Historical Research and Resources in Damascus
Steve Tamari, Georgetown University
Leila Hudson, University of Michigan

DAMASCUS has a long and distinguished history as a center for scholars and scholarship.[1] The Umayyad Mosque has been a hub for Muslim scholars since the first Islamic century. Under the Ayyubids and Mamluks, a flurry of madrasa-building brought professional scholars to Damascus from all corners of the Muslim world. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Damascus, many scattered manuscript collections were consolidated into the National Library, housed in the Mamluk-era Madrasa al-Zahiriyya, the pride of Syrian scholars in the age of Arab nationalism. With French rule in 1920 came an army of researchers and catalogers who established one of the region’s best library collections at the Institut Français des Études Arabes à Damas. And, in 1984, the Asad Library was established to serve as a national library and to house manuscript collections from around the country. The mid-1990s is an auspicious time for American researchers in Syria because of the establishment of the American Research Institute in Syria, Inc. (ARIS), a consortium of American universities that has been working for the past several years to establish an institute for research and residence in Damascus on par with the European facilities there. The Institute has yet to be officially approved by the Syrian government, and present efforts depend on the outcome of regional political discussions.[2]

Sponsorship and General Information
The official requirements for research and residency in Syria change from time to time. Researchers who intend to spend more than three weeks in Syria need the sponsorship of an officially recognized cultural or research center in order to acquire an iqâma, or residency permit, and in order to get access to primary sources other than newspapers. The relevant cultural centers and research institutes include the American Cultural Center (P.O.B. 29, Damascus, Syria, fax: (963-11) 332-1456), l'Institut Français des Études Arabes à Damas (IFEAD), l'Institut Français d'Archeologie du Proche Orient (IFAPO), Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and the Goethe Institute (through their language-training program). Americans with US government funding can usually get sponsorship through the American Cultural Center. One can also get an iqâma by enrolling in Damascus University or the Institute for Teaching Arabic to Foreigners (Ma'had li-ta'lim al-Lugha al-'Arabiyya lil-Ajanib).

There are important resources researchers can consult before they embark on a trip to Syria. The Syrian Studies Newsletter, published by the Syrian Studies Group (for subscription information contact the Treasurer, Professor James Reilly, University of Toronto, Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Toronto M55 1A1, Canada), contains articles about research facilities in Syria and elsewhere including a recent article by Tufan Buzpinar, Faruk Tabak, Bruce Masters and Corinne Blake on "Resources on Syria in the Turkish Archives" (3:1, Spring 1995). See also Abdul-Karem Rafiq, "Ottoman Historical Research in Syria since 1946," Asia Research Trends (Tokyo), No. 2, January 1992. A good way to contact scholars recently returned from Syria is through SyriaNet, coordinated by Gloria I. Saliba of UCLA, who can be contacted at saliba@histr.sscnet.ucla.edu. Unfortunately, Internet facilities are not yet available in Syria itself.

The following description of research institutions is a guide for historians, although Damascus also offers rich resources for archeologists not described here. There are four main research institutions for historians in Damascus: the Asad Library, l'Institut Français des Études Arabes à Damas, Markaz al-Watha'iq al-Ta'rikhiyya (Center for Historical Documents) and the Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya (Zahiriyya Library).

The Asad National Library
The Asad Library opened in 1984 as the national library containing all books and periodicals published in Syria in addition to broad collections in all fields. The library also includes all manuscripts and rare books and periodicals previously held at Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya. The Asad Library has special departments devoted to music, fine arts, film and old periodicals and has reading rooms with reference materials in history, literature and the sciences. Complete collections of newspapers, including the contemporary dailies, al-Ba'th, al-Thawra and Tishrin, are available. There are facilities for photocopying and microfilming, but copying manuscripts and entire books requires special permission. Efforts are under way to computerize the card catalogue, an on-going project.

