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Crossroads of Knowledge in the Age of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): The Case of Moroccan Manuscript Collections
Abstract by Dr. Said Ennahid On Session 161  (New Media Revolutions)

On Saturday, November 20 at 05:00 pm

2010 Annual Meeting

Abstract
While Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) solutions are being implemented in a growing number of areas in Morocco (e.g., e-gov., e-learning, e-commerce, etc.), the area of documentary heritage is still struggling to make the leap into the digital age. The corpus of Moroccan documentary heritage is estimated to 60,000 manuscripts hosted at a number of public libraries and private repositories--mostly within religious institutions. The main collections are those of the Bibliothhque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc (BNRM) in Rabat (11,330 manuscripts of more than 30,000 titles) and the Library of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez (5,600 manuscripts, 3,157 of which occur in several volumes and 3,810 are considered as rare). They are written almost entirely in Arabic of various scripts (Berber in Arabic alphabet and Hebrew constitute less than 1%). The subject matter of these manuscripts covers several disciplines: Sacred Texts (Korans), Islamic religious sciences (Exegesis of Koran, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad and Jurisprudence), Arabic Grammar and Lexicography, Arabic Poetry, Hagiography and Genealogy, Islamic Theology and Mysticism, Philosophy and Logic, Historiography, Medicine, Astronomy and Astrology, Mathematics, and Agriculture and Natural Sciences. Sadly, many of these manuscripts are either literally disintegrating (poor conditions of preservation and direct handling of originals) or simply smuggled outside the country; ICTs offer the best solution for the digital documentation and preservation of documentary heritage before it is lost to Morocco and the world. In this paper I will discuss the issue of using ICTs to digitize and catalogue ancient manuscript collections hosted at three heritage libraries ("bibliothiques patrimoniales") in Morocco: al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, The Ibn Yusuf Library of Marrakech, and The Library of the Great Mosque of Meknos. I will also address how the Moroccan ICTs initiatives could integrate other regional and international initiatives such as the one launched by the Center for the Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Cairo and the UNESCO for the documentation and preservation of the Arab World Heritage.
Discipline
Art/Art History
Geographic Area
Africa (Sub-Saharan)
Maghreb
Morocco
Sub Area
None