By Ajeera Paiz
KUALA LUMPUR, 7 April 2017: As part of their Language for Occupational Purposes (LOP) project, a five-member team, who went by the name of Historians Associates, had recently organised a short trip to the Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Library (SMNA Library) to expose the students to the venue for conducting research on Islamic history and to provide them with an opportunity to study ancient manuscripts from around the world.
Established in 1989, the SMNA Library is a property owned and managed by IIUM.
The trip began around 9 in the morning, departing the university after a simple yet satisfying nasi lemak. They arrived at the library at around 9:30 a.m and were greeted by Ahmad Zaki bin Rashid, the chief manager of the library and later proceeded to a seated briefing on the background and operations of the library.
There were some key takeaways from the briefing, which was also attended by veteran librarians, Mohd Zafri bin Abdul Karim and Mohd Ridzuan bin Selamat, the latter having worked at the library for a whopping 23 years.
Over 140 thousand multi-lingual collections are kept in the SMNA Library, spanning across a wide variety of manuscripts and rare books on various topics, mainly on Islamic studies and comparative thought and civilisation.
Its patrons came from all over the world, as it had established itself among the top five libraries in the world in terms of manuscript heritage and rare books.
Also astonishing is the extent that the librarians have gone to preserve the manuscripts, majority of them worth millions of dollars. Manuscript (a word derived from the Latin word, manu-scriptus), means ˜written by hand. Due to its status of being handwritten and its age are over centuries old, the librarians conduct fumigation every three to four years to ensure the manuscripts and rare books are free from silverfishes or fungi. Specialised tools like horsehair brushes and liquids to prevent from the fading of the inks are used as well.
After the briefing, participants were treated to an exclusive opportunity to enter the restricted collection level, which is restricted to the public. In this area, participants were enlivened by countless rare books and several manuscripts on display.
It is clear that scholars spent phenomenal efforts in handwriting these manuscripts and books. Some were in Urdu, which Ahmad Zaki expressed his own inability to read them.
Later, participants were treated to a showcase of ancient warriors swords and armours used in actual battles. These swords had mind-boggling attention to details, decorated with inscriptions and factions emblems.
The trip ended around noon time as the library had to close for Friday prayers.
Most participants came away from this trip, feeling impressed by the extensive collections in the library and how these ancient manuscripts were the only original copy left, all under one roof.
Undeniably, the SMNA Library still has much to offer to fellow researchers of all majors to seek for knowledge left by scholars from around the world.***