Open Access Manuscripts Collection: SLUB Dresden
The SLUB Dresden’s manuscript collection contains over 448 Islamic manuscripts (196 Ottoman, 184 Arabic, 68 Persian). Following clashes with the Ottomans in the Balkan region, these manuscripts arrived in Europe and were acquired in the 18th and 19th centuries from collections of nobility and scholarly estates. In the 19th century, a large number of Tibetan (438) and Mongolian (58) manuscripts were purchased. Other Oriental manuscripts, i.e. Chinese (18), Japanese (3), Indonesian (9), Sanskrit (1), Hebraic (10) and Ethiopian (4), were bestowed upon the library by private persons.
Extraordinary Volumes
- Kitab-i Dede Korkut (Mscr.Dresd.Ea.86): The only fully preserved manuscript narrating national epic of the Oguzes, a nomadic Turkish tribe.
- Mulana Fuzûli, Benk u Bâde (Mscr.Dresd.Eb.362): An Ottoman poem, written on rose paper, narrating a dispute about rank between wine and hash (cannabis).
- Kemāl Paša-Zāde: Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân (Mscr.Dresd.Eb.391): The story of the Ottomans in a two-volume manuscript with 25 depictions of cities, fortifications and harbor facilities.
- Seyyid Loqmān, Qiyā-fet al-insānīyeh fī shemā’il othmanīyeh (Mscr.Dresd.Eb.373): Book of the Ottoman Characteristics, containing 12 portraits of Turkish sultans.
- Machsor mecholl haschana (Mscr.Dresd.A.46.a): Jewish prayer book for the High Holidays, in Southern German handwriting from the end of the 13th century. Further information
The SLUB Dresden’s manuscript collection includes medieval codices and manuscripts from the time before the invention of printing as well as German and foreign manuscripts of the early modern and modern ages.
16th to the 19th century manuscripts are the main focus of the collection. So-called Saxonica are strongly represented, i.e., chronicles, regional history collectanea, literary manuscripts, biographical and genealogical records, literature of the Saxon court and nobility, as well as collections of letters.
In addition, the collection is enhanced by 305 written literary estates of artists, scientists, writers and musicians of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century who had some relation to Saxony.
