Manuscripts
After independence, the national authorities undertook to gather manuscripts from mosques, mausoleums, and libraries and to issue regulations providing for their legal deposit at, and their conservation by, the National Library, as well as for their access by researchers.
The manuscripts cover the various facets of Arabic and Islamic culture, including science, theology, philology, literature, and various other arts. They also include a large collection of distinctively gilded Koran and hadith manuscripts with geometric, vegetal and calligraphic designs reflecting the specific nature of the Tunisian school of calligraphy and ornamentation.
The manuscript collection is comprised of twenty-four thousand volumes (about forty-three thousand titles). Some of the oldest manuscripts include an exegesis of the Koran by Yahya Ibn Sallam and a translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest. The two copies date back to the 10th century CE.
Manuscript indexing specialists have worked together and set up a database of index cards for the collection as a whole. The National Library issues printed analytical card indexes, with individual cards currently numbered from 1 to 11,500.