The manuscript collection at the Asad Library is the largest in Syria, comprising almost 20,000 volumes. Most of the manuscripts were gathered from the madrasas of Damascus and housed in the Zahiriyya madrasa until the founding of Asad Library. The manuscripts in Asad Library from the Zahiriyya collection are indexed in a series of indices to the Zahiriyya collection under the general title Fihris makhtutât Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya. A list of the indices follows:

Yusuf al-'Ishsh, al-Tâ'rîkh wa-mulhaqâtuhu (Damascus, 1947)

Khalid al-Rayan, al-Tâ'rîkh wa-mulhaqâtuhu (Damascus, 1973)

'Izzat Hasan, 'Ulûm al-Qur'ân (Damascus, 1962)

'Abd al-Ghani al-Daqir, al-Fiqh al-Shâfi'î (Damascus, 1963)

'Izzat Hasan, al-Shi'r (Damascus, 1964)

Sami Khalaf Hamarnah & Salah Muhammad al-Khiyami, al-Tibb wa-l-saydala, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1969)

Ibrahim Khuri, 'Ilm al-hayâh wa-mulhaqâtu

Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Muntakhab min makhtutât al-hadîth (Damascus, 1970)

'Abd al-Hamid al-Hasan, al-Falsafa wa-l-mantiq wa-adab al-bahth (Damascus, 1970)

Ibrahim Khuri, al-Jughrâfiyâ wa-mulhaqâtuhu (Damascus, 1970)

Asma' al-Himsi, 'Ulum al-lugha al-'arabiyya, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1970)

Muhammad Salah Ayidi, al-Riyadiyât (Damascus, 1973)

Muhammad Riyad al-Malih, al-Tasawwuf, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1978, 1980)

Mustafa Said al-Sabbagh, 'Ulum wa-al-funûn al-mukhtalifa 'inda al-'Arab

Muhammad Muti' al-Hafiz, al-Fiqh al-Hanafî, 2 vols. (1978, 1980)

Salah Muhammad al-Khiyami, 'Ulûm al-Qur'ân al-Karîm, 3 vols.

Riyad 'Abd al-Hamid Murad & Yasin Muhammad al-Sawwas, Qism al-adab.

There is also an index to manuscripts in the Zahiriyya collection that came from the 'Umariyya madrasa, one of the largest libraries in Damascus until the creation of the Zahiriyya collection: Yasin al-Sawwas, Fihris makhtutât al-madrasa al-'Umariyya al-mahfûza fi-l-Zâhiriyya (Kuwait, 1987). Most of these indices are available at research libraries in the US and Britain. The Asad Library is preparing a collection of indices of its own because, in addition to the Zahiriyya collection, the Asad Library has acquired manuscripts from the general library in Aleppo, from cultural centers around the country and through purchase and gifts since the establishment of the library. Two catalogues to the Aleppo collection are Salman Qutliyya, Makhtutât al-tibb wa-l-saydala fi-l-maktaba al-'âma bi-Halab (Aleppo, 1976) and al-Muntakhab min al-makhtutât al-'arabiyya fi-Halab prepared by Markaz al-Khidmat wa-l-Abhath al-Thaqafiyya (Beirut, 1986). IFEAD is also compiling indices to manuscripts related to history-writing contained in the Asad Library. The library says it has 35,000 manuscripts copied on film from other collections through the Ma'had al-Turath al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi (Institute for Arab Heritage and Science) in Aleppo.

To use the library one needs a passport or other form of identification, two photos and 100 Syrian Pounds. The general collection is open between 9:00 am and 7:30 pm, Saturday through Thursday, and closes one hour before the breaking of the fast during Ramadan.

Conditions for use of the manuscript collection are different. One needs a letter from a university or research institution stating that the researcher requires use of the manuscript collection. Users are not allowed to see originals unless special permission is granted by the director of the library. Instead, they must avail themselves of copies of manuscripts on microfilm and microfiche. If a manuscript has not yet been microfilmed, the researcher must still make a formal request to see the original. Requests for copying must be made in writing to the director of the library. This process is very time consuming. The manuscript collection is open between 9:00 am and 1:30 pm, Saturday through Thursday.

