Chapter 8 - Acquisition

The letters of Ahmad ibn Qasim, Niqulaus ibn Butrus and other scholars from the Maghrib and the Middle East testify to their significance in contributing to our manuscript collections. They not only copied but also purchased books in their country that were beyond the reach of any European. Often they took the initiative in buying an important work or in recommending it. They acquired others on commission. The European buyer gave an agreed upon amount of money to a dealer, who passed it on to the correspondent and would later bring the book back with him. Many of the most beautiful gems in the University Library at Leiden were purchased by Levinus Warner in Istanbul, with the help of his local friends.

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Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima

Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), Kitab Unwan al-Ibar wa-Diwan al-Mubtada wa’l-Khabar

According to a note in the jacket, Golius paid three and a half ‘daalders’ for this famous book. He may have bought it during the period when he was serving as an embassy secretary in Istanbul. The embassy was in the vicinity of the observatory, where the astronomer Taqi al-Din ibn Ma’ruf was working at the time: the copyist of this book.

University Libraries, Leiden.

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Many books and one mirror

Letter ‘por Mons gool’ (Jacob Golius)

The author, probably a Jew or Muslim with a Spanish background, tells Golius, in unrefined handwriting, about books that he is copying for him (see nos. 108 and 123) and buying. He also asks him for a favour: can Golius send him a large mirror for his daughter, who is getting married? Golius comes across in the sources as someone who would have been happy to do that.

University Libraries, Leiden [Or. 1228-101]

I am writing to inform you that I have bought six books for you, such as no one possesses, except authorities – they are very beautifully and clearly written. I have given a half ducat to the man who directed me to them. The books are: three parts of Ibn Khallikan’s biographical dictionary, that, as I’ve said, are very beautiful and easily legible; two parts of Sharishi, in which he discusses Hariri’s Maqamat [now at Leiden], beautifully and clearly written; and one literary work.

[...] I am also writing to tell you, concerning the books by Ibn Raqiq and Ibn Khaldun al-Andalusi, that the owner is still absent, he is in the interior. When he arrives, I will hopefully release them from him and send them to the dealer. Furthermore I want to tell you that I also have another book, entitled Diwan al-sababa [now at Leiden]. It is beautifully and clearly written. When you see it, you will be very pleased with it. It comprises poems and stories. The owner is asking 2.5 golden mithqal for it, which is cheap. If you are interested in it, write to the [Dutch] dealer instructing him to pay the amount, then I will bring it to him. If you still want to buy books on medicine and other subjects, write to our friend the dealer and let me know what you have in mind. If I find beautiful books, I will bring them to him and he will pay for them. But let me know what you would like. I ask of God and of you that you send me a crystal mirror, a beautiful, large mirror. I would like to have it for my daughter, whom I am giving in marriage, and if God is willing, we will organise a wedding for her.

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Expenses and effort

Letter from Niqulaus ibn Butrus to Golius, Istanbul 1648

After his return to Istanbul, Ibn Butrus did his best to buy books for Golius and Warner or to make copies (or have copies made) that were up to academic standards. Although it was somewhat easier for him to negotiate than it would have been for Europeans, this letter shows that at times, as a Christian, he could not operate easily among the Islamic booksellers.

John Rylands Library, University of Manchester [Persian ms 913, 91 r-v]

Concerning ‘the History of Timur’, first of all I sought out a manuscript which was good and written in clear Arabic, and after that a man who was a scholar and an Arab by birth. Then we gave the book to Warner, and the shaykh stood by listening to him reading it. We said to him: ‘Shaykh, whenever you encounter a question, write the explanation for it on a piece of paper’. For if he did not hear the History read and see the wording in its context, he would not be able to understand the meaning of the passage. By this method we found the answers to these questions. Nevertheless it took me a whole year until I managed to prise their solution loose from the shaykh who translated them. Whenever he came to my dwelling I said to him: ‘O sir, you who consider yourself a shaykh, how do things stand in the matter about which we consulted you?’ One day he would say ‘I have a headache’, and another day ‘I have some business [to see to]’, and every day he made excuses of different kinds. [...]. The Proverbs of al-Maydani, if it is in one volume, costs forty qurush. I found a cheap manuscript for fifteen qurush, but it was defective from the letter kaf onwards, but I meant to take it and complete it by my own hand. But the dealer was unable to produce any other copy, so I returned it to him.

[...]Furthermore, you sent requesting from me the Supplement to the History of the Muslims. But this is impossible, because most Muslim scholars seek [only] worldly fortune and success, untiringly. I went to the house of four scholars, calling on them, but they said to me: ‘You pig, who is there who will exert himself and concentrate his mind for your sake, so as to sit racking his brains to procure something like this for you?’ When I heard that I fell silent.

Translation: Hilary Kilpatrick and Gerald J. Toomer, 'Niqūlāwus’, 2016.

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Currencies

In the Republic, the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, many different currencies were circulating in the 17th century. By way of comparison:

Republic

1 guilder or florin: ten pounds of cheese or one pair of shoes.

1 daalder: approximately 2 guilders (a Leeuwendaalder or Rijksdaalder) 10 to 20 guilders: the monthly salary of a Dutch sailor.

45 to 50 guilders: basic monthly income of a university instructor.

North and West Africa

1 mithqal: originally the equivalent of 4.25 grams of gold. Still in use in Africa in the 17th century; its worth varied widely however.

Middle East

1 kurus: the price of 8.8 kilograms of bread and the amount of money a farmer would get for 10 kilograms of barley

2000 to 3000 kurus: the price of a silk carpet

The word ‘kurus’ in Arabic was also used for a Dutch Leeuwendaalder or a Spanish coin worth eight ‘reales’.

Warner the gold digger

Jalal al-Din al-Rumi (1207-1273), Masnavi-yi Ma’nawi. Copied by Iskandar ibn Musa in 879 /1474

Warner was able to acquire this richly decorated manuscript of the most famous mystical poem in Persian literature. The introduction, on display, is in Arabic, the style of the illumination derives from the Timurid period (15thcentury). The strings attached to the pages mark the separate books, each decorated in the same way.

University Libraries, Leiden.

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Iran’s national epic

Mansur ibn Hasan Firdawsi (934-1020), Shahnameh (copy from 1437)

The princes Siyavosh and Garsivaz from this semi-legendary, semi-historical chronicle of the Persian kings are still friends here and are playing polo. This copy of the ‘book of kings’, acquired by Warner in Istanbul, is of great scholarly importance because of its reliable and comprehensive text.

University Libraries, Leiden.

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Koran

Koran with an interlinear translation in Old Anatolic Turkish, Gallipoli 1520

The book comes from Warner’s collection. A lot of care and money was spent on writing copies of the Koran. The paper is glazed, gold was used for the illustrations, the Naskh script is that of a master.

University Libraries, Leiden.