FIHRIST Library

FIHRIST is a free, online collaborative catalogue, contributed by various libraries in the UK, containing descriptions of manuscripts relating to the geography of the 'Islamic World'. Although it is not a digital library that contains digital copies within itself; It provides a central index of manuscripts reflecting linguistic, religious and cultural diversity, collected from different geographies and all kinds of subject areas, over a wide period of time from the 7th century to the 19th century. Originally born as a joint pilot project (OCIMCO) of Oxford and Cambridge universities, this system uses a special structure that combines the TEI/XML metadata standard and librarianship standards (such as Name Authority, LC Transliteration). Since most of the data in the catalog is legacy data transferred from old receipts and lists, physical and bibliographic detail levels may vary from record to record and is constantly updated with new academic research. If a digital copy of the work is available online, a link to the relevant institution is provided within the record; Users can also contact the institution that holds the work directly or request a digital copy using the comment field below each description.