Dr. Ghassan Lahham is director of the library. Dr. Nihad Nur al-Din Jarad is director of the manuscript collection. Ms. Hibba al-Malih is in charge of cataloging the manuscript collection.

Institut Français des Études Arabes à Damas
The French Institute celebrated its 70th anniversary in 1992. Its foundation was primarily the work of Jean Sauvaget and Louis Massignon, who steered the Institute away from art and archeology and towards a more contemporary Arabist and Syrian orientation. The Institute is run jointly by French academics and representatives of the French foreign ministry. Many of the most important Syrian scholars are associated with IFEAD, and it is also a center for visiting professors and students from all over the world. For more on the history of the Institute, see R. Avez, L'Institut français de Damas au Palais Azem (1922-1946) à travers les archives (Damascus, 1994).

Today IFEAD comprises a large library devoted to Syria and the surrounding countries from before the Muslim conquest to the present. All the human and social sciences are represented in this collection of more than 50,000 volumes: anthropology, human geography, sociology, archeology, economic, social, political and intellectual history, religion, philology, linguistics, art history and Arabic literature. The library receives 900 periodicals in several languages and has a collection of 3,000 maps, including a series devoted to the old city of Damascus. The Institute provides the setting and a program of colloquia for scholarly exchanges between French, Syrian and other researchers interested in Middle East studies. The Institute publishes the Bulletin d'Études Orientales and has published almost 150 monographs, most covering historical, religious, archeological and literary topics.

To enroll at the Institute one must be working on a research project for which its facilities are relevant. The only other requirement is a S150 annual registration fee. IFEAD has a small number of private and shared bedrooms that can be rented at a very reasonable rate by visiting scholars. Advanced doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers on fellowships can apply to become Research Associates of IFEAD by writing to the Director, Dr. Jacques Langhade. The Institute provides its Research Associates with certain privileges and the affiliation necessary for research and residency permits.

The library's stacks are closed to the public. The reading room's hours of operation are between 8:30 am and 7:00 pm Monday through Saturday, and the office hours of the administration are from 9:00 am to 12:00 or 1:00 pm, depending on the office. Requests can be made to have articles and parts of books copied by the IFEAD staff overnight. This service is quite efficient.

Dr. Jacques Langhade is the Director of the Insitute, Olivier Dubois is the Head Librarian, and Claude Salame has been a librarian there for almost 20 years. IFEAD's address is: P.O.B. 344, Damascus, Syria, tel: (963-11) 333-6249, fax: (963-11) 332-7887.

Center for Historical Documents (Markaz al-Watha'iq al-Ta'rikhiyya)
Established in 1959 under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, the Center for Historical Documents contains the portion of the Syrian National Archives accessible to historical researchers. It is located in a charming but dilapitated 19th-century mansion that was home to the former prime minister Khalid al-'Azm and adjoins the Museum of the History of Damascus. Its holdings, almost entirely in Arabic, range from the late 17th to the mid-20th centuries and consist of Islamic court registers, proceedings of courts established in the 19th century, government documents from the late Ottoman, Mandate and Independence periods and collections of private papers.

