Resources for Islamic Numismatics
in the American Numismatic Society
Michael L. Bates
Curator of Islamic Coins
The American Numismatic Society
Revised 18 July 2000
Printed 31 January 2003
This text is computer generated on demand. It is a work in progress, still with many mistakes and omissions. The reader's assistance and criticism is earnestly solicited.
Requests for additional information about the Society can be directed to the author, or to:
Dr. Ute Wartenberg, Executive Director
Mr. Francis Campbell, Librarian
Dr. Elena Stolyarik, Collection Manager
Mr. Sebastian Heath, Director of Information Services
The American Numismatic Society
Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets
New York, NY 10032-7598 USA
telephone: 1 212 234-3130 (ext. 222 for Bates)
telefax: 1 212 234-3381
e-mail: bates@amnumsoc.org
deliveries: 617 West 155th Street
New York, NY 10032-7598
Introduction 1
The American Numismatic Society 1
The Coin Collection 3
The Library 8
Archives and indexes 14
The photo file 16
Photography department 16
Study opportunities 19
1. The American Numismatic Society is one of the pre-eminent world centers for Islamic numismatic research. Nowhere else will one find, in close vicinity,
A. a major collection of Islamic coins, well arranged and entirely accessible to any researcher
B. a library of books and articles on Islamic numismatics, backed up by the world's best general numismatic library, with complete holdings of numismatic periodicals and dealers' catalogues
C. a good historical reference library, with many of the standard Arabic historical and geographical texts as well as modern secondary literature on Islamic history and culture
D. an excellent general library for all fields of historical and humanistic study
E. an expert curator, knowledgeable in the history, culture, and languages of the Middle East as well as its coinage, ready to guide and assist the researcher.
2. This little compilation attempts to describe these resources in more detail.
1. The ANS was founded in New York in 1858. Thirteen gifts that year brought in 139 coins for its collection, including some coins from the Islamic world. For fifty years, the Society was a small local group seated in various rented offices, until Archer M. Huntington arrived on the scene. Huntington was the son of a railroad magnate; a man of great wealth, but also of great learning. His special interest was Spain and the Hispanic world. His collection of Spanish and Spanish-American art, with additions, is enshrined in the Hispanic Society of America's museum next to the ANS, one of New York's great unknown treasures. As part of his collecting, he resolved to own examples of every coin ever issued in Iberia or in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, from ancient Celtiberian and Carthaginian issues to his own time, including the coinage of Islamic Spain. Incidentally, as part of his study of Spanish history, he resolved to learn Arabic, and carried with him always a pocket-size Qur'n which he would take out and read in any spare moment.(1)
2. His interest in numismatics led him to refound the American Numismatic Society as a sister institution to the Hispanic Society which he had founded. He purchased land for the ANS on Audubon Terrace, which he intended as a cultural center away from the hurly-burly of city life, on the site of John Jacob Audubon's retirement farm in upper Manhattan;(2) and he donated the money to construct the Society's building (the east half of the present structure, occupied on 7 December 1907). Edward T. Newell, a bright young man also of independent means, was brought in to curate the collection. Huntington donated over $2,000,000 dollars to endow the Society and provide for its activities. In 1929, he paid for the construction of the addition which constitutes the west half of the Society's building today.
3. Huntington's own collection was donated to the Hispanic Society, but to avoid duplication of facilities and labor, the HSA turned the collection over to the ANS as a permanent loan in 1948. It was kept separate at first, and then integrated with the Society's own holdings of Spanish and other coins. As a result, the ANS possesses, but does not own, the world's finest collection of Spanish Muslim coins.(3)
1. Islamic coins have always formed an important part of the
Society's research collection; Islamic numismatics has been one of the
major areas of the Society's activities throughout its modern era
(dating from Huntington's takeover in 1907). After the Society
moved into its building on Audubon Terrace, Edward T. Newell
became its unpaid Assistant Curator. In 1916 he was elected
President, a post which at that time, although unpaid, meant full-time
work on the Society's premises. Meanwhile, in 1913, Howland Wood
had been appointed as the Society's first permanent paid curator.
