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Finding Aid for the Rudolf Gelpke collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts, ca. 1447-1902
1658
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Title: Rudolf Gelpke collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts
Date (inclusive): ca. 1447-1902
Collection number: 1658
Creator:
Gelpke, Rudolf, 1928-
Extent:
3 boxes (1.5 linear ft.)
Abstract: Collection consists of 24 bound manuscripts. Subjects include astronomy and astrology, belles-lettres, grammar, history, philosophy
and theology.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Processed by Ali Anooshahr, with assistance from Laurel McPhee, May 2005, in the Center For Primary Research and Training
(CFPRT).
Manuscripts 1-6 were removed and added to the Shaykhi Collection of Arabic and Persian Manuscripts (Collection 1655) in 1986.
The remaining original manuscript numbers, 7-30, were retained during cataloging in 2005.
[Identification of item], Rudolf Gelpke collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts (Collection 1658). Department of Special
Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233069
Rudolf Gelpke (1928-1972) was an Islamic scholar of Swiss nationality. After taking his doctorate in Islamic studies from
the University of Basel in 1957, Gelpke held positions at the University of Teheran and the University of Bern, and was an
Associate Professor at UCLA from September 1962 to May 1963. After living in Teheran for eight years as a freelance writer,
Gelpke returned to Switzerland, where he died of a stroke at the age of 43. In addition to several papers, Gelpke was the
author of
Vom Raush im Orient und Okzident (
On Inebriation in the East and the West), Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, 1966.
The collection consists of 24 Arabic and Persian bound manuscripts from the Safawid, Ottoman, Qajar, and Timurid domains,
including multiple versions of some titles. There are five works of belles-lettres, three religious texts, two historical
works, four philosophical works, two grammatical works, and two works of astronomy. None of the works are illustrated, though
5 have illuminated first leaves. Of particular scholarly interest are items dating from the late Safawid period, including
a version of Akhlāq-I nāṣirī by Ṭūsī, or Sharḥ tajrīd al-kalām, contemporaneous with the author Lāhījī. The collection also
contains an interlinear version of Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādīyya, dating from the early eighteenth century.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Iranian literature.
Arabic literature.
Manuscripts--Arab countries.