Al-Shifa Bi-Ta'rif Huquq Al-Mustafa: A 12th-Century Islamic Legal Manuscript

Qatar National Library provides a 14.7 GB high-resolution digital master copy of manuscript HC.MS.00403 from its Heritage Collection. The manuscript is titled 'Al-Shifa Bi-Ta'rif Huquq Al-Mustafa' by the jurist Al-Qadi Iyad, who lived from 1083 to 1149. The dataset was last updated on June 3, 2026, and is shared under a CC0 1.0 public domain dedication.

Use Cases

• Training Optical Character Recognition (OCR) models for classical Arabic script based on high-resolution manuscript images.
• Conducting historical and philological analysis of a foundational Islamic legal text.
• Studying the material culture and scribal practices of 12th-century manuscripts through digital facsimiles.
• Building digital archives and searchable repositories for heritage collections.

Strengths

• High-resolution digital master copy suitable for detailed paleographic study.
• Large file size of 14.7 GB suggests significant image detail and quality.
• Clear provenance from the Qatar National Library Heritage Collection with a specific manuscript identifier (HC.MS.00403).
• Released under a permissive CC0 1.0 license, allowing for unrestricted reuse.

Limitations

• The specific number of pages or images within the 14.7 GB archive is unknown.
• Column-level documentation and structured metadata for the manuscript's content are absent.
• Data may reflect the specific scribal and preservation biases inherent to this single manuscript artifact.

Provenance

Source

Qatar National Library Heritage Collection, manuscript HC.MS.00403.

Collection Method

Digitization of a physical manuscript.

Time Range

Manuscript authored in the 12th century (author lifespan 1083-1149).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-03 07:26:30; freshness should be verified.