confirms the Arabic and Ottoman characters of most of what exists now in terms of visible characters in Al-Quds since the beginning of the Ottoman era. The book can be considered, on account of its survey and statistics, as an atlas on physical and human geography. It constitutes a detailed document of the inhabitants of Al-Quds, their distribution among the towns, areas and villages and addresses a need for social and economic studies of the Ottoman era. It dispels the myth of backwardness of the Arabic city, the lack of tolerance in it and the migration from the countryside and villages with the arrival of the Ottomans.

The series constitutes an important historical record documenting the most important period in the life of this city during the Ottoman rule in the 10th century AH/16 century CE, especially in the field of populations and urbanism.

The records report information of great importance.

They depict methodically the characteristics of Al-Quds city through the description of its streets, quarters, markets, shops, mosques, schools, religious orders and walls, and show how water was channelled to the city through waterways from the neighbouring villages. The book also includes complete statistical analyses on populations, villages and their locations, farms and the names of trusts and land owners. The records are rich and provide precise and detailed information on administrative divisions, agricultural and livestock resources, commerce, coinage in use, measures, weights, land surface areas, taxes and levies. There is information on ownership, and trusts dedicated to schools, mosques, zāwiyas, religious orders and hospitals in Al-Quds city and its districts. The editors undertook a comparison of the contents of the records with the archives of the legal courts of Al-Quds, thereby pointing the way forward for future researchers to make use of the records for a comprehensive understanding of the history of the Al-Quds district in the sixteenth century.

The Foundation is pleased to publish this documentary encyclopaedia with its historical, geographical, political and legal dimensions. The aim of the publication is a social, architectural and historical presentation of AlQuds, so as to make it ever present in the minds of Arabs, Muslims and Christians in our countries on a daily basis, especially in the face of the many attempts which seek through various ways to remove the eternal Arabic Islamic heritage of the sacred city and its string of neighbouring Palestinian towns.

Given the importance of Palestine to the Foundation, the latter has devoted special efforts for it in its field of activities and has reserved for it large area studies. On the occasion of the celebration Al-Quds as capital of Arab cultures, the Foundation has organised a seminar on codicology of Palestinian manuscripts, documents and legal recordings in the Jordanian University which was attended by 22 codicologists from many libraries and documentary institutions in Palestine and Jordan. This is a symbolic service to Palestine and a contribution by the Foundation to the written Palestinian heritage through codicology, critical editing and publication. Previously the Foundation had undertaken the codicology of the manuscripts of Al-Aqsa mosque and the Khalidiya library and had edited a precious book on the history of Al-Quds and Al-Khalil University.

The two researchers Dr Mohammad Adnan Al-Bakhit and Dr Noufan Raja Al-Sawariyyah are to be congratulated for the enormous accomplishment of editing the series and establishing the authenticity of the Ottoman source and the Arabic translation on the opposite pages. They analysed methodically the original sources and used in their work independent manuscripts, published books and the recorded writings on Al-Quds, going back to the beginning of the Ottoman era.

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Profile

His Excellency Prof. Dr. Abdul-Wahab Abu-Sulaiman Dr. Abdul-Wahab Abu Sulaiman is considered to be one of the outstanding Islamic scholars in the Islamic world today. He is an authority within Sunni circles, one of the symbols of current moderation and enlightenment in the scientific community and one of the pioneers who founded the moderation school known for establishing the jurisprudence of priorities and equalizations and Islamic law (Sharī‘ah).

Dr. Abdul-Wahab Abu Sulaiman is a member of the Council of Senior Scholars in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and of the jurisprudential Council of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He is a founding member of the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah, and a member of Al-Furqān Foundation International Advisory Council and the Board of Experts of the centre for the study of the philosophy of Islamic law. An inspiring fundamentalist jurist, he has a diversity of modern perspectives, an authentic Sharī‘ah knowledge, and is a an autoritative reference in many Arab and Islamic countries, with a considerable contribution as an attentive researcher. He is also an astute scientific investigator as well as a high calibre economist and a writer, who has contributed abundantly to the intellectual arena and literature.

Sheikh Abdul-Wahab Abu Sulaiman is also a great historian, one of the most prolific scientists of in-depth historical studies, specializing in the history of Makkah and its two holy shrines at its most prosperous era, which made him one of the most virtuous scholars and the leading proponent of Makkah scholarship.

