September 9 2025: Boris Liebrenz, "The Library of the Amīr al-Muʾminīn in 17th-century Yemen. Evidence from an Arabic Letter" at the 35th Deutscher Orientalistentag (DOT), Erlangen

Abstract:

While Yemen’s libraries were part of a larger regional book culture, there are features that set them apart and that in many cases allow to instantly identify books that had once been in Yemen. One of the most intriguing features of Zaydī Yemeni book culture during the early modern period is the outsized role of the ruler’s family, the amīr al-muʾminīn, in its libraries. A surprising number of manuscripts that used to be in the Yemen during the 16^th to 19^th centuries feature the note of at least one person identifying as either an amīr al-muʾminīn, the child or close relative of one.

This opens the question about the role of these rulers and their family for the access to and transmission of books in their realms. The foundational importance of scholarly prowess for the legitimacy of the Zaydī amīr al-muʾminīn is well recognized. How were the books from the orbit of the ruler perceived and used? An original personal letter from the end of the 11^th/17^th century preserved in one of such volume discusses precisely these issues and will be the focus of this talk, which will also look at manuscript notes from Zaydī Yemen more broadly.