Arabic and Persian manuscripts chiefly in the hand of Samuel Clarke

Scope and Content

A small collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts, 17th century, chiefly in the hand of Samuel Clarke. Four of the manuscripts are on Abu al-Fida' (1273-1331), historian and geographer of Syria.

Administrative / Biographical History

Samuel Clarke (1624-69) was an orientalist, and first printer to Oxford University. See the Dictionary of National Biography for details.

Access Information

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk).

Acquisition Information

The manuscripts were purchased from the heirs of Samuel Clarke in 1670.

Note

Collection level description created by Susan Thomas, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Other Finding Aids

Brief descriptions are in Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series, with references to the oriental and other manuscripts (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. II, nos. 3919-32.

The manuscripts are also summarily described in the card catalogue, arranged by language, located in the Oriental Reading Room.

J. UriBibliothecae Bodleianae codicum manuscriptorum Orientalium catalogus pars prima (Oxford 1787). See the Arabic Christian, and Arabic Mohammedan sections.

A. Nicoll Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Orientalium Bibliothecae Bodleianae pars secunda, Arabicos complectens (Oxford, 1835). See the Arabic Mohammedan section.

E. Sachau, H. Eth and A.F.L. Beeston Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindstn, and Pusht manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1889-1953), vols. 1-2.

Related Material

Three manuscripts (MSS. S. Clarke 5-6, 12) from the same acquisition are kept by the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. Other papers of Samuel Clarke, mostly relating to the affairs of the University, came into the possession of Thomas Hearne and entered the Library as part of the Rawlinson collection (MSS. Rawl.).