The main reason for the abundance and authentic knowledge of this man is that he studied at the hands of one of the great Makkan scholars, namely Sheikh Hassan Moħammad Mashāŧ (may Allah grant him mercy), who taught him continuously for seven years since he was in high school, providing him with abundant knowledge, courtesy and wisdom. This eminent Sheikh taught him in his home as well where learned from him the Arabic language, sciences, grammar, eloquence (balāghah), logic, etc.

Dr. Abu Sulaiman began his career as a teacher of Jurisprudence and Qur’ān interpretation at the middle School of Al-Zahir after graduating a teacher training department at the American University of Beirut.

He became professor of Arabic and religious sciences at Al-Aziziah secondary school in Makkah before he taking a lecturer position at the Sharī‘ah Faculty teaching the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Next he was promoted to the post of rector of Sharī‘ah and Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University.

With the help of a scholarship, Abu Sulaiman studied abroad and obtained a PhD and a degree in English law and human rights at the

University of London. His stay abroad enabled him to learn about other cultures, broaden his sources of knowledge, while learning English in the process, which distinguished him from other students.

Lecturing in Islamic law at Western Universities, he then became a representative of Saudi Arabia in several international conferences including Switzerland, Kuwait, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Malaysia, Qatar, and many other countries.

Dr. Abu Sulaiman lectured also at the University of Malaysia, North Carolina and Harvard, Boston University, Duke University, and universities in the United Arab Emirates. He also held many responsibilities and administrative positions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and abroad, and acquired extensive experience in the field of curriculum development. He is a member of more than 22 scientific and academic councils and governmental charity organizations and has participated extensively in international conferences, seminars and symposia.

Dr. Abdu-l-Wahab Abu Sulaiman was awarded King Abdul Aziz First Class Medal at the Janadriya Festival as Saudi cultural personality of the year in 2011. He also earned many scientific awards including: World Book Award in its first session of the Riyadh Literary Club, for his distinct documentary book Bāb al-Salām (the door to peace).

He has a strong presence in the cultural and scientific forums and his scientific works reached over 70 books and research papers. He explored various investigative and research areas, while writing on and lecturing in Qur’ānic and Islamic studies, jurisprudence, scientific research and curriculum studies, history and beliefs, contracts for contemporary transactions, hajj rituals studies, contemporary issues of zakāt and biography. One scholar even described him as a living encyclopaedia.

Indeed, the Ummah is not in need of a jurist who preserves texts, but in need of a jurist who shares its daily realities and is open to its time by representing its thought and ideas 21

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

As a jurist, Dr. Abu Sulaiman reached a high degree of scholarship in the field of law, comparative jurisprudence, and legal studies. He contributed greatly to legislating and recording of the jurisprudential laws under the major Islamic schools of thought through jurisprudence law magazines. He also covered the various schools of Islamic doctrines in order to explore their benefits to facilitate the daily life of Muslims around the world. He believes that the real scholar should share the Ummah’s concerns, hopes, pains and realities - not only memorize theoretical texts. Indeed, the Ummah is not in need of a jurist who preserves texts, but in need of a jurist who shares its daily realities and is open to its time by representing its thought and ideas.

He recommends that the Ummah’s jurists be aware of and familiar with the knowledge and sciences of the current time and age. Because jurisprudence is a fine creative industry, Dr. Abu Sulaiman also calls on the jurists to be aware of the social and psychological aspects of life, and to pay attention to the consequences of their rulings and resolutions. Meanwhile, he warns against separating science and religion, and calls on the men of law to seek help from technology, and make use of it for the benefit of Islam, pointing out that turning away for astronomical and technical knowhow is a sign of intellectual and mental regression.

Dr. Abu Sulaiman undertook to organise the fiqh topics and wrote on its theories and rules and dealt with the jurisprudence of necessity, writing about its impact on Islamic law, its modern applications, and calling for the renewal of the fundamentalist thought of Al-Juwainī and the methodology of Imam Shafi‘ī in the origins of jurisprudence.

Among his works on the Two Holy Mosques are: Al- Ħaram al-Sharīf - al-Jāmi‘ wa al-Jāmi‘ah (the holy shrine, a mosque and a university) and Maktabat Makkah al-Mukarramah (the library of Makkah). In addition, he edited the following books: Al-Jawāhir al-Hissān fī Tarājim al-Fudhalā’ wa al-A‘yān (The beautiful jewels and annotated autobiographies of virtuous dignitaries), Al-Ħaramain al-Sharīfain (the two holy shrines), Jāmi‘a Al-Zaitūna ( Zaituna mosque), Al-‘Ulamā wa al-Udabā’ (scholars and writers), Al-Warraqoon fī al-Ħijāz… (authors of the Hijaz in the 14th century AH, Al-Amākin al-Ma’thurah… (Islamic Historical Places in the Holy City of Makkah al-Mukarramah) and Bāb al-Salām (The door of peace).