The Ottoman collection consists primarily of the registers from the mahâkim sharî'a (Islamic Law Courts) of Damascus, Aleppo and Hama. The records contain the proceedings of cases involving buying, selling, marriage, divorce, renting, gift giving, custody, inheritance and the disposition of waqf (endowment) monies. For a fuller description of these sources and their uses, see Abdul Karim Rafeq, "The Law-Court Registers of Damascus, with Special Reference to Craft-Corporations During the First Half of the Eighteenth Century," in Jacques Berques & Dominique Chevalier, eds., Les Arabes par leurs archives (Paris, 1974), pp. 142-146. For an example of the use of such documents for the study of land tenure, see James A. Reilly, "Sharî'a Court Registers and Land Tenure around Nineteenth-Century Damascus," MESA Bulletin, 21 (1987), p. 169. As a guide to the monetary calculations in these documents see 'Abd al-Karim Rafiq, "Ghazah," in Buhûth fi-l-tâ'rîkh al-iqtisâdî wa-l-ijtimâ'î li-bilâd al-Shâm (Damascus, 1985), pp. 86-87. Probate inventories for local residents and Ottoman officials were settled by a special branch of the court (qisma baladî or 'arabî for locals and qisma 'askarî for Ottomans until the 19th century) and are generally bound in separate registers. For examples of the use of these documents, see Karl Barbir, "Wealth, Privilege and Family Structure: The 'Askaris of 18th Century Damascus According to the Qassam 'Askari Inheritance Records" in Thomas Philipp, ed., The Syrian Land in the 18th and 19th Century (Stuttgart, 1992), pp. 179-195, and Colette Establet & Jean-Paul Pascual, Familles et fortunes à Damas en 1700 (Damascus, 1994). These archives provide a rich source for social, economic and cultural history and have barely been tapped. They pose a number of obstacles to foreign researchers however; most who approach them for the first time find the handwritten documents difficult to decipher, the language and narrative style formulaic, legalistic and cursory, and the organization of cases and registers difficult to grasp. The indexing system in the archives provides little guidance. Nevertheless, a researcher with a specific goal in mind and a precise method of attack will find these archives a gold mine of information.

In addition to the sharî'a court records which form the bulk of the archives, the Center collection includes about 156 volumes from the commercial court (mahkama tijâriyya) on trade contracts between local and foreign traders in both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish and 140 volumes of proceedings of the Appeals Courts (mahâkim isti'nâf) established in the 19th century. At least one volume exists of the proceedings of the Majlis Shura al-Sham al-'Ali (Consultative Council) established as part of the Ottoman Tanzimat. For the use of these documents see Elizabeth Thompson, "Ottoman Political Reform in the Provinces: the Damascus Advisory Council in 1844-45," IJMES 25 (1993), pp. 457-475. Uncataloged holdings include some tapu land tenure records and miscellaneous family waqfiyyas (endowments) that cover nearly the entire Ottoman period. Other collections consist of 78 volumes of Ottoman firmans (awâmir sultâniyya) or decrees from the Sultan to the provincial administration of Aleppo and Damascus. These are mostly in Ottoman Turkish and concern such matters as appointments to government or religious office and compensation. Twenty-eight volumes of the Salname, or Ottoman official gazette, for the Damascus province from the late 19th and early 20th centuries provide what local statistics there are to be had from Syria in the period, as well as a guide to provincial administration and officeholders.

Government documents from the Mandate and Independence period, 1918-1970, include reports of the French High Commissioner, official gazettes, government decrees, ministerial debates on such issues as the plan for Greater Syria, border disputes, the Kurdish question, the Alexandretta question and the Arab response to the Palestine conflict, as well as material related to the establishment and history of Syrian political parties. Researchers interested in the Mandate period will find the bulk of the material generated by the French Administration at the Archives Diplomatiques in Nantes, France, but may find useful supplementary material on the Syrian perspective in the Center.

Perhaps more useful than the government papers in providing Syrian perspectives on the first half of the 20th century is the numerous collection of private papers of Syrian public figures. These include memoirs and papers of Fakhri Barudi, Yunis al-Khamshur, Sa'dallah al-Jabiri, Jamil Ibrahim Pasha, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kayali, Ibrahim al-Shaghuri, Yusif al-Sa'dun, Sultan al-Atrash, Mu'ayyad al-'Azm, Hasan al-Hakim, Shafiq al-Rikabi, Sa'id al-Awda, Sabri Farid Badawi, Nasib al-Bakri, King Faisal I, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Badr al-Din al-Kayyali, Sa'id al-Jaza'iri, Fawzi al-Qawuqji, Khalid al-'Azm, Akram Hourani, Nur al-Din Atasi, Mansur al-Atrash, 'Abd al-Karim Zuhur and others. This section also contains papers related to some of the Arabist parties of the Ottoman period and nationalist parties of the Mandate period including al-'Ahd, al-Jam'iyat al-Qahtaniyya, al-Muntada al-Adabi, al-Qumsan al-Hadidiyya and Maktab al-'Arabi al-Qawmi.

