FOREWORD

By publishing this handlist on the occasion of the Snouck Hurgronje centenary commemoration the Leyden University Library wishes to express its deep-felt gratitude to that great Arabist and Islamic scholar who directed our Oriental Library Department as Interpres for nearly 30 years and greatly enriched its collections by leaving us his books and manuscripts. Up to now only Snouck Hurgronje's Malay manuscripts were accessible through a printed catalogue made by Prof. dr. Ph. S. van Ronkel. Now the Arabic manuscripts belonging to his collection and numbering nearly three hundred, are being made known for the first time through this list. This is the first catalogue of oriental manuscripts made by a mem ber of our library staff. Formerly the task of describing the oriental manuscripts was entrusted to the Interpres Legati Warneriani and his helpers, or to specialists among the teaching staff of the Leyden University or elsewhere. In 1919 the adiutor Interpretis Dr. C. van Arendonk became a mem ber of the library staff. He had a profound knowledge of Arabic liter ature but, for reasons set forth in the introduction to this work, he never published a catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in his keeping. However, the notes left by him are an important contribution towards a new catalogue. They have been extensively used by his successor in compiling this handlist. Van Arendonk's successor, Dr. P. Voorhoeve, is a distinguished specialist of Sumatran languages, but he began his oriental studies by learning Arabic from the late Professor Snouck Hurgronje. Because a practical and complete handlist of Arabic manuscripts was most ur gently needed, he has compiled this list from the printed catalogues and from written notes found in the library, and completed it by his own research. I thank my colleagues and some private owners of Arabic MSS. in our country for giving Dr. Voorhoeve access to their collections and permitting him to include their MSS. in this list. Thanks to their kind co-operation this handlist now gives — as far as possible — a complete survey of Arabic manuscripts in the Netherlands. This work, though not a full-grown catalogue, surpasses the scope of the Catalogus Compendarius, published by our library in 1932-1937. Although the last volume, planned to contain the oriental MSS., was still due, we have decided not to revive that series, but to publish this handlist as Vol. VII of the series "Codices Manuscripti", in which it is the first volume dealing with oriental manuscripts.