Travelling to ancient Mesopotamia with professor Böhl

The archive of professor Frans de Liagre Böhl (1882-1976) contains a wealth of knowledge and documentation about early 20th-century Middle Eastern archaeology. The archive, owned by the Netherands Institute for the Near East will soon be available for research via the Leiden Special Collections.

• May 21, 2024

The Iranian Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Old Manuscript, New Perspectives

Majid Daneshgar discusses a rare Persian-Malay manuscript: Or. 5658. It provides a clearer picture of the history of Persian proficient people and Persian-Shīʿīsm in Indonesia.

Guest author • April 24, 2024

Identifying woodcut prints from a 1541 Dutch Livy translation

Thirteen woodcut prints in an uncatalogued box lead to an interesting quest through old books in the Leiden Special Collections. Danny Sunder explains how classic and modern techniques help identify unlinked images, enriching catalogue records.

Guest author • April 17, 2024

Chemicals, Glass and Persistence: Alexine Tinne’s 1862 photography in the heart of Africa

Alexine Tinne mastered mobile photography while the art was still in its infancy, enabling her to create some truly unique photos in mid-19th-century Africa.

Maartje van den Heuvel • March 25, 2024

Islam in your pocket: A rich yet endangered collection linking Leiden and East Africa

How is one a good Muslim in the modern world? In East Africa, from the 1930s onwards, Islam became portable and accessible: new notions of morality were packed into pocket-size booklets cheaply printed in India. What makes this 982-booklet corpus so unique and fragile?

Guest author • January 16, 2024

Hiemcke’s giant manuscript map of Suriname (1830)

Recently, Leiden University Libraries was able to purchase a unique manuscript map of Suriname, drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke in 1830. A missing link in Surinamese mapping history.

Martijn Storms • November 14, 2023

Depicting the Qing Empire's Periphery: A Miao Album with Painted Maps

Miao albums depict people and places in the Chinese southwestern borderland, but very few of them contain maps of the region. The painted maps in the Leiden University Libraries Miao albums may offer insight into the history of the region and its administration.

Guest author • October 24, 2023

Portraying Ethnic Groups in Yunnan: A Miao Album with Silk Watercolour Paintings

An exceptional two-volume Miao album, recently acquired by Leiden University Libraries, depicts non-Han ethnic groups living in Yunnan Province. The manner in which these groups are depicted tells us a lot about how officials viewed ethnic minorities in the Southwest of the Qing Empire.

Guest author • October 17, 2023

Jacob Ernst Marcus - Sint Eustatius-born artist

The artist Jacob Ernst Marcus is one of the very few with Antillean roots in the eighteenth century.

Jef Schaeps • September 28, 2023