Among his studies in worship is a hajj series, including Al-Mach‘ar wa Al-Sha‘īrah (Arafāt, Muzdalifah, Mina, Al-Masjid Al-Ħarām, and AlMass‘ah). He also produced some studies in other areas of knowledge, on scientific research methodology, its specificities and its shortcomings, its Qur’ānic-based origins. A prolific writer, he has written on such variable subjects as skin patching, surgical procedures, the Islamic approach to combating crime and Aleija Muhammed’s American organization. In addition, he produced many research papers which appeared in most journals on zakat, banking transactions, contracts, insurance and contracts, supply, testing and bidding and bank cards, investments, debts, housing, religious endowments and their purposes, and catastrophe management.

These works were characterized by scientific depth and mastery, demonstrating the vast knowledge of this man. Allah has endowed him with deep jurisprudence, accuracy of vision, comprehensive views of things due to his scientific background which he applies in accordance with the requirements of the present time. He developed

a moderation in dealing with all the issues owing to his deep objective approaches, creative opinions, and innovative conclusions, where one can find the intermingling of the Islamic rules and international law, which is rare among scientists today. The personality of this skilled academic thinker is characterized by genius and creativity, which is a rarity. Some people put him at the top of the list of scientists whose vision has been illuminated by Allah who broadened their knowledge.

As for his scientific methodology, it is characterized by purity and clarity. He is a peacemaker when it comes to suggesting solutions that unite rather than divide, using in so doing reality jurisprudence.

The distinction of this illustrious scholar resides in the singularity of his knowledge, his contributions, his particular views and his exceptional character. He is full of life, vivid in the determination and endurance when it comes to the field of scientific and jurisprudential contributions. Dr. Abu Sulaiman hates showing off, and does not seek fame; nor does he feel comfortable with the media spotlight, simply because he is humble. When you sit down with him, no doubt that you realize he commands respect thanks to his virtues and qualities which only men of knowledge enjoy. He does not hasten to speak, but when he makes his point on a particular case, he attracts the minds with his ideas, with the splendour of his reasoning, the wisdom of his mind, the eloquence of his tongue, and his quick improvisation - all wisdom and knowledge that Allah endowed him with.

This unique man possesses genuine modesty, fine and sincere feelings, purity of the heart, a high degree of tolerance and courteous manners. He is a sweet person who deals with all sections of society without affectation, always smiling. Allah has decorated him a dress of decency, uttering nice words, speaking in earnest. He is loved by all whom he has touched, and always free from envy and greeds. He is in continuous search of simplicity, highly magnanimous with people.

Yet, he has a humorous personality, a sincere smile, and enjoys the spirit of fun.

Along with along with his knowledge, his literature, his fiqh expertise… Dr. Abu Sulaiman possesses profound, precise, objective political and social views, applicable to all the areas of science, knowledge, management, planning and organization. Alongside his strategic, highly distinctive thought, he possesses the characteristics of wisdom and a balanced mind. A patriot to the core, he remains honest and sincere in his advice as well.

The scholar is one of many prominent lovers to Makkah. He is her righteous son, grown on her love, preserving a great esteem to its value, defending the sanctity that represents its historic role as eternal capital of the Islamic culture, a staunch advocate of its antiquities, which constitute a section of its history and culture. He says: “the influential places in honoured Makkah and luminous Madinah, with their spiritual and faithful inspiration represent a living history, this is why Makkah, as an Islamic and civilizational landmark for all Muslims, must show its proper Islamic and historical position and value to their scholars, thinkers, writers and science students - to all visitors coming from all over the Muslim world. And as the Makkah and its history are the property of the Ummah, we must not view it from a local angle, but through a universal prism. Thus, it is imperative that we maintain everything that concerns its history, because anything affecting its monuments and properties will for sure affect the whole history of the Ummah”.

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Foundation Profile

The Aleppo Waqf Library The library concept has evolved noticeably across time.

Whereas the library was a mere place for storing books and making them available for leaders, it represents today the backbone and the cultural fabric of society.

