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Posted on Monday April 4, 2016

Updated on Monday November 6, 2023

Oriental manuscripts from the University of Belgrade

The Oriental Manuscripts Collection from the University Library "Svetozar Markovic" in Belgrade holds 166 000 pages comprising 686 works and 395 volumes. These manuscripts were created between the 13th and 18th century and they were written in three oriental languages: Arabic (525 works), Ottoman Turkish (149) and Persian (13).

The oldest book in this collection originates from 1206. A large number of manuscripts contain information about the Serbian territories and the European part of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the influence of local language and culture can be recognized in the content and the style in which these manuscripts were written.

The collection comprises 8 subject groups: legal sciences, linguistics and related subject areas, literature, medicine, mathematics and algebra, Muslim dogmatism and Quran studies, Sufism and historiography. This valuable collection has been digitized and made searchable via the Europeana.eu portal and the digital repository of the University Library “Svetozar Markovic” in Belgrade.

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