Prophets, Poets and Scholars

Leiden University has an impressive collection of primary texts in various Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Berber languages, Hebrew, and Ethiopian. These texts are contained in objects made of parchment, paper, and leather, which are often artistically shaped and ingeniously constructed. In addition, the university holds the written and printed records of 400 years of scholarly activity by Western orientalists. Currently, the Leiden University Library is the custodian of the largest Middle Eastern and Islamic cultural collection in the Netherlands, a unique position that is scarcely known to the public.