Both men had a lively and expert interest in Islamic coins. Their collections formed the core of the Society's collection; their careful
identifying tickets are still to be found under many of their coins. In
1937, George C. Miles,(4) with a fresh Ph.D. from Princeton earned by
his thesis The Numismatic History of Rayy, was hired as temporary
Research Assistant in Mohammedan Numismatics to organize the
Society's Islamic Coins. From 1940 to 1947 he was Honorary
Curator for Mohammedan Coins, but in fact he spent most of that
time as an officer in the U.S. Navy. On his return from the war, he
was asked by Archer Huntington (who was once again President of
the Society, Newell having died) to take on the paid editorship of a
series of catalogues of Spanish coinage. Shortly after that, on August
14, 1946, he was made Curator of Islamic Coins, a post he held under
one designation or another until he retired on September 30, 1973.
He continued to have an office and work on his research at the
Society almost until his death on October 15, 1975. Miles, one of the
great scholars of his time, founded the study of Islamic numismatics
in America. His 14 books on Islamic numismatics were all published
by the ANS.
2. In anticipation of Miles' retirement, in 1970, the Society hired a graduate student from the University of Chicago as Assistant Curator of Islamic Coins. That was the present writer, Michael Bates. Bates took over the department when Miles retired and, having received his Ph.D. in the meantime, became Curator of Islamic Coins in 1977.
3. Some Asian coins were included in the acquisitions of the Society's first year of existence, 1858. Others are listed in the accession books for the remainder of the nineteenth century. The Islamic collection did not become important until 1917, nine years after the Society moved into its present home. Three major accessions came in that year, thanks to the help and generosity of E. T. Newell. First, he donated his own collection of "Mohammedan" coins. At the same time, he donated that of the ANS Curator of the time, Howland Wood, which Newell purchased from Wood, a person of slender means (like all ANS curators). Also in 1917 Newell negotiated the permanent loan of the Durkee Collection, which had been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (later, the MMA placed other coin collections here on permanent loan).(5) These collections together, over 15,000 coins, put the Society's in the first rank of Islamic coin collections. There have been many important accessions since then, by gift and purchase.
4. The Islamic Department includes coins and other objects issued by Muslim rulers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, up to the western edge of the Indus Valley and into Xinjiang, as well as the production of certain non-Muslim states in the area: Sasanian Iran, medieval Christian Armenia and Georgia, and Axum. The time span is from the Islamic conquests to the present day (all modern states from Morocco to Tajikistan are included). Coins, coin-like medallions, tokens, weights for coins and for other objects, seals, sealings, and paper money of these countries are included in the Islamic department; art medals and decorations are not. Coins of the Indian subcontinent (with some ancient Central Asian coins associated with India) and the lands to the east, as far as Cambodia and the Philippines, are in the South Asian Department; and all East Asian coins, from Vietnam up to Korea, are in the East Asian Department. At present the same curator administers all three departments.
5. According to our computer catalogue (described below), the ANS today (15/11/02) has 67,076 coins and other objects in the Islamic department. This is one of the largest such collections in the world.
6. The collection is stored in nine main classifications, in the ANS "main vault" on the fourth floor. A conspectus of the arrangement of the collection,(6) tray by tray, will be placed on the Society's web site.
7. The Islamic coins are on the lower level of the "upstairs" vault. The collection begins with the Axumite coinage, followed by the coins of the Sasanian emperors; administratively, these are in the Islamic department, even though they are certainly not Islamic coins.(7) The subsequent Islamic coinage is divided into five historical epochs:
A. the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates, to the mid-eighth century;
B. the Abbasid caliphs and their contemporaries, to the mid-tenth century;
C. the secular post-Abbasid dynasties, until the mid-thirteenth century;
D. the Mongols, Mamluks, and Muwahhids, their contemporaries and successors, until the beginning of the sixteenth century;
E. the Ottomans and Shahs with their contemporaries and successors, until the present.
8. Within each of the above five categories, the coins are stored country by country, from east to west, and under each country, by mint. Examples of countries: Sughd, Khurasan, Fars, Iraq, Armenia, Anatolia, Egypt, Spain. These do not necessarily correspond to modern boundaries or to historical divisions at any specific time, but are intended to be durable regional divisions so far as possible.
