THE DIGITALIZATION OF ARABIC MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA (BUB)رقمنة المخطوطات العربية في مكتبة جامعة بولونيا الايطالية

This study aims to describe and analyse the lesser-known Islamic manuscripts held at the Central Library of the University of Bologna (BUB). I will discuss in detail the origins of this important collection; the process of how they arrived, catalogued, and stored in this library. Finally, the core of the study will be focusing on a very recent scannig works, entirely funded in 2017 by the King Abdulaziz Chair for Islamic studies at the University of Bologna and was concluded in 2023 with the implementation and digitalization online of almost the entire collection. Islamic Manuscripts is considered one of the richest collections of Islamic manuscripts (711 codices) hosted in an Italian public library, the Oriental Manuscripts Fund of the Bologna University Library. Over the course of several centuries the Library, in adition to preserving these manuscripts with utmost care, has carried out various restoration processes and rebinding of many volums. A many great them are written in Arabic and dated from the 13th to the early 18th century. The collection covers an extremely wide range of themes: dozens of beautifully decorated Holy Qur’ans, hadith, Islamic jurisprudence, theological debates, prayers, grammars, poetry and metrics, mysticism, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, history, geografy, etc.