The Yemen Manuscript Digitization Initiative (YMDI)

也门的私人图书馆是世界上最大和最重要的阿拉伯手稿收藏之一。由于也门相对远离伊斯兰教的中心地带，它保存了许多极其罕见的资料，包括一些现存最早的古兰经片段和对古典伊斯兰教研究非常重要的作品。这些基本上被忽视的资源将产生大量的新知识，并为伊斯兰文明的政治，知识和文学史提供新的视角。但这一不可替代的手稿宝藏正受到威胁。近年来，也门的私人图书馆遭受了巨大的损失，部分原因是萨勒曼极端分子在意识形态上反对伊斯兰教的扎伊迪什叶派学校，并将扎伊迪手稿作为销毁目标。也门Mandarpt数字化倡议（YMDI）是普林斯顿大学图书馆和柏林自由大学之间的一个合作项目。YMDI的使命是保存和传播也门私人图书馆中的阿拉伯手稿。在28个月的资助期内，YMDI将实现三个目标。在萨那保留了三个私人图书馆，共236个图书馆。在国家图书馆和普林斯顿大学图书馆的珍本收藏中增加了12份手稿。结合普林斯顿大学开发的数字图书馆基础设施，创建一个自由访问的伊斯兰手稿库，其范围在世界上是无与伦比的。YMDI成立了一个顾问委员会，由来自北美，欧洲和中东的古典伊斯兰教，中东历史和阿拉伯文学的主要学者组成。在YMDI的初始阶段，YMDI将创建一个基础设施，通过该基础设施，其顾问委员会确定为重要的手稿可以在未来几年内进行数字保存和传播。通过引导和结合已经存在的机构资源，YMDI将有助于拯救一个至关重要的手稿收藏，为伊斯兰文明研究，是迫在眉睫的危险。

The private libraries of Yemen comprise one of the world’s largest and most important collections of Arabic manuscripts. Because Yemen is relatively remote from the central lands of Islam, it has preserved many extremely rare sources, including some of the earliest extant Qur’an fragments and works of great importance for the study of classical Islam. Ready access to these largely neglected sources would generate a tremendous amount of new knowledge and provide new perspectives on the political, intellectual, and literary history of Islamic civilization. But this irreplaceable trove of manuscripts is threatened. In recent years, Yemen's private libraries have suffered great losses, in part due to Salafi extremists who are ideologically opposed to the Zaydi Shiite school of Islam and have targeted Zaydi manuscripts for destruction. The Yemen Manuscript Digitization Initiative (YMDI) is a collaborative project between Princeton University Library and the Freie Universität, Berlin. YMDI's mission is the preservation and dissemination of the Arabic manuscripts in the private libraries of Yemen. In the 28 month period covered by this grant, YMDI will accomplish three objectives.1. preserve three private libraries in Sana'a, a total of 236 manuscripts.2. digitize 12 additional manuscripts in the rare book collections of the Staatsbibliothek and the Princeton University Library.3. conjoin the digital-library infrastructure developed at Princeton to create a freely accessible repository of Islamic manuscripts whose scope is unparalleled in the world. YMDI has formed an advisory board comprised of leading scholars of classical Islam, Middle Eastern history, and Arabic Literature from North America, Europe, and the Middle East. In this, YMDI’s initial phase, YMDI will create an infrastructure through which manuscripts identified as important by its advisory board can be digitally preserved and disseminated in the coming years. By channeling and combining institutional resources which already exist, YMDI will help save a crucially important manuscript collection for Islamic civilization study that is in imminent danger.