проект РФФИ №10-06-00540-а 2010-2011 гг.
Electronic Publication and Study of Arabic Manuscripts Collection
of the Professor of SPbU al-Tantawi (1810-1861)
in the Oriental Department of the Scientific Library of SPbSU

The main task of the current project was to study Arabic Manuscripts Collection belonged to the Professor of St.Petersburg University Sheikh al-Tantawi (1810-1861), which is being kept now in the Oriental Department of the Scientific Library of St.Petersburg State University. In course of the project the following tasks were performed:

1. Development of software necessary for the electronic publication of Arabic manuscripts from al-Tantawi’s collection:
• Creating the database (using standard MS Office program – MS Access) for publication of the manuscripts in digital form together with their description, which contains all necessary codicological and bibliographical information about the manuscripts and works they contained.
• Developing software necessary for publishing the manuscripts collection on DVD.

2. Describing and electronic publishing of Arabic manuscripts from the collection of al-Tantawi, which encompasses:
• Studying and describing the manuscripts,
• Preparing manuscripts for scanning,
• Scanning the manuscripts, converting them into .pdf form and making digital books (most of the collection has been scanned and produced in electronic form),
• Publishing digitalized manuscripts and their descriptions in the MS Access database (all the manuscripts of the collection were provided with relevant codicological and bibliographical information).

3. Studying the personality of al-Tantawi as a scholar and an individual, as well as his Arabic manuscripts collection. A number of articles were published in this connection, including 6 papers delivered by the project participants at the International conferences “Russia and the Arab world” dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Sheikh Muhammad ‘Ayyad al-Tantawi (1810-1861), November 2–3, 2010, St.Petersburg State University. Introductory articles about al-Tantawi and about his collection were prepared for the DVD publication.

4. Publishing in the DVD form of the digitalized manuscripts of al-Tantawi’s Collection with their detailed descriptions and search facilities, provided with detailed introductory articles about al-Tantawi and his collection.