What is the APD for?

The Arabic Papyrology Database (APD) gives you access to editions of and research on pre-modern Arabic documents written on papyrus, parchment, paper, etc., an often untapped treasure for almost every aspect of the Islamicate World from the 7th up to the 16th century CE.

The Arabic Papyrology Database comprises a total of 13536 documents. Through DOCUMENTS, you will be able to search all 13536 documents by their metadata as for instance their edition name, inventory number, kind, material, place and date of origin. Through TEXT, you might search the Arabic full text of 4397 documents by the spelling of words and word combinations as on the document, by their transliteration, lemma (lexicon entry), root and stem; non-standard forms have not been standardized, but will be found by their standard forms. LEXICON gives you direct access to all lemmata and roots. In TYPES, 6983 documents have been attributed to 460 formal document types and you will be able to search documents by their phrases and layout elements; we fully marked up the layout on 460 documents, and text structure on 1469 documents. PALEO is a visual tool to compare scripts while sitting in front of the originals: you might search 1002 documents by their script angles. BIBLIO gives you access to all 3426 monographs, collective volumes and papers we know about including all their reviews.

The Arabic Papyrology Database is the first digital compilation of Arabic documents on papyrus, parchment, paper, etc. It is a non-commercial project run under the patronage of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP) and a partner of the Trismegistos metadata project of Greek, Demotic, Coptic, Arabic, etc. documents. Access is free via the Internet. The Arabic Papyrology Database is continuously enlarged.

Who is the APD for?

The APD is conceived for a wide range of users. Primarily it is meant to respond to the needs of scholars working on Arabic documents, but linguists and historians will find it as well crucial for their research. Scholars and students - anyone interested in documents on everyday life, legal and administrative practiced in the first ten centuries of Islam will appreciate the Arabic Papyrology Database.

The Arabic Papyrology Database brings Arabic papyrology and its possibilities in research up to a wider field of interested people. The Arabic Papyrology Database is not a beginner's tool, but easily accessible and we hope it will make a satisfying contribution to your research.