Gotha Manuscript Talks: Ibadi Muslim Manuscript Cultures in the 19th-20th Century Maghrib

Ibadi Muslim communities in the Maghrib have a rich and long-standing manuscript culture that reflects the itinerant lives of the community’s scholars over the past millennium. Whether to seek knowledge, to carry out pilgrimage, or to do business, Ibadi scholars have been constantly on the move across northern Africa, the Mediterranean, western Asia, and the East African Coast. The manuscript libraries they have left behind tell these stories of migration and return. In this presentation, I share some features of the manuscript traditions of Ibadi communities in the Maghrib in its latter stages during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, highlighting the stories of individual scholars whose manuscripts allow us a glimpse into their lives as migrant students and scholars. 

Paul Love is Associate Professor of History & Director of the Mohammed VI Library at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI), located in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco. His research focuses on the history of the Maghrib, with a special love for manuscripts, documents, libraries, and archives. He has authored two books, both published by Cambridge University Press: Ibadi Muslims of North Africa: Manuscripts, Mobilization, and the Making of a Written Tradition (2018) and The Ottoman Ibadis of Cairo: A History (2024). He has also contributed to several international manuscript documentation and digitization initiatives in the Maghrib, partnering with colleagues and friends in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and France to document and to preserve written material heritage in the region.