The Aleppo Waqf Library is of this kind in that it is today considered to be a cultural and civilisation beacon in Syria and in the Arab world owing to it planning and impeccable organisation. Indeed, the library endeavours to place itself among world’s specialized libraries through the cultural diversity of its activities.

Aleppo has for long had the reputation of having a keen interest in libraries since the time of Seyf al-Dawlah alĦamadānī (4th Century AH). al- Ħamadānī set up a palace library, which became popular among scholars, men of letters and poets, and in so doing created a precedent in the wake of which Aleppo witnessed a surge in the number of libraries. This trend continued under the Mamluk dynasty and the Ottoman Empire.

The Library was set up in 1926 CE on the premises of the Eastern School, close to the Grand Mosque. It has ever since been attended by researchers and famous orientalists who visit to consult its manuscripts owing to its mention in Western catalogues.

It was closed for 10 years (2006-1996) only to reopen with a new look and in new premises in the festival centre of Aleppo, the capital of Islamic culture.

The Library hosts thousands of priceless, rare manuscripts and books, including works by Aleppo’s scholars and thinkers of yore, like sheikh Maarouf alDawalibi, Dr. Najwa Uthman, Sheikh Muhammad Jumail Aqqad, Ahmad Dughan and others. Other archives were also gathered in various other places of Aleppo, covering

medicine, astronomy, mathematics, sciences, languages and history. Although found in less prosperous places of the city, the manuscripts are undoubtedly the best scientific and intellectual wealth of Aleppo and represent a sizeable part of the city’s history, as well as being a reflection of its inhabitants’ active contributions to the rise of the Arabs and the Muslims.

The Waqf Library was supplied with new books in the various disciplines, which raised the number of its assets from 26,000 to 27,000. The supply operation is still under way.

From the organisational point of view, the library has several departments and sections: the administrative department, the registry, the hand-written and electronic catalogues, sections for static/immobile books totalling 70,000 books and sections for mobile books intended for reference, reading rooms with a capacity for 140 readers, a researchers’ section as well as a room for senior researchers. A grand hall with a seating capacity of 170 is reserved for conferences, training courses, workshops, fairs and other cultural activities, and has facilities for simultaneous interpretation. A display screen and a plasma film projection screen are also featured. On the technical side, the library has an information retrieval department provided with an internet section open for researchers as well as a section for waqf electronic library service. Most important in this department are the databases that store

Lecture theatre

The data room

Outer entrance to the Aleppo Waqf library

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012 and a course in librarianship and data processing.

It also undertook the digital reproduction of all its manuscripts to make them available for research. In addition to these activities, the Library holds monthly workshops in human development, catastrophe and crisis management, research methodology, illiteracy control, reading skills for youth, etc.

the books and manuscripts by subject. The department also includes a room for cataloguing, for stationery and for the administrative activities. Worth noting, however, is the space reserved for a museum, where the possessions of the library are displayed, ranging from manuscripts, to copper items, to pottery, to canvas paintings and to wood items. The actual area of the present library is about 1,500 m2.

The Library also hosts a museum devoted to the history of Aleppo during the time of the Ottoman Empire, a centre for documents and manuscripts, a museum for the Grand Mosque prayer mats, and a centre for Islamic calligraphy and ornaments, as well as a workshop for the preservation and restoration of manuscripts.

The Library has an outstanding Islamic architectural style prominent throughout, from the use of woodwork for decoration to the ornaments that adorn the glass, the seats and the rooms.

One of the monthly workshops

Admittedly, the Waqf Library is not seen as a library in the traditional sense of the word. Indeed, in addition to it being the repository of the Islamic heritage in its capacity of an Islamic reference library, a great extension for the Grand Umayyade Mosque of Aleppo, and an architectural beauty of high standing, it represents a cultural project that lends continual support for the Ummah’s intellectual revival. It is by the same token a centre for academic research, which caters for researchers and for higher legal and scientific studies. Meanwhile, it is an institution for the critical editing of manuscripts, audio recording, civilisation documentation, Ottoman studies and the study of arts.

It is an open university where continuous awareness workshops are held, and a specialized institution which devotes all its intellectual assets in the form of library services for researchers, thinkers and other interested parties.

The exhibition hall of manuscripts and relics

The Library plays a prominent role in the preservation of books with a particular focus on the manuscripts. It also undertakes classification, cataloguing, conservation, restoration, photography, microfilming, scanning work and compact discs, using state-of-the art technology, in addition to the critical editing of the manuscripts, their publication and the preparation of related handouts to students.

