Collecting as profession Jan Just Witkam (

Transcription

1 Collecting as profession Jan Just Witkam ( Collecting the Muslim World, Leiden University / National Museum of Ethnology, 2-3 November Source: Pedro de Alcala, Arte para ligeramente saber la lengua araviga. Granada 1505, c4.

2 Looking and not finding. A conversation at Russell Books, Victoria BC. - Good afternoon, Sir. How are you doing? - Geeeehd, and how are you doin? - Need any help, Sir? - Am beyond help. - Excellent, Sir. Join the Club.

3 I had an early fascination for the Orient. From 1955 onwards, Dr. Karl May s travel adventures, all fake, were a prime source.

4 Henricus Joannes Witkam ( ) and part of his collection. Situation of ca The Gratianus folio of Basel 1476 stands in the centre on the lower shelf. The lamp behind him is made of a parchment leaf of a medieval Antiphonarium. Source: Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, e.a., Het Rapenburg. Geschiedenis van een Leidse Gracht, deel 1 (Leiden 1986), p Colophon of the Gratianus of Basel, dated June 10, 1476.

5 The Oriental Reading Room (O.L.G.), Leiden University Library, in c From left to right: a reader, Mr. A.F. Marck, library assistant, Mr. A.J.W. Huisman, curator of Oriental Printed Books and a learned bibliographer. Location: Rapenburg 70-72, second floor. Source: Photographer unknown, published in: Manuscripts of the Middle East 1 (1986), p The room with its characteristic balcony still exists, and is now converted into an office.

6 The Oriental Manuscript reading room in Leiden University Library in its old building at Rapenburg. Situation in 1976 The young curator and collector, with his assistant, Ms. Loes Faassen. Source: The Van Assen album in Leiden University Library.

7 The first top piece acquired (1978) About one thousand pages of the autograph copy of al- Maqrizi s biographical dictionary, al-tarikh al-kabir, were purchased at an auction of Christie s in London. They were a welcome addition to the Maqrizi autographs that were already in the Leiden library. After a lengthy restauration process they were made available to the public. Much later, in 2014, I found out that the manuscript originated from the private collection of the Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist and renaissance intellectual Rifa a Rafi al-tahtawi ( ). Source: MS Leiden Or , f. 3a.

8 The Oriental Manuscript reading room in Leiden University Library in its new building at Witte Singel. Situation in The authentic furniture was kept, against all directorial instructions, from 1983 to Then it mysteriously disappeared. Source: Photograph by Jan Just Witkam, July 17, 2004.

9 Istakhri s Atlas: the manuscript and the facsimile The facsimile edition of ca. 140 pp. manuscript text including the coloured maps was a technical feat, well ahead of the invention of photography. Text and maps were drawn from the manuscript on tracing paper, and mirror images of that were transferred onto the stone. The printing, polychrome for the maps in five runs, and in two colours (two runs) for the text pages, was done separately. The verso sides of the maps remained blank. Then the maps and the text pages were bound together. As a consequence the recto and verso sequence became confused, so that two opposite pages in the facsimile had been recto and verso in the manuscript. Source: MS Gotha, A 1521, ff. 39b-40a. Description and map of Fars (above). Moeller s edition of 1839 of the same map, with faulty imposition, at the right.

10 Typography and lithography Source: The Pythagorean theorem in Euclid s Elementa, in two printed versions of the Arabic redaction by Nasir al-din al-tusi (d. 672/1274). At left the typographical edition on the Medicea Press, Rome 1594, p. 45, above the same, in the edition by al-balghithi, Fas, lithographical press, 1293/1876, vol. 1, p. 83. (Collection Witkam, Leiden) It s far from certain that the two editions of Tusi s redaction of the Arabic Euclid have a direct relationship, but it cannot be excluded either. There are numerous similarities in the lay-out of either edition. Extensive collation work needs to be done in order to prove or disprove the relationship. The lithographical process is useful in that it combined text and drawings in one print run. In the Medicea edition this was achieved with leaden movable type and woodcuts of the figures, printed in one run.

11 Bugis manuscript, purchased in c during an acquisition stop of the Leiden library. Faedah Azimat, an amulet text in Buginese, with a few words in Arabic script. Dated Source: MS Witkam 31, ff. 266b- 267a.

12 Aesthetics: Manuscript and typography Above: an Islamic seal from the cabinet of rarities of Jacob de Bary, Amsterdam, reproduced by copper engraving. Present whereabouts unknown. Below: the text (Qur an 2:255) on the seal in the cabinet of rarities of Jacob de Bary, Amsterdam, transcribed by H. Reland, reproduced by typography. In his essay on Arabic seals of 1708 Reland repeatedly mentions the beauty of his originals and the aesthetically inadequate rendering of Arabic texts by typography. Source: H. Reland, Dissertatio de Gemmis Arabicis. Utrecht (Broedelet) 1708 (Essay on Islamic seals), pp. 235, 236 (details). (collection Witkam)

13 Maghribi Manuscript, Opening page of al-qalasadi s treatise on simple arithmetic with Ghubar figures. Purchased in Fez during a holiday in Morocco, MS dated 1266/1850. I have used it as a model in my paleography course. It seems undecipherable to the beginner, but since it is so well written, the deciphering proves to be quite simple. That gives the student selfconfidence. This text gave me the idea that we in fact write our numbers in reverse order, and that the Arabs nowadays follow us in writing their own numbers backwards. Source: MS Witkam 35 (12), f. 210b.

14 Acehnese pilgrims in the courtyard of the Dutch consulate, Jedda, Photograph by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje. According to a pencil annotation on this photograph, the leader, sitting second from right, is Teungku di Cot Plieng, a well-known resistance fighter in the Aceh-war. The identification is based on this photograph and has by now been taken over in the Snouck Hurgronje literature. Source: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 36, Collection Witkam.

15 Correspondence (70 postcards) of Yves Savidan, Syria Yves Savidan was an artillerist in the French Armee du Levant. French military records have it that he died on August 24, 1926, in Damascus, not of enemy bullets, but of a disease contracted during his service. So he was not entitled to the epithet mort pour la France. His name figures on a French memorial monument, the one on Place de l Eglise in Beaubec-la-Rosière in Normandy. Source: Jan Just Witkam, Tadhkara 135 (April 9, 2016). Witkam Collection

16 Camporino s Egyptian Tourism On the road to Philae (off Aswan), March 8, 1880 Alphonse Camporino tries to mount a camel. First, the animal almost throws him off, backwards, when standing up. Then Camporino is smacked ahead over the camel s neck. Riding the camel only last for half an hour, then the dragoman may take the camel and Camporino takes the dragoman s riding donkey. Source: Witkam collection, Camporino manuscript, p. 103.

17 The Witkam family, and Ms. Bakker, who saved my life from holiness, in the garden of Rapenburg 21, Leiden. Situation of ca Source: Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, e.a., Het Rapenburg. Geschiedenis van een Leidse Gracht, deel 1 (Leiden 1986), p. 381.