MELA Notes

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Editor's Note #97, 2025

In this article we scrutinize the process of founding of one of the prominent manuscript libraries in the Middle East, the Sipahsālār library in Tehran, in particular the circumstances of the creation of an endowment (waqf) for it, and the purchase of a massive private library of the Qajar prince Iʿtiżād al-Salṭana, by the waqf of the library. We will also discuss efforts to catalogue and organize the collections housed in the library, as it continued to grow. To draw a rudimentary picture of the make up of the collection and the special material it holds, we briefly introduce 25 manuscripts in the libray, categorized into different groups, to highlight certain features of the princely collection. 

The preservation of rare books in Iranian libraries presents a complex challenge, influenced by factors such as formal policies, infrastructure, specialized staff, and disaster preparedness. This study introduces a comprehensive organizational knowledge management model designed to enhance the preservation, accessibility, and digitalization of special collections. Using a 28-item researcher-designed questionnaire, standardized through the Delphi technique, the study assessed the current state of special collections libraries. Findings indicate that while many libraries have preservation plans for rare books, significant challenges persist, including inadequate preservation documentation, limited insurance coverage, and insufficient attention to the digitization of materials. The study underscores the importance of balancing preservation with inclusive access, ensuring that rare materials are available to diverse communities. By integrating principles of social justice, the proposed model fosters equitable access to cultural heritage while promoting sustainable preservation strategies. The research highlights the role of digital preservation as a critical tool for overcoming traditional barriers to  access and ensuring that rare books are accessible to a global audience.

This article examines the multifaceted contributions of Keykāvūs Jahāndārī to the development of specialized Iranian and Islamic studies libraries in Iran. It highlights his pivotal role in collection development at key institutions, including the former Senate Library, the Farhang-e Iran Foundation Library, and the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia. Emphasizing his bibliographic expertise and translation work, the study explores how Jahāndārī enriched Iranological scholarship by acquiring rare resources and translating critical German language texts on Iranian history and culture. The article also discusses his ethical virtues, advocacy for the autonomy of specialized libraries, and enduring influence on library science and Iranian studies. Drawing on archival materials, interviews, and published tributes, this research sheds light on Jahāndārī’s legacy as a humble yet transformative figure whose work continues to support Iranian academic inquiry and cultural preservation.

Textual editing has remained an underexplored area within literary studies in Afghanistan. This study investigates the knowledge of paleography and the editorial methods employed by several Afghan scholars, with the aim of clarifying the approaches to textual editing in the country during the 20th century. Drawing on bibliographies and indexes of articles from leading Afghan literary and historical periodicals such as Kābul (Kabul Literary Association), Āriānā (History association of Afghanistan), Zhwandūn (Ministry of Information and Culture), and Khorāsān (Dari Institute of Language and Literature), this study identifies and analyzes the editorial work of four prominent scholars: Khāl-Muḥammad Khastah, Sarwar Gūyā Iʻtimādī, ‘Abd al-Ra’ūf Fekrī Saljūqī, and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Behrūz. The findings reveal that Afghan text editors often faced considerable challenges, most notably limited and difficult access to manuscripts preserved in international libraries. As a result, they frequently relied on locally available sources, which were sometimes unverified or based on single manuscript copies. Furthermore, core components of modern critical editing such as comprehensive manuscript description, systematic collation, and documentation of variant readings were often overlooked. This study offers new insight into the field of paleography in Afghanistan and provides a preliminary reassessment of its textual editing practices and key contributors during the 20th century.

Hooshang Ebrami (1934–2003) was a foundational figure in modern librarianship in Iran, merging economics, social sciences, and library science. This study summarizes his career and assesses his impact on library education and practice in Iran and his later cultural contributions in the United States. Using a descriptive–analytical approach, the paper reviews Ebrami’s primary works (publications, theses, translations) and secondary sources (scholarly articles, archival records). Information was organized into education, professional appointments, and major publications. A historical-content analysis traced his evolving influence. Ebrami earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Tehran in 1956 and authored Sattar Khan: The National Commander (1973). At the Central Bank of Iran, he created its specialized library and promoted economic research. Supported by the bank, he completed an M.L.S. at the University of Pittsburgh under Andrew Osborne and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under Allen Kent and J.E. Diley. Upon returning, he established library science programs at Tehran and Shiraz Universities. After the 1979 Revolution, he moved to the United States, producing influential works on Jewish culture and history. From 1995 until his death, he led the Habib Levy Cultural Foundation. Hooshang Ebrami’s interdisciplinary expertise and international training were instrumental in shaping Iran’s library science education and infrastructure. His pioneering programs, specialized libraries, and extensive scholarship continue to guide and inspire librarians and researchers globally.This article based on archival sources, analysis of published texts, and an examination of institutional roles examines Hooshang Ebrami’s contribution to the development of modern librarianship in Iran and the identity transformations associated with his migration to the United States. The findings suggest that Ebrami played a substantial role in transferring professional practices to Iran and that, after migration, his cultural activism combined retained professional dimensions with shifts in the configuration of his social identity.

