EAP466-RM095MPRINT REF: RIYADHA095
General Ref/Shelfmark: EAP466-RM095
Title in original script: إعانة الطالبين على حل ألفاظ فتح المعين
Title in transliteration: ʾIʿānat al-ṭālibīn ʿalā ḥalli ʾalfāẓ fatḥ al-muʿīn
Author-Original Script: أبو بكر (المشهور بالبكري) عثمان بن محمد شطا الدمياطي الشافعي
Author-Latin Script: ʾAbū Bakr (al-Mashhūr bi al-Bakrī) ʾOthmān bin Muḥammad Shaṭṭā al-Dimyāṭī al-Shāfiʾī
Collection of original material: Riyadha
Owner/Custodian: Riyadha Madrasa
Copyist-Original script: عبد المذنب يسلم بن سعيد بن محمد القسبي
Copyist-Latin Script: ʿAbd al-Mudhannib Yusallim bin Saʿīd bin Muḥammad al- Qaṣabī
Modality of text: Manuscript
Physical Description of item: A very massive manuscript originally bound in leather with a flap, now covered partly in carton. The first pages (contents lists) are crumbled and partly destryed. The title page has borders and decorations in red and blue pencil, possibly added later. Paper is damaged by instects and humidity, in very poor condition.
Physical characteristics height (cm): 32
Physical characteristics width (cm): 20
Physical characteristics (folios): 719
State of completion: incomplete
Primary Language of object: Arabic
Script of object: Arabic
Location of original material: Lamu, Kenya
Collection description
The RIYADHAPRINT materials include early Arabic prints, mostly from the Riyadha Mosque Library collection in Lamu. These objects were digitized in October and November 2023. The series also includes the Riyadha manuscript collection which was digitized in 2011 as part of the Endangered Archive Programme (EAP466) of the British Library funded by the Arcadia Fund. These objects bear the shelfmark MPRINT-RIYADHA-EAP466. The selection of what to digitize in this group was made according to age (prioritizing early prints) and relevance (such as lithographs.) Several prints on this list belong to individual custodians in Lamu town, and these were named after their owners (i.e. Khadija Muhammad Salim and Fatma Ba Hsan).
The early print group features a range of texts printed in Arabic between 1854 and 1977 across various printing centres in the Muslim world. The various stamps, handwritten notes, and annotations, mainly from the cover page, reflect the journey these texts have taken over the years from production centers to users.
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. MprinT is funded by the Research Council of Norway and supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy - EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was partially conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at University of Hamburg. Most of the digitization occurred between October 2021 and May 2025.