Chester Beatty
Dublin, Ireland

Approximately 1,000 Arabic and Persian manuscripts were sold to the Irish-American mining magnate Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968) by Abraham Yahuda, between 1927 and 1935. These now form part of the museum’s Islamic collection, which numbers over 6,000 works on paper and parchment. Overall, the Chester Beatty holds around 25,000 Asian and European manuscripts, scrolls, paintings, early printed books and other objects.

The Yahuda acquisitions were not catalogued separately, but as an integral part of the main Islamic collection. For the Arabic, Persian and Qur’an material, the initial printed catalogues published by Arberry, Wilkinson and others are available as pdfs for download here. The collections themselves are in the early stages of digitisation for online access, viewable here. Subject to Covid restrictions in Ireland (check our website for news on re-opening), researchers may make an appointment at the Reading Room to view manuscripts: please complete a Collections Access Request form and email to research@cbl.ie. Allow one month’s notice for booking your access appointment. Our archives are currently closed to the public.

For questions about the Islamic collections or Yahuda’s friendship with Beatty, please email the Curator of Islamic Collections, Moya Carey (mcarey@cbl.ie)

National Library of Israel
Jerusalem, Israel

Yahuda Islamic manuscripts are described in Efraim Wust’s two volume Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts of the Yahuda Collection of the National Library of Israel (Brill, 2016 and 2020). Thanks to a generous grant from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, the NLI is currently digitizing the entire collection of Yahuda Islamic manuscripts. Many of these manuscripts are already accessible for viewing and downloading on our website. 

The National Library of Israel’s Yahuda collection includes 1,186 manuscripts from the central Islamic lands, spanning all major Islamic disciplines and literary traditions; the collection also includes Hebrew and Latin manuscripts, Isaac Newton’s theological writings; early printed books, and Yahuda’s extensive personal archive.

For questions about the collection please contact Islam and Middle East Collection Curator Samuel Thrope (samuel.thrope@nli.org.il) or by contacting the Library’s Reference Department.

Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Princeton’s Yahuda material is held by the Special Collections Department in the Islamic Manuscripts Collection and can be found using the Princeton University library catalog. Princeton holds the largest group of Yahuda manuscripts – an estimated 5,100 volumes – which he sold to Robert S. Garrett (Princeton class of 1897) on behalf of Princeton University, where they are now housed.

Questions can be emailed to Near Eastern Studies Librarian Deborah Schlein (dschlein@princeton.edu) or submitted using the Ask Us! Form on the library website

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

University of Michigan holds 265 manuscript volumes purchased in 1926 from Abraham Shalom Yahuda are preserved under the designation “Yahuda Collection” within the Islamic Manuscripts Collection in the Special Collections Research Center of the University Library. The Yahuda manuscripts include texts and annotations in Arabic, Turkish and Persian representing a broad range of subjects, geographies and manuscript cultures. Search or browse detailed descriptions for all of the manuscripts in the online catalogue and look for the HathiTrust Digital Library “Full text” links to view or download digital copies of the manuscripts themselves.

Contact curator Evyn Kropf or the Special Collections Research Center with any questions.