Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo: Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) Commentary on the Christian Scriptures. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction.
Dr Lejla Demiri
Published as part of the History of Christian-Muslim Relations Series, Brill, Leiden, 2012
ISBN: 9789004243163

Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) extraordinary commentary on the Christian scriptures has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Illustrating the way in which the Bible was read, interpreted and used as a proof-text in the construction of early 14th century Muslim views of Christianity, his al-Ta‘līq ‘alā al-Anājīl al-arba‘a wa-al-ta‘līq ‘alā al-Tawrāh wa-‘alā ghayrihā min kutub al-anbiyā’ (Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels, the Torah and other Books of the Prophets) is an invaluable treasure for the study of Muslim-Christian dialogue and its history.

The Islamic Manuscript Association supported the costs of pre-publication revisions, including proof reading and indexing.

The book is available to pre-order from Brill’s website.

Muhammad Juki’s Shahnamah of Firdausi
Barbara Brend
Published by the Royal Asiatic Society, London and Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, 2010
ISBN 978-0-85667-672-7

This lavish Shahnama manuscript was commissioned by the Timurid prince Muhammad Juki in the 1440s, and is considered one of the finest surviving 15th century Persian illustrated manuscripts. It came into the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, in 1834. The Islamic Manuscript Association funded the high-quality digitisation of the whole manuscript through a grant awarded in 2008. The resulting edition is the first time the manuscript illustrations have been published in full colour, and is accompanied by a monograph on the manuscript as a whole by Barbara Brend, with additional chapter by A. H. Morton.

The book is available to buy at a discounted price from the Royal Asiatic Society website.

Critical Edition of Usūl al-Hikam fī Nizām al-‘Ālam
Dr Ali Akbar Ziaee
Published by Miras-e Maktoob, Tehran, 2011
ISBN: 978-600-203-015-3

Hasan Kafi al-Aqhisari al-Bosnawi (1544-1616) was a prolific Bosnian scholar who wrote in both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish on a diverse range of subjects including logic, literature, history and jurisprudence. Usūl al-Hikam fī Nizām al-‘Ālam (Principles of Wisdom Concerning the Structure of the World) was written in Arabic, and addresses the moral and political issues of Islamic governance in the Ottoman Empire. The Islamic Manuscript Association supported the editing and publication of this critical edition (with introductory notes in Persian and English) which is based on a number of manuscript copies of this work held in the libraries of the former Ottoman Empire.

This book is available to buy on the Miras-e Maktoob website.

A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitāb Na‘t al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshū‘ Tradition
Professor Anna Contadini
Published by Brill, Leiden, 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20100-2

The Kitāb Na‘t al-Ḥayawān is the earliest of a group of illustrated manuscripts dealing with the characteristics of animals and their medicinal uses. The present study considers both the confluence of textual traditions within this work and the stylistic and iconographic relationships of its illustrations, which make it a key witness to early thirteenth-century Arab painting. In elucidating the particular context of this unique manuscript, the study contributes to our understanding of a critical period in the development of Middle Eastern painting and art.

The grant awarded by the Islamic Manuscript Association towards the publication of this book enabled the full colour printing of a number of important illustrations from this group of manuscripts. The book is available to purchase from Brill, and a limited preview is available on Google Books.

From Codicology to Technology: Islamic Manuscripts and Their Place in Scholarship
Edited by Stefanie Brinkmann and Beate Wiesmüller
Published by Frank & Timme GmbH, 2009
ISBN 9783865961716

This collection of articles, an edition of lectures presented at the 2007 Congress of German Oriental Studies, discusses the variety of aspects involved in dealing with Islamic manuscripts and emphasises their importance as sources of historical knowledge. The articles cover research on single manuscripts as well as collections, and address the problems of editing as well as cataloguing and digitisation.
This book is available to buy on Amazon Deutsche
A limited preview can also be accessed online on Google books

Sufi Saints of Sumatra - Awliya' Sumatra
Irina R. Katkova and Dr. Pramono
Academy of Culture's Research, St. Petersburg, 2009
ISBN: 978-5-903931-34-7

This monograph deals with the spiritual tradition of Islam in Indonesia, focusing on the manuscript heritage of its awliya', or Sufi saints. The majority of the text is a transliteration of a hagiographical treatise by Shaikh al-Khatib , a contemporary Sufi sheikh from Western Sumatra who copied manuscripts and wrote in Jawi until his death in 2006. This is prefaced by a survey of the peculiarities of historical and contemporary Islam in Sumatra, and notes on the text by the two authors.