CULTURAL HERITAGE: - Macedonian Information Centre

araBiC ManuSCriPtS in MaCedonia - 27
the significant poem Hirz al-amani wa wajh al-tahani, known also as
al-Shatibiyya by abu Muhammad Qasim ibn Firruh al-Shatibi on the
seven canonical ways of reading the Koran.
CONCLUSION
The Islamic manuscripts written in all the three oriental languages
are, on the international scale, considered to be a precious part of the
cultural heritage of the Islamic civilization. A large number of works
of the Antiquity became known to the mankind thanks to the Arabic
translations and copies, the fact that speaks of the universal value of
these manuscripts. The preserved oriental manuscripts in Macedonia
represent only a part of rich funds of numerous Islamic libraries that
were formed on the territory of Macedonia from the establishment of
the Ottoman rule in the 15th century up to the beginning of the 20th
century. Unfortunately, a large part of these funds has been irrevocably
lost, particularly those belonging to the earliest Islamic libraries. The great
importance of the Arabic manuscripts kept in the National and University
Library “St. Clement of Ohrid” lies in the fact that they represent an
extraordinary testimony of the Arabo-Islamic influences that permeated
all the pores of the Ottoman state organization, the legal and the social
system, the education, the school system, the religion, the language and
the literature, and had their reflection on the entire material and spiritual
life of the peoples living on the territory of Macedonia in the period of the
Ottoman rule. In the Oriental collection of the National and University
Library “St. Clement of Ohrid” there are manuscripts from almost all
the fields of sciences that were subjects of studying in the Middle Ages,
or in the time of their writing or copying. They also include the texts that
are very rare, maybe even unique – the aspect from which they should
be the subject of a special research.
The manuscripts written in all the three Oriental languages from the
physical point of view represent a unique creation impossible to reproduce.
Each and every one of them offers its part of testimony for the material
history of the book, beginning with the writing materials, the types of
script, the decoration and the bindings, up to the numerous notes that
indicate the way that every single manuscript has passed through the
time and the space. A large number of Arabic manuscripts, as well as
those written in Turkish and Persian languages, are important because
of their artistic value lying in the wonderful calligraphy and ornaments,
as well as in the skill of the old oriental binders.
For the reasons of uniqueness of the manuscripts as such, for their
antiquity, for the great artistic value of a large number of manuscripts
written in all the three oriental languages, for their importance as a source