Said Aljoumani Boeken

Delving into the unique private book collection from medieval Jerusalem, this work offers insights into the cultural, religious, and intellectual life of the era. It examines the significance of the texts, their historical context, and the individuals who curated this rare collection. By highlighting the intersection of faith and scholarship, the book reveals how these works reflect the diverse influences of the time, making it an invaluable resource for understanding medieval Jewish history and literature.

This book discusses the only known private book collection from pre-Ottoman Jerusalem for which we have a trail of documents. It belonged to an otherwise unknown resident, Burhān al-Dīn; after his death, his books were sold in a public auction and the list of objects sold has survived.This list - edited and translated in this volume - shows that a humble part-time reciter of the late 14th century had almost 300 books in his house, evidence that book ownership extended beyond the elite. Based on a corpus of almost fifty documents from the Ḥaram al-sharīf collection in Jerusalem, it is also possible to get a rare insight into the social world of such an individual. Finally, the book gives a unique insight into book prices as it will make available the largest such set of data for the pre-Ottoman period.