In cooperation with the Waqf Library, the Islamic Heritage Foundation organised a manuscript cataloguing training course in Aleppo in 2008. Fourteen professors from eight Arab countries took part in this session, which trained thirty - five participants half of whom were Syrians from the Waqf Library, Al-Assad Library and the university of Aleppo. The other half were from the neighbouring Arab countries. The trained Syrian personnel started straightaway the digital cataloguing of the Library archives. In addition, the Library has so far held three manual and digital archive restoration training courses, one course in manuscript critical editing and a number of courses in scientific research methodology,

The dome above the Waqf library ceiling

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Newsletter No. 11

In Memoriam

Sheikh Dr. Mohammed al-Habib bin al-Khojah

Formerly member of the International Advisory Council and the Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law Excerpts from an article by Dr Abdul Wahab Abu Sulaiman

Scholar Sheikh Dr. Mohamed Al-Habib Bel-Khodja, former secretary of the International Jurisprudential Academy, passed away at his hometown of Tunis early on 23rd Safar 1433 AH/17th 2012 CE. Sheikh Ben Khodja spent his life as a scholar and a learner, a benefactor and a beneficiary like many true scholars.

He graduated from Al-Zaituna University and studied with top scholars in law, Arabic language and literature. He accompanied the virtuous Sheikhs Mohammed Fadel Ben Achour and Mohamed Tahar Ben Achour. He read the latter’s book Tafsīr al-Thaħrīr wa al-Tanwīr (interpretation of liberation and enlightenment) in which he learned a lot of the author’s rhetorical peculiarities and his methodology.

He then became Tahar Ben Achour’s disciple and produced a methodically edited copy of his unique book Maqāšid al-Sharī‘ah Al-Islamīah (Objectives of Islamic law).

Sheikh Ben Khodja is among the Muslim scholarly elite in modern times who extrapolate from the Arabic language its secrets, and use them in all dealings related to it; it is their tool for deriving rules. He spoke French and used them to deliver his lectures; he was one of the best to represent the Ummah in international forums. He would speak in Arabic in Muslim circle when dealing with intellectual, juristic, and jurisprudential matters, and in French in the language university halls and circles. May God rest his soul.

Sheikh Ben Khodja acquired the principles of scientific originality in general, and the Islamic jurisprudential ones in particular, within al-Zaituna University corridors, adding to this training the revivalist and modern elements in the greatest modern centres of learning, which led him to obtain a doctorate the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1964. During his stay in Paris, he analysed Western society from within and established relations with some moderate, eminent orientalists, correcting a lot of their ideas about Islamic studies. The effects of this interaction appeared in his original scientific thinking, his approach to the contemporary life that is firmly grounded in his authentic intellectual basis. These personal traits and qualities made him a unique scholar particularly distinct and brilliant. I found in him a fertile ground and a smart mind glowing with cleverness and brilliancy.

If talking about his jurisprudential works, he is one of al-Zaituna mosque scholars who participated in educating the nation and raising the flag of knowledge in the far corners of Africa, and in the Islamic world in general.

Meanwhile, they have their strong ties and their intellectual impact in the Two Holy Mosques in particular.

Sheikh Ben Khodja is known for his straight approach to the renewal of Islamic jurisprudence without disregarding the authentic heritage or ignoring the new present.

He carried out an important Islamic duty as secretary of The International Islamic jurisprudence Academy. His approach to renew Islamic jurisprudence was not only theoretical, it was practical as well. This

Autumn 2012 practicality and experience were reflected in his innovative jurisprudential work at The International Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, where he was confronted with new contemporary issues and his responsibilities increased.

He lived the contemporary life as a thinker, a learner and a researcher who mingled in society. His responsibilities did not prevent him from being au fait with current intellectual and social events. This impacted on his scientific approach and jurisprudential research and his openness to the modern world with knowledge and critical insight. These, in turn, reflected positively on his intellectual, institutional and scientific leadership.

He guided the ship of contemporary Islamic jurisprudence safely and he did not look for personal glory. His main concern was serving of the Ummah through one of its important institutions. He was an intellectual mujahid who sincerely devoted his life to fulfil his covenant with Allah. He dedicated everything he owned, prestige, home and influence abroad, to serve the Ummah in term of jurisprudence and intellectual pursuits.

