September 4, 2026 Dataset Open Access

EAP 1114-MIC-009

Anne Bang; Scott Reese

EAP 1114-MIC-009

Collection description

The Maalim Idris Collection is a privately curated collection, accumulated over time, primarily as an exercise in heritage preservation. The owner of the collection was the late Maalim Muhammad Idris Muhammed Saleh (1934-2012) in Zanzibar. The various series shelfmarks are indicative of where an item was digitized or under whose auspices. Records bearing the shelfmark MPRINT-CSMC-MIC were imaged at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg. Those designated MPRINT-UIB-MIC were imaged by team members at the University of Bergen. Finally, those with MPRINT-EAP1114 (the largest series) were imaged in Zanzibar between 2018-2019 under the auspices of the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library supported by the Arcadia Fund.

Several academic books, theses and articles have been authored on the basis of Maalim Idris's collection. However, Maalim himself emphasized his collection as a gateway to a Zanzibari religious heritage that in his opinion had been lost. His main concern was that this be made accessible to "the young people" as an intellectual – as well as physical – link to their past.

Maalim Idris obtained his collection through inheritance, and through various sources, with a particular influx from the Comorian community of Zanzibar – of which he was a member. The previous lives of the printed books are evident in the many ownership- and waqfiyya notes.

The collection is an eclectic assembly of materials ranging from early printed books from throughout the Muslim world, manuscripts whose origins stretch from Oman and Southern Arabia to the East African coast itself as well as other ephemera. Only the Among the most important items in this collection are 61 Arabic manuscripts dating from 1860 to 1910. These are both Ibadi and Sunni Shafi'i, this not reflective of any particular Islamic school or orientation, but some are locally authored, others are locally produced copies of standard works, while others are imported from Oman in the late 19th century. The collection now resides in the library of the Wakfu Wangazija in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

TIFF files

High-quality TIFF images are available for researchers upon request. Please send an e-mail to manuscript-cultures@uni-hamburg.de, include your name, institution and specify which MPRINT images you need and indicate their intended purpose. Your request will be reviewed as quickly as possible.