Al-Quds fī awākhir al-'ahd al-'uthmānī wa'l-turāth al-'arabī al-islāmī: al-maktaba al-khālidiyya numūdhağan (Gerusalemme tardo-ottomana e l'eredità arabo-islamica: il caso della maktaba al-Khālidiyya)

Abstract

To discuss about the importance of the Arab and Islamic heritage kept in Jerusalem (Palestine) means to highlight its relevance as a part of a specific Palestinian legacy, as well as an insuppressible part of the Palestinian culture as a whole. It mainly consists of manuscripts (letters, edicts and documents of various kinds) and ancient volumes stored in some historical archives and libraries, but it also consists of the very places where this documentation has been preserved. Through the history of such places (archives and libraries), in effect, it is also possible to reconstruct the history of important Palestinian families (ulema) which - accordingly to a specific Islamic conception - tend to inweave their lives with the production and the transmission of Islamic culture. Such is the case of al-Khalidi members in late-Ottoman Jerusalem, and the foundation of the maktaba al-Khalidiyya.