During his duties at the International Jurisprudence Academy secretariat, the largest number of decisions made to address important issues in areas such as economics and medicine were made during his office, to the point where there was no area that was not covered by his decisions. This happened thanks to his wise management of the secretariatgeneral of the Academy. His intense passion for the Ummah’s interests and heritage was honoured and rewarded by international and local academic forums in recognition of his scientific status.

He read most of the new publications in the field of intellectual renewal both in jurisprudential and academic aspects. He was a writer, a native Arab Muslim by upbringing and an academic by education.

At the Academy, he trained a new generation of academics with a straight and practical approach and rational standards - not only jurists, but also doctors and economists in order to address developing and contemporary issues, with an authentically Islamic approach.

He published works of academic nature, which served to back the Academy’s message and the achievement of its objectives. These include: Ma‘lamat al-Qawā‘id al-Fiqhiyah (the encyclopaedia of jurisprudence rules) and Al-Mawsoo‘ah al-Fiqhiah al-Iqtišādiyah (the economic jurisprudential encyclopedia) which was one of the academic projects adopted by the Academy during his term in office.

Sheikh Ben Khodja (may God rest his soul) was concerned about the Ummah’s heritage in health and disease, in his home and abroad. He brought to light some important figures. He became a renowned specialist in the works some of these leading figures of academic excellence. In this respect, he brought to light the intellectual works of the Hadīth narrator and scholar Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn abd Rashid al-Fihri, in addition to poems and extracts from al-Hazem al-Carthagy. Sheikh Ben Khodja’s intellectual output also includes a number of works and lectures in different jurisprudential and linguistic topics.

Indeed, his death has left a large hole to be filled in the Islamic world, a sorrowful echo and deep impact over the members of the nation, especially among the academics and those who knew him personally and valued his status. May Allah Almighty grant us a worthy successor to Sheikh Ben Khodja, and provide his loved ones with patience and fortitude. And may Allah bestow over the Sheikh his mercy and eternal peace. Allah Almighty has promised in his holy book that his promise will come true: “As for those who strive hard in Us (Our Cause), We will surely guide them to Our Paths. And verily, Allah is with the Muhsinun (good doers)”. Qur’ān 29:69

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Al-Furqān and its Centres Al-Furqān: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit foundation registered in the United Kingdom, number: 2329628. It was established in London in 1988 by the Yamani Cultural and Charitable Foundation. HE Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani is the founder of both of these foundations.

Vision: To be a leading foundation in preserving and studying the Islamic written heritage.

Mission: To survey, preserve, study and publish the Islamic written heritage, as well as assist and promote the research in its fields.

Aims and Objectives:

- To initiate, promote and support research in the field of Islamic heritage - To assist in the preservation and restoration of the Islamic written heritage - To raise awareness on the richness of the Islamic heritage, its role and importance

Activities: To achieve its aims and objectives, the Foundation pursues the following activities: - Editing and publishing Islamic manuscripts of particular significance - Publishing studies, bibliographical and encyclopaedic works in the field of Islamic heritage - Organizing training courses on various aspects of Islamic heritage - Holding academic seminars, conferences and lectures in order to stimulate discussions and action in the field of Islamic written heritage - Establishing a reference library with the main research tools necessary for the study of the Islamic heritage - Developing an online platform to enable the scholars, researchers and students of the Islamic civilisation and heritage all over the world easier access to the hidden treasures of the Islamic heritage

Al-Furqān Motto

“Glorious Past, Brighter Future” The Centres of Al-Furqān Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation was established initially with the aim to document and preserve the Islamic written heritage, principally through its work in surveying, imaging, cataloguing, editing, studying and publishing Islamic manuscripts.

But, with time, its scope of activity has expanded, and it has become an umbrella Foundation, consisting of three centers:

1. The Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts (Manuscripts Centre)

 Define the Manuscripts Centre’s fields of activities and an overall strategy for future expansion  Establish guidelines for the Centre’s fields of activities  Issue decisions regarding the amendments or addition to the Centre’s policies, regulations and activities

The International Advisory The Manuscripts Centre’s Mission Board members:

The Manuscripts Centre›s mission is to document and preserve the Islamic written heritage through surveying, imaging, cataloguing, editing and publishing Islamic manuscripts, which constitute a significant part of the Islamic heritage.