9. In addition, the Society's South Asian department includes about 20,000 Islamic coins of India and Southeast Asia. These are arranged roughly chronologically. They begin, following ancient and medieval Hindu coins, with the first coins of the Sultans of Delhi, followed by the coins of the various kingdoms contemporary with them; and then by the coins of the Mughals. In the next section are the coins of the modern (17th-19th century) states of India, followed by the coins of the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese in India. There is a large collection of the Islamic coins of Southeast Asia, from Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and other islands of Indonesia, and the Philippines. The Society's East Asian department includes a very few Muslim coins issued in Xinjiang, the northwestern region of China.
10. Two further categories are stored in the upper level of the vault:
A. the Society's superb collection of Egyptian glass weights for coins, glass weights for commodities, and glass stamps for capacity measures;(8)
B. Islamic metal weights, seals, sealings, dies, and miscellaneous objects.
11. Coins of contemporary states from Morocco to the Philippines are stored with the contemporary coins of other countries, all in straight alphabetical order, in a special section that allows room for expansion. From time to time, coins are removed from the contemporary trays to be stored with the historical coins of the country.
12. The collection is catalogued in the ANS computer system. Lists of our holdings can be generated and printed for users, comprising the coins of specific places, rulers, dynasties, and other classifications. Very long listings are discouraged. Recipients who find the lists useful should make an appropriate donation to the Society to cover the cost of selection, printing, and mailing.
13. The computer catalogue is duplicated on the Internet, on the ANS Web Page (www.amnumsoc.org). This is not the actual computer data base in the ANS, but a copy of it. The copy is updated from time to time. Users can make small selections from the data and download the results to their own computers for examination with any word processor.
1. The ANS book collection undoubtedly constitutes the best Islamic numismatic library in the world. They are in the section labeled "Mohammedan," in the east room of the library facing the south wall. Within that section, the books are arranged in alphabetical order by author (bearing in mind the library rule that puts some books under an institutional author). In the adjacent shelf corridor (second from the wall) are folio-sized volumes and large folios. Rare or fragile works are kept separately and must be requested from the librarians. There are separate sections (but in the same bookcase as the Islamic books) for "India" and "Southeast Asia" which include the books on the Islamic numismatics of those regions. Related fields such as "Sasanid," "Georgia," "Armenia," "Central Asia," and various East Asian categories are all in the same range of shelves.
2. Library catalogue:
A. The card catalogue is divided into a file for authors and titles, and a file for subjects. It is easiest and fastest to use when one knows the name of the author, but for subject searches, works on Islamic numismatics are catalogued in the subject file under "ISLAM--" followed by the name of a country or dynasty. The library catalogue includes articles in journals as well as books and separata.
B. The entire card catalogue has been scanned into a computer data base and can be accessed at http://data.numismatics.org/cgi-bin/libsearch or via www.amnumsoc.org. This database can be searched by keyword for a list of publications on any subject, or by any author
3. History library: Most books on Islamic subjects are in the section labeled "Oriental history." The section is alphabetical by author, but occasionally a translator will be substituted for the author, or the book will be alphabetized by an unusual part of the author's name. Other books on Islamic or Near Eastern History will be found in the "History," "Economic History," "Art," "Biography" (e.g., Ibn Khallikn), "Excavations" (including quite a good selection of Herzfeld's books), and "Inscriptions" sections. Don't forget the folio and super-folio sections corresponding to each category, in the second shelf corridor from the wall. All these sections are in the east library room. When in doubt, consult the web site or card catalogue; some say consult them first.
