Page 172 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

162 Arabian Studies IV
still packed in cardboard boxes after a recent change of place of
storage? If much useful ground were to be covered, clearly detailed
cataloguing would be out of the question. Once the manuscripts
had been sorted out into subjects—a task which occupied two full
days—which of these subjects deserved study at greater depth?1 As
yet there is no manuscript reference library in Muscat and any
immediate identification of incomplete works was also out of the
question. Unless therefore the title of the composition was fairly
obvious, the manuscript had to be discarded for the purposes of
this study. By good fortune a large majority of the manuscripts has
been assigned an accession number and this provides an immediate
identification tag. This accession number is found throughout in
square brackets. For those subjects which it was possible to study
in more detail the following information was sought and has for
the most part been provided in this descriptive article: the author,
the title, the date of copying and the accession number. The
traditional order of subjects has been adhered to and thus author
and title indices have been provided. There is undoubtedly among
the manuscripts described much that merits the further attention of
scholars. If these brief notes—with all their shortcomings—go
some way to informing scholars of the existence of these manu­
scripts and of their contents, the present writer will be well
satisfied.

The manuscripts
I. QUR’AN
There is a total of 84 Qur’an MSS, none of which is of exceptional
artistic value. It is worthy of note that two or three of these appear
to be of Indian provenance.

II. COMMENTARIES ON THE QUR’AN
There is a total of 41 MSS in this category. There was no time to
investigate them further.

III. UADITH
There is a total of 41 MSS in this category. There was no time to
investigate them further.

IV. THEOLOGY
There is a total of 47 MSS in this category. There was no time to
investigate them further.