The Manuscripts Centre’s Aims, Objectives and Activities

Aims and Objectives: - To initiate, promote and support research into the field of Islamic manuscripts - To assist in the preservation and restoration of Islamic manuscripts - To raise awareness on the richness and the importance of the Islamic written heritage

Activities: To achieve its aims and objectives, the Centre pursues the following activities:  Identifying and surveying the existing collections of Islamic manuscripts  Assisting in cataloguing previously uncatalogued collections of Islamic manuscripts  Editing and publishing Islamic manuscripts of particular significance  Organizing training courses on various aspects of Islamic written heritage, such as cataloguing, editing and preserving of manuscripts  Organizing conferences, symposia and lectures to stimulate research and discussions on topics related to the field of manuscripts  Establishing a reference library with the main research tools necessary for the study of Islamic manuscripts  Developing an online platform/database for online catalogues and other bibliographical works, in addition to enabling the scholars, researchers, and students of the Islamic civilisation and heritage all over the world easier access to the hidden treasures of the Islamic manuscripts and heritage

The Manuscripts Centre’s Boards The International Advisory Board The International Advisory Board is a body of outstanding academics and scholars in the field of the Islamic written heritage, such as: history, history of science, codicology, paleography, Islamic history, etc.

The International Advisory Board has a legislative status, with a role to:

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• Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman • Professor Abdu-l-Hadi al-Tazi: Member • Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu: Member • Professor Enes Karić: Member • Professor Nasir al-Din al-Asad: Member • Professor Sayed Hossein Nasr: Member • Professor Sayed Waheed al-Din: Member

The Board of Experts The Board of Experts is a body of outstanding academics and scholars in the field of the Islamic written heritage, such as: history, history of science, codicology, paleography, Islamic history, etc.

The Board of Experts is a decision-making body, with a role to:  Review the activities of the Manuscripts Centre on a yearly basis and provide the appropriate directions  Elaborate on and discuss themes for projects to be adopted by the Centre on a yearly basis  Inspect projects and scholarly works submitted to the Centre for financing and publishing, and issuing decisions as to its acceptance, request for modifications, or rejection.

The Board of Experts members:

• Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman • Professor Abdullah Yusuf al-Ghunaim: Member • Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu: Member • Professor François Déroche: Member • Professor Ibrahim Chabbouh: Member • Professor Muhammad Adnan al-Bakhit: Member • Professor Mohammed Haytham al-Khayat: Member 2. The Centre for the Study of the Philosophy of Islamic Law (Maqāșid Centre)

The Maqāșid Centre’s Mission: The Maqāšid Centre›s mission is to revitalize the knowledge of Maqāšid, in order to develop the process of ijtihād and the renewal of Islamic fiq’h, its fundamental theory (ušūl), and Islamic thought in general. The Centre also aims to broaden the horizons of knowledge for students of Islamic studies everywhere.

The Maqāșid Centre’s Aims, Objectives and Activities

Aims and Objectives: -Encouraging studies and research which contribute to the Islamic philosophy of law, inside and outside the academic world WWW.AL-FURQĀN.COM

Newsletter No. 11 -Co-operating with Islamic universities and Islamic studies departments in order to include the Maqāšid in their curricula or syllabi -Calling upon scholars to elaborate on the correlation between contemporary ijtihād and Maqāšid, so as to facilitate understanding the wisdom behind, and objectives of, Islamic rulings -Giving special consideration to new research in the theories of priorities, utility, consequences and universal principles of Islamic law -Calling upon scholars and Islamic institutes of fatwa to illustrate the link between the Islamic texts, fatwa and Maqāšid -Refuting attempts to misuse the idea of Maqāšid in order to “deconstruct” the Islamic principles and fundamentals -Promoting and publishing biographies of scholars who contributed to the study of Maqāšid -Incorporating Maqāšid theories in the methodology and philosophy of various social sciences and humanities -Reinforcing the link between the study of Maqāšid and the study of the basic rules of the Islamic law -Establishing a comprehensive Maqāšid encyclopaedia.

Activities: To achieve its aims and objectives, the Centre pursues the following activities: Publishing new critical editions of Maqāšid books of particular significance Publishing bibliographical references in the field of Maqāšid Publishing studies on the Maqāšid of Islamic law Organizing training courses on understanding the Maqāšid Holding conferences, symposia, seminars and lectures to stimulate research and discussions on topics related to the field of Maqāšid Establishing a reference library with the main research tools necessary for the study of Maqāšid (philosophy of Islamic jurisprudence) Encouraging Islamic studies departments and programmes outside of traditional Islamic institutes, to conduct research that shows the universality of Islamic law in all cultural contexts Encouraging versatile students and young researchers to study the philosophy of Islamic law, the Maqāšid

Autumn 2012 Issue decisions regarding the amendments or addition to the Centre’s policies, regulations and activities.