4. Some major works in the library are listed in Appendix A below. Scanning the list provides an idea of the richness of the library, with many surprising hard-to-find non-numismatic works as well as a virtually complete collection of numismatic works.
5. Language dictionaries and grammars: The ANS has a very good representation of dictionaries for Arabic and other Near Eastern languages, which will be found in three sections of the library: Dictionaries; Aids--Language (in the photocopy room); and Dictionaries--Oriental (also in the photocopy room). A dictionary or grammar of Arabic, Persian, or Turkish might be in any of these three sections. Each section is arranged alphabetically by author's name, not by language. It may help to consult the card catalogue subject file.
A. Arabic:
A. The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, is in the west library room in the middle of the north wall. The ANS has all the indices and supplements, as issued. EI1 (French edition) is also there.
B. Encyclopaedia Iranica, just above EI.
C. Dictionary of the Middle Ages, in the same area.
D. The library has many other encyclopedias, especially old encyclopedias from foreign countries (the great Spanish and Soviet encyclopedias are in the Reilly Room; there are others in the Old Seminar Room).
7. Periodicals:
A. The main numismatic periodicals are in the west library room, in the periodical section, arranged alphabetically by title. More ephemeral publications-collector's magazines and newsletters-are stored in a small room under the library. The librarians should be consulted about these latter.
B. There are only a few periodicals for Islamic numismatics. The library has complete runs of them. Ask the librarians for help in finding them.
D. The Journal of the American Oriental Society and some other U. S. learned society journals are in the Old Seminar Room on the 2nd floor.
E. To find any particular periodical, look in the subject catalogue under "Periodicals" and then alphabetically by the name of the journal.
F. Numismatic Literature is the ANS semi-annual periodical for abstracts of current numismatic publications. Begin with the most recent issue and work backwards. Users should know how NL is compiled. There is an international group of Contributing Editors for NL. These are responsible for getting abstracts of numismatic publications in their area, which may be a single country, a group of countries, or a numismatic speciality. If the author or the periodical editor or the Contributing Editor does not prepare and send in an abstract, there will not be one. The best course is for the author of any numismatic publication to prepare a short abstract of his work and send it either to the appropriate Contributing Editor (the names and addresses of the Contributing Editors are in every autumn issue of NL) or to the International Editor at the American Numismatic Society. Consult NL itself to see the proper format for abstracts. Abstracts should not evaluate the publication: they should just summarize briefly its contents and arguments. Anyone who would like to serve as a Contributing Editor for a country or speciality should write to the International Editor at the ANS. Numismatic Literature is available by subscription at $10 per year.
G. The library has a subscription to Index Islamicus. This is a quarterly publication that lists all recent publications on Islamic subjects in subject order. There is a classification for numismatics, which should be examined starting with the most recent issue and working back. This is an extremely useful publication. You will find surprises. The volumes are stored on the cabinets of the pamphlet file.
8. Numismatic offprints: Offprints and photocopies of articles on Islamic numismatics are stored in the Muhammadan pamphlet file, alphabetically by author. (When you find an article there, take it out of the manila folder, leaving the folder itself in the drawer as a guide to replacement of the article. Do not replace the article yourself.) There are also drawers with General, Greek/Roman, India, and Far Eastern pamphlet files. All these are in cabinets against the north wall of the east library room, or in cabinets facing the north wall, to the far left at the head of the staircase. These offprints are of course indexed in the library catalogue.
9. Offprint collection of George C. Miles: After Miles's death in 1975, his daughter gave his collection of offprints, which filled five file cabinet drawers, to the ANS. The articles (except for the minority that have been catalogued and transferred to the public pamphlet files) are now kept in vertical library file boxes in alphabetical order by author and fill a bookcase in the closed stacks. Miles was on friendly terms with everyone: his offprints include articles from the 1930's to the 1970's on many subjects other than Islamic numismatics, including other aspects of Islamic studies, especially history, archeology, and art history, as well as ancient Mediterranean and ancient central Asian studies. He had good contacts in the U.S.S.R. The offprints have never been fully catalogued. Before Miles's death, the offprints were catalogued by subject on 3x5 cards, and that file is available in the library on request. If you find something in it, the librarians will get it out for you. Alternatively, if you are looking for an Islamic article published during Miles's lifetime, ask the librarians for permission to look in the appropriate alphabetical box. After checking other resources, it's well worth looking there.