Written by the founders of the Hijabi Librarians collective, this article offers a critical reflection on the group’s bibliographic, pedagogical, and public-facing interventions, proposing a conceptual expansion of Middle East librarianship to include coalitional engagement with non-regionally defined librarian-activist networks. The Hijabi Librarians, a collective of Muslim women youth services librarians, operate at the intersection of library science, critical pedagogy, and public scholarship. Their work intervenes in cultural and archival spaces where SWANA, diasporic, and Muslim identities are frequently misrepresented or erased. Amid the intensifying crisis in the region and its impact on communities across the diaspora, the collective’s advocacy for nuanced #OwnVoices representation in children’s and young adult literature takes on renewed urgency. Their interventions address enduring representational gaps while affirming the political, educational, and ethical power of youth literature. The article foregrounds the imaginative and empathetic potential of youth literature to serve as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors, central metaphors in multicultural literacy, that enable readers to understand, connect with, and stand in solidarity with others. This literature is not only for children; it is for adults as well - creators, librarians, educators - who seek to preserve a sense of wonder, and resist the normalization of dehumanization. In a climate of escalating educational censorship that demands we relinquish imagination for political expedience, the defense of children's literature becomes a radical act: it resists the colonization of imagination and refuses to concede empathy, possibility, or humanity itself. The Hijabi Librarians’ model aligns with and expands MELA’s mission through anti-censorship work, public programming, evaluation toolkits, metadata ethics, and bibliographic equity. The article advances a coalition-oriented model of Middle East librarianship attuned to diasporic complexity, epistemic justice, and the ethical stewardship of children’s literature as a transformative cultural force for both young readers and adult practitioners.

Building on my work on Iranian political exiles in France and on my experience conducting research in various French archival funds, I aim to offer here a practical introduction to French governmental archives for international researchers, and in particular scholars of Middle East studies. However, researching the Middle East in ‘Western’ governmental archives (WGAs) – i.e., within the (re)productive heart of past states’ hegemonic and adverse narratives on the Middle East – warrants theoretical and methodological discussion. In this article, I first establish that despite the issue of WGAs’ Western and governmental bias, these funds still constitute a unique resource for MENA research, especially on topics such as Middle Eastern diasporas, foreign relations, or history. I also contend that continuing to engage with the Middle East through sources external to the region will help reaffirm the deep relationality of the Middle Eastern construct and, crucially, stave off the risks of a ‘siloization’ of MENA studies. Heeding still the postcolonial critique of the narratives embedded in such sources, I then examine the biases likely to shape the content of WGAs, covering in turn the biases related to WGAs’ archival dimension, their governmental character, and their Western situatedness. In the third section, building on these observations, I emphasise the role of critical analysis, cross-referencing, and rigorous transparency as ways to compose with the inescapable biases embedded in WGAs. I conclude the article by proposing a practical introduction to three of France’s governmental archival institutions, emphasising the difficulties of access international researchers and MENA scholars may face, and offering practical recommendations for making the most of these archives, in a timely fashion.

The Nasser Bakhshi Museum-Archive is recognized as a significant off-center archival and curatorial institution in Iran. Under Nasser Bakhshi’s direction, it exhibits historical-archival projects centered on socio-political events. As a pioneer in synthesizing contemporary art and archival research, the institution reconstructs collective memory through interdisciplinary initiatives. Its core approach offers innovative readings of historical traces and remnants through the lens of contemporary art and documentation. Archival projects derive vitality from documents that challenge temporal and existential frameworks of their original subjects, enabling alternative worldviews. Selection criteria prioritize socially sourced documents possessing aesthetic value and potential for transformation into artworks within contemporary art discourse—reflecting global currents that generate “living art” through “living documents.” This continuously expanding collection, encompassing artifacts from the pre-Islamic era onward, comprises 120,000 paper documents and manuscripts (including over 10,000 handwritten manuscripts), 12,000 lithographically printed books, and tens of thousands of personal objects and material traces of conflicts across West Asia. Systematically classified as an encyclopedic resource, it constitutes the foundational material for historical, documentary, and artistic projects. Seventy percent of the archive pertains to the last two centuries. The museum-archive’s distinction lies in its focus on discovering, collecting, and researching non-official collections tied to collective memory—particularly neglected narratives in Iran—and representing them through the integration of archives and contemporary art.