The International Advisory Board members: •Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman •Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayah: Member •Professor Abdu-l-Wahab abu Sulaiman: Member •Dr Abdullah Fad’aq: Member •Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu: Member • Dr Issam al-Basheer: Member • Sheikh Mohammed Mukhtar al-Salami: Member • Dr Mohammed Salim al-Awa: Member • Dr Sayid Hadi Khasroshahi: Member • Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Member

The Board of Experts The Board of Experts includes a distinguished group of scholars and researchers in different fields of Islamic studies.

The Board of Experts is a decision-making body, with a role to:  Review the activities of the Maqāšid Centre on a yearly basis and provide the appropriate directions  Elaborate on and discuss themes for projects to be adopted by the Centre on a yearly basis Inspect projects and scholarly works submitted to the Centre for financing and publishing, and issuing decisions as to its acceptance, request for modifications, or rejection

The Board of Experts members: • Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman • Professor Abdu-l-Wahab abu Sulaiman: Member • Dr. Abdullah Fad‘aq: Member • Dr Ahmad al-Raisouni: Member • Dr Hasan Jaber: Member • Dr Ibrahim al-Bayoumi Ghanem: Member • Dr Issam al-Basheer: Member • Dr Mohammed Kamal Imam: Member • Dr Mohammed Salim al-Awa: Member • Dr Saif al-Din Abdu-l-Fattah: Member

3. The Centre for Compiling the Encyclopaedia of Makkah and Madinah (Mawsoa Centre) The Mawsoa Centre’s Mission

The Maqāșid Centre’s Boards The Mawsoa Centre’s main goal is to acknowledge The International Advisory Board Makkah and Madinah›s scientific and cultural roles

The International Advisory Board includes a distinguished group of scholars and researchers in different fields of Islamic studies.

The International Advisory Board has a legislative status, with a role to: Define the Maqāšid Centre’s policies, goals and strategies. Establish guidelines for the Centre’s fields of activities.

and their historical significance, and to compile a comprehensive Encyclopaedia about these two holy cities.

The Mawsoa Centre’s Aims, Objectives and Activities

- To compile a comprehensive Encyclopaedia about these two holy cities

Activities:  Publishing critical editions of historical references related to Makkah and Madinah  Publishing books, studies and theses on Makkah and Madinah  Holding lectures and other public acivities to stimulate research and discussions on topics related to Makkah and Madinah  Compiling and publishing a multi-lingual bibliography of published works, references, theses and articles on Makkah and Madinah  Establishing an Information Centre holding a collection of texts, references, photographs, documents, maps, theses, travellers’ accounts, journals, microfilms and audio-visual material on Makkah and Madinah

The Mawsoa Centre’s Boards The Advisory Board members: • Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman • Professor Abdu-l-Wahab abu Sulaiman: Member • Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu: Member • Professor Jan Just Witkam: Member • Professor Kazim al-Musawi al-Bojnourdi: Member • Professor Nasir al-Din al-Asad: Member • Professor Robert McHenry: Member • Professor Tayyar Altikulaç: Member

The Academic Board members: • Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani: Chairman • Professor Abbas Saleh Tashkandy: Member • Professor Abdu-l-Lateef bin Abdullah bin Duhaysh: Member • Professor Abdu-l-Wahab abu Sulaiman: Member • Dr Abdullah Saleh Ahmed Shawoosh: Member • Dr Abdu-l-Rahman Sulaiman al-Mazeni: Member • Dr Adnan Mohammed al-Shareef: Member • Professor Asim Hamdan Ali: Member • Professor Ghazi bin Obaid Madani: Member • Dr Mi‘raj Nawab Mirza: Member • Dr Mohammed Abdu-l-Karim bin Obaid: Member • Dr Omar Hasan Falatah: Member • Dr Yusuf Ahmed Hawalah: Member

Secretary General of the Mawsoa Centre Dr Abbas Saleh Tashkandy

Aims and Objectives: - To promote research into and specialized study of the two holy cities, Makkah and Madinah - To acknowledge Makkah’s and Madinah’s scientific and cultural roles and their historical significance

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Newsletter No. 11

Autumn 2012

Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation

Glorious Past, Brighter Future

The entrance of the new headquarters of Al-Furqān Address: 22A Old Court Place London, W8 4PL England – UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3130 1530 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7937 2540

Email:

info@al-Furqān.com Website: www.al-Furqān.com

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