10. Sale catalogues: Sale catalogues are divided into auction catalogues and fixed price lists. An auction is for coins listed for sale to the highest bidder in person or by mail. As you may have guessed, fixed price lists (FPL's) list coins with a fixed price, sold to the first comer. The library also divides U. S. dealer catalogues from foreign ones. Large folio size catalogues have to be divided from regular size ones. In general, catalogues of our times are stored in or on filing cabinets in the east library room. Older catalogues are in closed stacks: ask for the one you want (extra copies of some major sales are bound and on the shelves of the respective section of the library). Very recent catalogues are in boxes on top of the filing cabinets. All sale catalogues are card-catalogued in a cabinet at the far right end of the main catalogue, near the visitors' enclosure. The card catalogue lists U. S. and foreign dealers separately. There is also a card catalogue of sales in order by owner of the collection, since auction sales of entire private collections normally name the owner, and one will find citations to these catalogues by owner's name, such as "Johnston Sale."
1. The mint file: There is a 3x5 card file in the Islamic curator's office with citations to published and unpublished coins for the entire Islamic world. The cards are arranged by mint in Arabic alphabetical order, and then by date. The file incorporates notes for many dynasties made by George C. Miles on the same principles, but resorted by mint and date. The citations are to major published catalogues and articles, personal correspondence with other numismatists, the ANS collection itself, and dealers' catalogues. There are twelve drawers in all with thousands of cards. The completeness and density of information varies of course. For some series on which Bates or Miles worked intensively, there are full descriptions of every coin, while in other cases there may be only an abbreviated title and coin number. Often there are corrections to the published literature. The file is merely a guide to the literature, like Zambaur's Münzprägungen, which it does not entirely replace. Photos less than 3" in diameter are incorporated in the file in their geographical-chronological place, either in envelopes or pasted on cards. Only the cards for Umayyad coins are lacking, having been removed in 1976 for a research trip and never replaced. These are in a separate two-drawer file: see item V.2. The abbreviations of references in this file are listed and identified in a separate card file adjacent to the main file.
2. Umayyad coinage files: The cards for Umayyad cards are far more intensively maintained. There is a card file for dirhams arranged alphabetically by mint name and then by date: every known example of scarce varieties should be there, and a range of examples of common issues. The drawer with these cards is preceded by a file with a complete list of mints, and cards for each year with the mints known for that year, as well as cards indexing unusual features. In the same drawer is also a file for dinars, year by year, which should include all known examples of rarities. Needless to say, all these files are still far from perfect and help in updating or correcting the cards is welcome: in short, the user should just write his data on the card without ceremony.
3. Name and title file: An alphabetical list of names on Islamic coins is maintained in MLB's office. In reality, this is an index of unusual names (and titles) and does not attempt to list all the coins that name, for example, Hrn al-Rashd. Each name part is indexed on a separate card cross-referenced to the main person. The file helps to identify issuers when only part of the name can be read. This file and other notes are gradually being integrated in a WordPerfect file called "Names and titles on Islamic coins.wpd".
1. The ANS photo file contains photographs cut out of dealers' catalogues and similar publications, mounted on cards arranged by series. It did not originally include Islamic coins, but in 1985 Islamic and European medieval coins were added to the Greek and Roman coins. A very few catalogues were included from before that date. By 1993 the entire photo file was in abeyance and is no longer kept up, though there are hopes for its revival. Even if the work that was done in the interval was scarcely a beginning, the results are substantial. For example, all the early catalogues of Stephen Album are included. The file serves as an index to catalogues as well as a repertoire of images. Any serious research should consult the appropriate part of the file. It is kept on the 2nd floor of the Society, in the corridor connecting the computer area and the editorial office, at the bottom of the metal cabinets.
