Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Middle Eastern Special Collections

Mapping Medieval Scholarship: Arabic Audition Certificates from the Leiden Special Collections

Traces of use in old books—annotations, marginal glosses or coffee stains—reveal how readers engaged with texts through the ages. Certain Arabic manuscripts include notes that reveal the social history of their readership.

Guest author • 08-05-2026

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters · Middle Eastern Special Collections

Patterns of aging in Mamluk manuscripts

Stains in manuscripts can be problematic, but they can also reveal interesting historic information. So, it is important to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stains. Luca van der Zande studied a pattern of stains in Arabic manuscripts to learn about their nature and make conservation decisions.

Karin Scheper • 11-06-2024

Asian Special Collections · Middle Eastern Special Collections

The Iranian Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Old Manuscript, New Perspectives

Majid Daneshgar discusses a rare Persian-Malay manuscript: Or. 5658. It provides a clearer picture of the history of Persian proficient people and Persian-Shīʿīsm in Indonesia.

Guest author • 24-04-2024

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Bodel Nijenhuis: a collector of famous people

Collector Bodel Nijenhuis is best known for his collection of maps and atlases, but he also collected portraits and autographs. Through his collections he created a documentation system on famous people, with portraits, specimens of their handwriting and biographical information.

Mart van Duijn • 09-07-2020

Blogs

Mapping Medieval Scholarship: Arabic Audition Certificates from the Leiden Special Collections

Patterns of aging in Mamluk manuscripts

The Iranian Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Old Manuscript, New Perspectives

Bodel Nijenhuis: a collector of famous people