iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

All of these manuscripts are available to view for free in HMML's online Reading Room. Link to the manuscript in the picture above: w3id.org/vhmml/readin...

w3id.org

000

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The importance of the Eyes on Heritage team's efforts to preserve this history under nightmarish circumstances cannot be overstated

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Topics include legal imitation (EOH 00004) and analogy (EOH 00021); out-of-court confessions (EOH 00032); smoking tobacco and drinking coffee (EOH 00010 and EOH 00016); usury (EOH 00011); the signs of the Apocalypse (EOH 00005, written immediately in the wake of the Nakbah)

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

This includes two copies of al-Ṭabbāʻ's large compilation of fatwas (EOH 00012 and EOH 00013) and the two parts of his extensive history of Gaza (EOH 00034 and EOH 00035), but also smaller texts on a variety of topics of interest to early-20th-century Gazans

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

As a result, the majority of the texts preserved in this collection are local to Gaza, almost all are new to HMML's collections, and many of them are likely unique copies of unpublished texts that do not exist outside these manuscript witnesses

110

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Apart from two copies of works by earlier scholars, the manuscripts of al-Ṭabbāʻ are autograph copies of his own original works. There are also 11 manuscripts composed, copied, or owned by al-Ṭabbāʻ's teacher Aḥmad Bisīsū (d. 1911), primarily on Sufism

110

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

al-Ṭabbāʻ was born in Ottoman Gaza and died in Egyptian Gaza; other than a few years studying at al-Azhar in Cairo, he lived his entire life in the city, and several of his colophons bear witness to the calamities of World War I (EOH 00004) and the Nakbah (EOH 00005)

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The centerpiece of this collection is 19 manuscripts copied by ʻUthmān al-Ṭabbāʻ (1882-1950), a legal scholar and founder of the library at the Great Omari Mosque, HMML's prior digitization project in Gaza

110

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Today I finished cataloging 36 Arabic manuscripts from Eyes on Heritage, a cultural institution in Gaza. These manuscripts were photographed before the Israeli invasion in 2023, but the team was only recently able to send these digital images to @visithmml.bsky.social's partners in Jerusalem

1114

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Same principle for olympic medals

020

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

I did not notice anyone deliberately playing with palindromes like al-Harīrī does.

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

You're asking if there are any palindromes, in Arabic script, in these hundreds of manuscripts?

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

These manuscripts were saved by the heroic librarians when the library was shelled during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, and one of the librarians--Aida Buturović--was killed on her way home. It's an honor to follow in her footsteps and help share these books with the world

051

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

I recently finished cataloging the Arabic-script manuscripts of the National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over 750 manuscripts in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Bosnian, free to view in the HMML Reading Room w3id.org/vhmml/readin...

27022

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

This Syriac manuscript was copied in Alqūsh, Iraq, in 1925. The scribe gives the date as year 2236 of the Greeks (Seleucid Era), year 1925 from the ascension (!) of Our Lord, year 76 of my life, and year 7 since the English conquered these lands of ours

1336

Reposted by Josh Mugler

HMML @visithmml.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Accepting applications for Introduction to Classical Armenian, a language and paleography course held from July 7 to August 1, 2025, at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota. Application deadline: February 24, 2025 Learn more: hmml.org/programs/int...

03116

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

From a prayer book in Arabic, Tatar, and Polish, possibly early 19th century, now at the Stefanyk National Scientific Library in L'viv, Ukraine w3id.org/vhmml/readin...

w3id.org

STEF 00608 - Ukraine - Lʹviv - Lʹvivsʹka nat︠s︡ionalʹna naukova biblioteka Ukraïny im. V. Stefanyka - Бав 327 - Reading Room - vHMML

Resources and Tools for Manuscript Studies

000

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

First time seeing Polish in Arabic script

230

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Congratulations to the people of Gaza. Freedom in our time!

020

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

Jesus told me dragons keep eating his monks so I asked how many monks he has and he said he just goes to the desert and gets a new monk afterwards so I said it sounds like he’s just feeding monks to dragons and then Jesus wept.

Drawing of monks going up a ladder to heaven and other monks going down the other side into the mouth of a dragon

0103

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

Also interesting: al-Māsinī gives the date of October 22 in addition to the hijrī date, meaning early modern West African Muslims were maintaining knowledge of the Julian calendar even after Western European Christians had transitioned to Gregorian (the earthquake was November 1)

000

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

I'm not sure if such a description of the disaster from West Africa has ever been identified before

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

The text is by an otherwise unknown author named Aḥmad ibn Bindād al-Māsinī. He emphasizes his observations of animal behavior during the earthquake, seeing their movements and cries as natural expressions of praise to God

100

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

Manuscript 3799 at the Imam Essayouti library in Timbuktu is a firsthand West African Arabic account of the 1755 earthquake that devastated Lisbon and reshaped the thought of European philosophers like Voltaire and Kant w3id.org/vhmml/readin...

131

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 14/01/2024

Moving to Philadelphia at the beginning of February

180

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 16/09/2023

I really think we've said the name of that musical quite enough tonight

010

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 16/09/2023

It's at the Balamand monastery near Tripoli, Lebanon, copied in the 1640s along with a few other Christian Arabic texts. It includes a portrait of John of Damascus (labeled in Greek and Arabic), alleged author of the Barlaam and Joasaph story, which is actually based on the life of the Buddha

030

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 16/09/2023

New illustrated copy of Barlaam and Joasaph just dropped w3id.org/vhmml/readin...

142

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/08/2023

Be sure to check it out if you're looking for manuscript resources on Christian or Islamic Arabic, among other languages and traditions. The manuscripts from the print catalogs will soon be fully cataloged on our website as well

010

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 22/08/2023

I recently finished cataloging the previously uncataloged portions of the Bibliothèque Orientale manuscript collection at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. Part of this collection is well-known from existing print catalogs, but there's a lot more w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/505…

Manuscript title page in Arabic with calligraphy and decoration in deep red and blue

183

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 31/07/2023

First cat pic on the newsite is also my first ever pic of Helena king kongin' it

Helena the cat hanging from the top of a tall scratch tower

020

Josh Mugler @jmugs.bsky.social · 23/07/2023

From my Lake Superior trip

Deep blue water surrounding a rocky island and tree-covered coasts under a blue sky

010