1. The ANS will photograph any object in its collection on request, and can also make photographs from published illustrations in the library. Inquiries about material should be addressed to the appropriate curator, but orders should be addressed to Dr. Elena Stolyarik, Collection Manager. The charges per coin are:
Electronic image: $20.00
Print (color or black & white) $25.00
Slide $35.00
All photography is now done digitally. There is an additional charge for sending images on a disk or printed images. There are no additional charges and no postage when the image can be sent by e-mail.
Thanks to the database available at www.amnumsoc.org, prospective clients can examine a list of the coins of any series, including those that have already been photographed. There is no discount for coins previously photographed, but their images can be sent sooner.
Payment can be made by MasterCard (EuroCard), Visa, American Express, U. S. bank check, International Money Order, or direct bank transfer.
2. The objects are property of the American Numismatic Society and may not be illustrated without ANS permission and in some cases a fee.
A. The purchase of a photograph includes the right to publish it in a non-commercial context, one time only. Slides may be used indefinitely for teaching and presentations.
B. Any publication must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of ANS ownership (it is recommended also that the coin be identified by its ANS number).
C. We also ask that one copy of any publication be donated to the ANS library.
D. For commercial use or any publication for profit (including text books, magazines for the general public, etc.), there are reproduction rights fees valid for one use. Subsequent re-use of the same photo is permissible, but the fees must be paid again for each use. This applies to university press books.
3. It is now our practice to preserve a digital record of all photographs. These are linked to the ANS web page, www.amnumsoc.org, where many of the most important coins in our collection can be viewed.
4. The Islamic Coins slide set. The Society has prepared a set of 36 color slides of Islamic coins accompanied by a 52-page illustrated explanatory booklet. The price of the set is $40.00. These are special large format slides ideal for teaching and public lectures. The booklet, Islamic Coins by Michael L. Bates, is also available separately for $8.00. Postage is extra in each case. To order, write to Publications Secretary, ANS.
1. Any researcher with a specific topic is welcome to visit the ANS to study the coins. Normally, for good reason, advance arrangement should be made. It is not necessary that the Islamic curator be present when the coins are brought out, but it is helpful to the researcher and considerate to the other members of the curatorial staff to make an appointment when the Islamic curator is available, at least on the first visit.
A. The collection is normally available from 9 to 4:30 Tuesday through Friday.
B. The library is open to the public during the same hours with no need for an advance appointment.
2. Thanks to the generosity of Shaykh Hamad Al-Thani, a small fund exists to assist visitors with expenses, or help with the costs of photography. Those who would like a Hamad Grant should send a brief application describing the nature of the project and the assistance needed to the curator. A committee consisting of the curator and the chairs of the two supervising committees, for Islamic and for South Asian coins, will decide on the application.
3. In the summer, the ANS holds a Graduate Seminar in Numismatics for doctoral-level students and recent Ph.D.'s. The Seminar is intended to provide future historians, archaeologists, art historians and economic historians with an understanding of numismatic evidence and how to use it. There is a stipend for students from North American colleges and universities, regardless of citizenship. Students from outside the U.S. and Canada can also be admitted, but without financial assistance from the ANS.
Ab Ysuf, Kitb al-kharj, Ben Shemesh translation: in "Economic History," under Taxation. Excerpts also with Qudma.
al-A`lm of Zirikli, in "Oriental History" under Z.
Amari, Michele: works on Arab Sicily, including Storia and Biblioteca, in "Oriental History."
Ashtor's books are in "Economic History," except Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages in "Oriental History."
Beldiceanu's Variorum collected articles on Ottoman economic history, in "Economic History."
Berlin catalogue: Nützel's catalogues of the Berlin collection are extremely fragile and are kept stored away. Ask a librarian for assistance.
Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, 8 volumes, is together in "Oriental History" under B.
Bovill, Golden Trade of the Moors: "History."
