Overview

This book tells the story of a manuscript repository found all over the pre-modern Muslim world: the khizanat al-kutub, or treasury of books. The focus is on the undisclosed Arabic manuscript culture of a small but vibrant South Asian Shi'i Muslim community, the Bohras. It looks at how books that were once part of one of the biggest imperial book repositories of the medieval Muslim world, the khizanat of the Fatimids of North Africa and Egypt (909CE-1171CE) ended up having a rich social life among the Bohras across the Western Indian Ocean, starting in Yemen and ending in Gujarat. It shows how, under strict conditions of secrecy, and over several centuries, one khizana was turned into another, its manuscripts gaining new meanings in the new social realities in which they were preserved, read, transmitted, venerated and copied into. What emerged was a new distinctive Bohra Ismaili manuscript culture shaped by its local contexts.

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9781474479561

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Reviews

"Using extensive archival and ethnographic fieldwork, Akkerman not only traces the temporal and geographic distribution of Isma'ili Arabic manuscripts, but also elucidates the social life of the khizana within the Isma'ili Bohra community.--MELA Book Award Committee Granted unprecedented access to the daily life and rituals of the leadership of the tightly-knit Alawi Bohra community, in particular their practice of manually copying esoteric manuscripts harking back to the Fatimid Caliphate, Olly Akkerman soon found that she was not permitted to reveal the contents of the manuscripts. Out of her dilemma has emerged a remarkable book. In clear-eyed, keenly observant yet empathetic prose, Akkerman provides rich social and historical context for the manuscript culture of the Alawis. Further, by weaving into the book her embodied, often difficult, experience as a foreign woman scholar, she provokes conversation about secrecy, ethics, gender, and hierarchy in western scholarship while remaining in respectful dialogue with her subjects and their protocols of scholarship.--Samira Sheikh, Vanderbilt University Recognizing her personal integrity and her skills as a codicologist, the Alawi Bohra community of Baroda admitted Olly Akkerman into the sacred space of their Arabic manuscript collection, where, as she assisted with curatorial tasks, she was introduced to the community's distinctive textual culture. This resulting account is a unique study in what she refers to as ""social codicology.""--Brinkley Messick, Columbia University"

"Granted unprecedented access to the daily life and rituals of the leadership of the tightly-knit Alawi Bohra community, in particular their practice of manually copying esoteric manuscripts harking back to the Fatimid Caliphate, Olly Akkerman soon found that she was not permitted to reveal the contents of the manuscripts. Out of her dilemma has emerged a remarkable book. In clear-eyed, keenly observant yet empathetic prose, Akkerman provides rich social and historical context for the manuscript culture of the Alawis. Further, by weaving into the book her embodied, often difficult, experience as a foreign woman scholar, she provokes conversation about secrecy, ethics, gender, and hierarchy in western scholarship while remaining in respectful dialogue with her subjects and their protocols of scholarship.--Samira Sheikh, Vanderbilt University Recognizing her personal integrity and her skills as a codicologist, the Alawi Bohra community of Baroda admitted Olly Akkerman into the sacred space of their Arabic manuscript collection, where, as she assisted with curatorial tasks, she was introduced to the community's distinctive textual culture. This resulting account is a unique study in what she refers to as ""social codicology.""--Brinkley Messick, Columbia University Using extensive archival and ethnographic fieldwork, Akkerman not only traces the temporal and geographic distribution of Isma'ili Arabic manuscripts, but also elucidates the social life of the khizana within the Isma'ili Bohra community.--MELA Book Award Committee"

Author Information

Olly Akkerman, Assistant Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universitat Berlin.

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