The University Library owns a small collection of Asian and Near and Middle Eastern manuscripts and albums, in languages including Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Hebrew, Pali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Thai, and Turkish. Brief catalogue records of many of these were provided in 1953 by J.D. Pearson, Librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), but further research will enhance our knowledge and description of these items. There is related material amongst the Mayer MSS deposited by National Museums Liverpool.
This diverse collection bears eloquent witness to Liverpool’s historic international connections as a maritime city, its deep and broad community roots, and the University’s world-wide partnerships. Ongoing cataloguing work and digitization will enable these items to be shared with their international communities in collaborative projects such as FIHRIST: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World, and Ktiv: The International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts.
Near and Middle Eastern manuscriptsThe Near and Middle Eastern manuscripts include a small number of manuscripts in Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish from the collections of the T.G. Rylands, the Gregson Institute, and individual donors including Richard T. Golding, Dora Yates and others. The Library also holds on deposit the Joseph Mayer collection of manuscripts, which includes further material in Arabic and Hebrew, and also Ethiopic, Persian, Urdu and Samaritan. A number of Hebrew items are available via Ktiv: The International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts.
This small collection includes material in Burmese, Pali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Thai. They come from the collections of the Gregson Institute, and individual donors including Mrs H.D. Thorneycroft, B.W. Jackson, and Professor A.M. Blackman. The Library also holds on deposit the Joseph Mayer collection of manuscripts, which includes material in Burmese, Hindi, Sinhalese, and Tamil.
The donors of these six albums of Chinese painting and calligraphy had varied commercial and cultural connections to China. May Rathbone (1866-1960) was a long-standing benefactor of the University Library; the wider Rathbone family business had strong trade links with China in the 19th century, purchasing teas and silks, and opening two Chinese houses in Canton and Shanghai; Lois Bulley (1901-1995) gave the University the Botanic Garden at Ness established by her father, including rare plants collected from China by George Forrest (1873-1932) and others; Professor Percy Maude Roxby (1880-1947), was Chief Representative of the British Council in China, 1943-1945.
Browse the collections via the gallery below.
