XII

Arendonk's time. His intimate knowledge of the Leiden collections to a certain degree replaced a printed catalogue, and scholars abroad soon knew that they would never apply to him in vain for help and in formation. Apart from the fact that Van Arendonk did not urgently feel the need of a catalogue and Snouck Hurgronje did not encourage him, there was also the circumstance that Houtsma and Juynboll after their move to Utrecht did not give up the idea of finishing the new edition. It was only in 1940 that Juynboll sent their collected notes to Leiden. In the mean time Snouck Hurgronje had died in 1936 and left his oriental manuscripts to our library. Some parts of his collection, mainly manuscripts in Indonesian languages, had been transferred to the library before as loan collections, but the Arabic MSS. came to the library only after his death. The great majority of these MSS. had also been collected in Indonesia and are documents of Indonesian Is lam. A similar collection had been sent to the library by Snouck Hur gronje in 1906 just before he moved from Batavia to Leiden. This collection came, with a few exceptions, from Bantën (W. Java). It was received in Leiden by Juynboll, who sorted it into Indonesian and Arabic MSS., and saw to it that the volumes, mostly damaged by book worms, were carefully wrapped in brown paper, numbered and listed. After that, the Arabic part of this Bantën collection was almost for gotten. When Snouck Hurgronje and his pupil H. Kraemer needed AbH Sakür as-Salimï's Tamhld, they did not turn to the copy in this col lection, but borrowed one from the India Office Library. Notes in Van Arendonk's handwriting were found on slips put into some of these MSS., but it seems probable to me that he made these after his inter est in Indonesian-Arabic literature had been aroused by the MSS. bequeathed by Snouck Hurgronje in 1936. The Bantën collection of 1906, together with Snouck Hurgronje's MSS. of 1936 have made the Leiden library second in importance for Arabic literature in Indo nesia, surpassed only by the Djakarta collection. These collections and several minor accessions had made the task of completing the catalogue beyond the capacity of one man who could only give a small part of his time to this work. During the war, when other work slowed down, Van Arendonk made many notes about the contents of MSS., but his health deteriorated and it was apparent that the completion of the catalogue could not be expected from him. At the same time it became questionable whether the catalogue should be continued in its old form at all. Latin was no longer familiar to many of the younger generation of Arabists, and the second edition of Brockelmann's Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur that was nearing its completion, would make most of the bibliographical references added by Houtsma and Juynboll superfluous. So Kramers conceived the plan of publishing a very brief reference list, giving little more than titles, names of authors, dates and references to Brockelmann's GAL. Slips for this list were made under Van Arendonk's guidance by Mr. A. J. W. Huisman, cand. litt. semit., from 1944-1946. Huisman worked from the printed catalogues with Van Arendonk's pencil notes in the margin; generally he had no access to the MSS. or to the notes by Houtsma and Juynboll. His task was nearly completed when he left the library in 1946. Van Arendonk retired from active service at the library in Septem ber of the same year. During one month he initiated me into the se crets of the oriental department, which were kept well arranged and readily accessible in his memory, but scantily recorded on paper. My hope to get his advice from time to time was soon frustrated by his