Introduction
In their article, “The Tragedy of Arabic Manuscripts”, Mahmûd Thâbit and Michael Albin state: “Islamic and Arabic manuscripts, considered either for their scientific value which forms part of Arabic heritage or for their physical stature as antiquities, are a national treasure. If some experts estimate the world's manuscript riches in the millions, then Islamic and Arabic civilisation enjoys the lion’s share of this heritage which the world's largest museums have vied to unearth and acquire.” (Mahmûd, Albin 1977: 16). Although this article was written in 1977, one may argue that the only change is that more manuscript collections were discovered. However, the tragedy still exists, in my opinion.
Although the digitisation of archival and manuscript collections has become an endorsed trend equally in the international and national levels, it appears that it has not been receiving the same level of interest in the Arab world than elsewhere. Apart from projects by a handful o...