Rasa’il, MS Dar al-Kutub, at Cairo, f. 11 Open this page in a new tab

Rasāʾil, MS Dār al-Kutub (Cairo), f. 11 is cited as a folio-specific reference within the Egyptian National Library and Archives manuscript holdings. In Dār al-Kutub cataloguing, rasāʾil (“epistles/letters”) designates short treatises across many subjects (theology, law, language, Sufism, science, etc.), organized in subject series with individual shelfmarks. A bare citation like “Rasāʾil, MS Dār al-Kutub, f. 11” points to folio 11 of a specific volume in that series; to identify the work precisely, one normally supplies the series name and number (e.g., Taṣawwuf ʿArabī ###) and, ideally, the incipit (opening words) and author, when known.

The Cairo collection is accessed primarily at Bāb al-Khalq; many items are consulted on microfilm. Practical identification steps for this citation are: (1) determine the subject series used for the relevant rasāʾil volume; (2) locate the shelfmark in the printed/online catalogues; (3) verify that fol. 11 contains the targeted text (title rubric, incipit, or marginal note). If you can share the author’s name or the incipit on fol. 11, the precise shelfmark can usually be recovered and cited in full (e.g., “Dār al-Kutub, Rasāʾil [Series-Name] ###, fol. 11r”).

Sources

Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation: Egyptian National Library (Dār al-Kutub) overview

Al-Furqān: Catalogue of scientific manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library

Dissertation Reviews: “Dār al-Kutub (Cairo)” (researcher’s guide to shelfmarks and access)

Islamicana: Cairo manuscript guide (Bāb al-Khalq logistics)