The Center has complete collections of Syrian newspapers from the Ba'th Period as well as incomplete collections of earlier Syrian and Lebanese papers and a 5,000-volume library of published materials on Middle Eastern history including parliamentary proceedings from post-WWII Syria. The Center's photographic collection contains 6,000 photos of Syrian and Arab personalities on political and national occasions.

Efforts have been under way since the early 1990s to index the entire collection, and the holdings from the Ottoman era have been more or less completed. Researchers can find a card for each register or folder giving the dates, court and presiding judge and a rough idea of the types of cases it contains. Work is just beginning on the post-WWI period cataloging.

Researchers must be scholars or professional historians who are either writing a book or article or preparing a university degree. Use of the Center's resources requires permission from the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums which, in turn, requires written proof of university affiliation, sponsorship by a Cultural Center and a letter of application in Arabic. In order for the Center's staff to provide optimal assistance, researchers should be able to specify precise and conventional topics of interest from prior to 1970. The Center does not have a functioning photocopier, but limited numbers (10-15) of photocopies can be made off the premises at the Director's discretion. Sometimes researchers are allowed to photograph documents in the reading room. The Director is Ms. Da'd Hakim.

The Zahiriyya Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya)
The history of the building, which dates from the late 13th century, is probably more interesting than the holdings of the library itself. One of the largest and best preserved of the Damascene madrasas, al-Zahiriyya was named for Sultan al-Zahir Baybars, the first of the Mamluks sultans. In 1876 it was turned into a general library. Along with al-'Adiliyya Madrasa, across the street, it was also headquarters of al-Majma' al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi, the premier institution of the Syrian literary renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Zahiriyya collection was decimated, however, by the creation of the Asad Library when the manuscript collection, rare books and periodicals relating to Syria were transferred to the Asad Library. The Zahiriyya now contains about 70,000 volumes mostly related to Islam, the Arabic language, history and biography. The library is now used mostly by high school and college students.

There are no conditions for using library except that some form of identification must be deposited at the circulation desk in order to use books. The hours of operation are Saturday through Thursday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm except during Ramadan when they are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Other Research Institutions in Damascus
There are several other research institutions of use to researchers in Damascus. Both the Mezze and Baramki campuses of Damascus University have small libraries which are not up to the standards of American or European university libraries. More importantly, the university is a good place to meet Syrian scholars, both professors and graduate students. The University's history department is on the Mezze campus. One should also consult Lajnat Kitabat Ta'rikh al-'Arab (Council for the Writing of the History of the Arabs), publishers of Dirasât Tâ'rîkhiyya (tel: (963-11) 212-4461). The Majma' al-Lugha al-'Arabiyya (The Arabic Language Academy, the contemporary incarnation of the Majma' al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi) is also a good place to meet Syrian scholars, primarily those interested in literary and linguistic topics. The Academy has a library for the use of its own researchers which is not open to the public. The Atlas bookstore near Yusif al-'Azma Square at Bawabat Salihiyya is a favorite meeting place for university professors and is where many of their books can be bought. The Halbuni neighborhood behind the Hijaz railway station is the center of the bookselling trade. Maktabat Shaykh Mahmud al-Beiruti and Maktabat Abu Ubayda are excellent sources of rare books from throughout the Arab world, particularly Lebanon. The Abu Nur Mosque in the Rukn al-Din neighborhood is a new center for Islamic studies. Several of the monasteries in the Damascus area also have extensive libraries. See Habib al-Zayat, Khazâ'in kutub fi-Dimashq wa-dawâhiha (Cairo, 1902).

Notes:|
1 We would like to thank Ms. Da'd Hakim, Dr. Nihad Nur al-Din Jarad, Dr. Majid al-Dhahabi, Ms. Mayada Jamil, Prof. Linda Schilcher, Alison McGandy and Lisa Wedeen for help in putting this information together.

2 For more on the status of ARIS, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) serves as a clearinghouse for information about the Institute. CAORC’s address is: 1100 Jefferson Dr SW, IC-3123, Washington, DC 20560.