Earlier this year I was getting lost inside the Arabic books in @nypl's Schiff Collection. Now that the library is closed I am going to show you a few gems I found there. Thread...

First a little history: In 1897/8 Jacob Schiff gave the NYPL a large donation to build a collection of "semitic literature". This led to the creation of the Dorot Jewish division and a (now defunct) Oriental division.

The Columbia professor Richard Gottheil was put in charge of the Oriental division, assisted by Ida A Pratt and set about acquiring a huge range of Arabic printed books. His primary dealer was the Cairo-based bookseller J.B. Yahuda, brother of the famous scholar A.S. Yahuda.

He got some great playscripts including 1) a late 19th century Arabic translation of Corneille's Le Cid 2) A dramatic adaptation of Walter Scott's Talisman 3) a light farce called "I'll never get married even if they hang me 4) a banned political play about the Dinshaway incident

There is also a short poem about Cairo's nightlife district, Ezbekiyya, including this picture of "The Famous American Madame Shimmy"

The real treat in the collection is the small pamphlets, many of which do not survive anywhere else. e.g. 1) A work on the spiritual practice of Zar 2) Collections of stories and tales 3) An Arabic response to the French anti-semitic tract, Juifs et Opportunistes

This is just a small part of the NYPL collection, which is one of the most interesting in USA. Many of the Arabic books (and almost all of the Ottoman Turkish books) have not yet made it to the online catalogue and but it is a unique resource.