British Museum catalogues: The Lane-Poole 10 volume set is in "Mohammedan" under B, as is the catalogue of coins of the Shahs. The two Walker volumes are in the same section under W. The catalogues of Indian coins are in the "India" section under B.
Brockelmann, GAL: in "Oriental History" under B. The library does not have Sezgin, GAL.
Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge History of Islam, and all Cambridge Histories: in West Hall, low shelves facing the tables.
Chaudhuri's important monographs on Indian and Indian Ocean commerce are in "Economic History."
Constable thesis, At the Edge of the West, on Islamic Spain, in "Economic History."
Constantinople, Imperial Ottoman Museum: see "Mohammedan," Istanbul.
Cook, ed., Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East: "Economic History."
Creswell, Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam; Early Muslim Architecture: both in "Art, folio."
Crusades: see Recueil, Setton.
Dictionaries: Dozy, Supplément, Arabic ("Dictionaries, Oriental"); Elias, Arabic ("Dictionaries"); Hony, modern Turkish ("Dictionaries"); Lane, Arabic (fragile, stored away; ask a librarian; reprint, property of MLB, in the Islamic office); Nyberg, Pahlavi ("Language"); Redhouse, Ottoman Turkish ("Dictionaries"); Steingass, Persian ("Dictionaries, Oriental"); Wehr, Arabic ("Dictionaries").
Encyclopaedia Iranica: West Room, encyclopedias.
Encyclopedia of Islam: The ANS has the second edition current to date with all supplements and indices, and the French edition of the first EI. These are in the reference section in the West Room.
Excavations: Antioch ("Mohammedan, folio"); Bishapur ("Mohammedan, folio"); Hamah ("excavations, folio"); Susa ("Mohammedan, folio"). Many others.
Grohmann's introductions to Arabic writing are in "Inscriptions."
Hennequin, Paris catalogue: "Mohammedan," B.
Herzfeld: George Miles was in part Herzfeld's literary executor, for which reason the ANS has most of Herzfeld's rare publications. They will be found in "Excavations" and elsewhere.
Ibn al-Athr: Part of the Beirut edition of Ibn al-Athr is in the Old Seminar Room to the left of the water cooler (green volumes). For the rest of the same set, continue out the door past the projectors, turn left again, and look at the middle shelf left of the second door.
Ibn Khaldn: Remarkably, the library has Quatremere's edition and translation of the Muqaddima, each in three volumes; the complete Ta'rkh in seven volumes; the French translation, Histoire des Berbères; and Rosenthal's English translation of the Muqaddima.
Ibn Khallikn: The de Slane translation and the first volume of the de Slane edition, as well as the 3-volume Bulaq printing of 1299 H., are in the "Biography" section under I.
Ibn aghribird: in "Oriental History" under A for Abu'l-Masin.
Index Islamicus: on the Pamphlet File cabinets, above the drawer "Grl-Hea."
"Inscriptions" includes a number of books on Arabic inscriptions and paleography, for example, Grohmann, Levi-Provençal, and RCEA.
Lane-Poole: For the British Museum catalogues, see above, "British Museum," item VIII.3.
Lavoix, Paris catalogues: "Mohammedan," Bibliothèque Nationale.
Levi-Provençal, Inscriptions arabes d'Espagne: "Inscriptions."
al-Maqrz:
Ightha: French translation, Wiet: "Oriental History," M; English translation, Allouche: "Economic History," M.
Shudhr: Editions and translations in "Mohammedan" section, M.
Markov, Hermitage catalogue: The huge original is stored away; the reprint will be found in "Mohammedan," M.
Miskawayh, in "Oriental History," under A for Amedroz, the editor/translator.
al-Nadm, or Ibn al-Nadm, Fihrist translation in "Oriental History" under D for Dodge, the translator.
Nützel's catalogues of the Berlin collection are extremely fragile and are stored away. Ask a librarian.
Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale) catalogues: "Mohammedan," B.
Pope, Survey of Persian Art: "Art, folio."