This article examines the development, holdings, and contributions of the Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSCL) of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in Cairo, Egypt. Tracing its origins to AUC's acquisition in the 1950s of the library of pioneering Islamic art and architecture scholar K.A.C. Creswell, this piece outlines how the present day RBSCL was created in the early 1990s through the merging of several special collections units at the university. The emergence of various collecting areas and description of major acquisitions and holdings across multiple formats is covered, including rare books and manuscripts, archives, architectural sources, Egyptology collections, photographs, historical magazines, and maps. Activities like conservation and digitization are also addressed, as well as RBSCL's service to researchers and outreach efforts.

Muḥammad Ramaẓānī (1904–1967) should be recognized as one of the most influential figures in the modern history of publishing, librarianship, and collection-building in Iran. Having learned the trade of printing and bookselling from his father, he officially entered the world of books in 1920, at the age of seventeen, by founding the Etifāq Reading Room in Tehran. From that point forward, he engaged continuously and diversely in fields such as librarianship, magazine publishing, printing, editing, and publishing. By establishing institutions like Kitābkhānah-yi Sharq (Eastern Library), Majallah-yi Sharq (Eastern Magazine), Chāpkhānah-yi Sharq (Eastern Printing House), and especially the Kulālah-yi Khāvar publishing house, he played a major role in promoting reading culture and reprinting classical and folkloric Persian literature. Ramaẓānī was also the founder of Kitāb (The Book), the first specialized periodical on books in Iran. By listing and reviewing publications from various Iranian publishers, this journal played a vital role in documentation and shaping the publishing landscape of the time. It can be considered the starting point of professional bibliographic reporting in the Iranian publishing industry. In addition to his wide-ranging activities in the realm of publishing and print, Ramaẓānī dreamed of establishing a large and comprehensive library. Over the years, he gathered a unique and valuable collection of manuscripts, printed books, newspapers, and other non-book print materials. Although financial difficulties and illness prevented him from realizing this dream, parts of his collection, particularly newspapers and magazines, were donated to the University of Tehran Library, while the main portion of his manuscripts and printed books was gifted to the Grand Mosque Library of Qom (Masjid-i A‘ẓam) in Qom. This collection was assembled at a time when public libraries in Iran were scarce and information infrastructure was underdeveloped. Ramaẓānī’s importance lies not only in his role as a publisher and bookseller but also in his pioneering efforts as a collector. He acted as a bridge connecting the printed heritage of the Qajar era with the Pahlavi period and later generations. This article seeks to revisit his life and contributions, focusing on his role in preserving Iran’s textual heritage, the methods he employed in collection-building, and the historical significance of his efforts within the cultural and institutional context of the time. It also examines the current state of preservation, organization, and accessibility of the collections he donated to the University of Tehran and the Grand Mosque Library.

This article traces the four-century journey of the earliest surviving copy of ʿArafāt al-ʿĀshiqīn va ʿArasāt al-ʿĀrifīn (MS 5324, Malek National Library, Tehran), a seminal Persian poetic anthology compiled by Taqī al-Dīn Awhadī Balyānī in Mughal India. Through a microhistorical analysis of codicological features, ownership seals, inspection notes, and valuation marks, it reconstructs the manuscript’s passage from the library of the nobleman Sayf Khān into the Mughal Imperial Library, and later into Qajar Iran and the collection of Ḥusayn Āqā Malek.

The archiving of Persian classical music (PCM) through recording and transcription has developed significantly over the past century, shaped by political, technological, and cultural forces. While oral transmission has always been central to PCM, early twentieth-century efforts began to document the tradition through both sound recording and musical notation. These practices gained momentum under the Pahlavi dynasty, when modernization initiatives and growing nationalism emphasized the preservation of Iranian cultural heritage. Advancements in recording technologies, such as vinyl and cassette tapes, made it possible to capture performances and transmit them beyond ephemeral gatherings. A pivotal institutional development was the founding of the Markaz-e Hefz-o Esha’eh-ye Musiqi-ye Irāni (‘Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music’) by Dariush Safvat in the 1970s, fully supported by National Iranian Radio and Television. The Center combined oral pedagogy with recording and archiving, training a new generation of musicians who would continue these efforts after the 1979 revolution. As the Islamic Republic imposed new restrictions on musical performance, much of the archival work shifted to private spaces, but eventually resurfaced through private initiatives and independent publishers. The improvisatory and context-sensitive nature of PCM poses challenges for archival methods, as recordings and transcriptions often remove the music from its social and spiritual contexts. Nonetheless, a hybrid model has emerged in which oral transmission, documentation, and performance coexist. In recent decades, there has also been increased attention to power dynamics in music preservation, leading to more inclusive efforts to archive regional, minority, and sacred traditions. Thus, the history of PCM archiving reflects not only technological and institutional shifts but also evolving aesthetic and ethical