Yahuda's Role in Developing the Islamic MSS. Coll. at the University of Michigan. By Kropf/Wollina
Channel: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Date: 16/08/2022

Agent and Architect: Abraham Shalom Yahuda's Role in Developing the Islamic Manuscripts Collection at the University of Michigan In the summer of 1925 while based in Heidelberg, Abraham Shalom Yahuda offered to the British Museum a collection of more than 230 Arabic, Turkish and Persian manuscripts belonging to his brother -- Isaac Benjamin Shlomo Ezekiel Yahuda, a dealer of books and manuscripts who had for many years supplied institutions and individuals (notably Ignaz Goldziher) from his base in Cairo. Though the Museum had been acquiring from the Yahuda brothers for years, on this occasion they declined the purchase and a colleague there brought the offer to the attention of University of Michigan professor Francis Willey Kelsey -- a respected classicist and archaeologist who was actively expanding the university’s holdings in antiquities, papyri and manuscripts. A.S. Yahuda redirected his offer to Kelsey and the resulting acquisition further defined the core of what would become the University’s Islamic Manuscripts Collection. Independent of his brother’s agency, A.S. Yahuda would go on to even more actively and successfully gather and place notable manuscripts in many other private collections and institutions, including a number in Germany. In turn, the manuscripts of the Yahuda purchase would remain among the most significant preserved at Michigan. Reflecting on the nature and extent of A.S. Yahuda’s manuscript sourcing and dealing in the mid-1920’s, this paper explores his approach to negotiating the acquisition and establishing the significance of the collection of manuscripts placed at Michigan -- as fashioned with respect to the collecting interests of the Museum and University, as recognized by the University’s representatives, and as demonstrated in subsequent decades of teaching and study. 

Evyn Kropf is Librarian for Middle Eastern & North African Studies and Religious Studies; Curator, Islamic Manuscripts Collection at Michigan University Library. 
Dr Torsten Wollina works on book history with a focus on provenance research.