Qudma b. Ja`far, Kitb al-kharj, Ben Shemesh translation: in "Economic History," under Taxation.
Qur'n: Editions, translations, and concordances to the Qur'n are in "Oriental history" under K. The best concordance, however, by "Abd al-Baqi," is in the Oriental history folio section, under A.
Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientales. "Oriental history, folio."
Répertoire Chronologique d'Epigraphie Arabe is found in "Inscriptions," under R; current to date.
amm al-Dawla Shh Nawz Khn, Ma'thir al-Umar': in the "Biography" section under S.
Setton et al., History of the Crusades: in "History," under S.
Sylloge Nummorum Arabicorum Tübingen: ("Mohammedan, folio");
al-abar: The ANS has the Brill Leiden edition and the SUNY translations, in "Oriental history."
al-Tha`lib, Histoire des rois des Perses, ed./tr. Zotenberg: "Oriental History, folio."
Türkiye Bibliyografyasi, in the short corridor between the East Room and the Bass Room, on the right.
Walker: Walker's catalogues of Arab-Sasanian, Arab-Byzantine and post-reform coins are in "Mohammedan" under W.
Yay b. dam, Kitb al-kharj, Ben Shemesh translation: in "Economic History," under Taxation.
Yqt's geographical dictionary is in "Oriental History" under Y.
Zambaur, Genealogie: "Oriental History, folio."
Zirikli's A`lm al-`Arab is almost the last item in "Oriental History."
Annali: see Istituto...
Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli. Annali. Library has vols. 1-15 (1940-65). There are also many offprints in the pamphlet file. Bass Room.
1. For more on Huntington, see Beatrice Gilman Proske, Archer Milton Huntington (New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1963); and Michael L. Bates, "Spanish Islamic Coins in the Collections of the American Numismatic Society and the Hispanic Society of America," in Actas III Jarique de Numismática Hispano-árabe, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, 13-16 diciembre 1990 (Madrid, 1992), pp. 77-90.
2. Audubon's house was destroyed to make way for the construction of Riverside Drive.
3. Huntington also established the Hispanic Numismatic Fund to provide for the publication of a series of catalogue manuals based on the joint collections. George C. Miles was brought back to the Society to edit that series--but meanwhile, developments at the ANS had already built up one of the world's major collections of Islamic coins. It should be noted that another component of Huntington's collection was found at the HSA in 1957, and turned over to the ANS on the same terms. These coins are not included in Miles's catalogues of Spanish coins. In many cases, the second collection is equal in size to the first. All the 1957 coins have been identified, catalogued in the computer, labeled, and integrated with the main collection.
4. A brief biography of Miles by Margaret Thompson, with a fine photograph of him, will be found in Near Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy and History: Studies in Honor of George C. Miles, ed. Dickran K. Kouymjian (Beirut, 1974), xv-xvi. His bibliography of 165 publications is on pp. xvii-xxv, and see also Kouymjian's comments, ix-x. There is more about him and his career in "Reminiscences," by Homer Thompson, in A Colloquium in Memory of George Carpenter Miles (1904-1975) (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1976), 5-8, and in the Society's Annual Report for 1976, 55-56.
5. But in 1974, these collections were all withdrawn to be sold; public protest, as well as the realization that there was little profit to be gained, convinced the MMA to donate and sell most of the collections back to the ANS where they remain today. Some coins of extraordinary esthetic interest, like the Zodiac mohurs, were retained by the MMA and are on exhibit in the Islamic galleries there.
6. Compiled by Roxani Margariti, Hamad Fellow in Islamic Numismatics, 1997-98.
7. Similarly, the coins of medieval Georgia, Armenia, and the Arabic coinage of the Crusaders are all in the Islamic department, although they were issued by Christians, not Muslims.
8. A survey of the Society's collection of Islamic glass objects will be found in the Society's published Annual Report for 1975, pp. 17-21, with a description of the important series of gifts of Paul Balog transferring his entire collection of weights and stamps to the ANS.