Holdings
The library of the Christianeum holds 11 Arabic manuscripts. One manuscript with the classmark R 1/11 is
considered missing, but the condition of this manuscript, which is said to have contained a biography of Muhammad,
is described in the catalogue of 1878 as "decaying in mould". The catalogue considers the manuscript with the
classmark R 1/12, on the other hand, to be one of the two most beautiful manuscripts available in Hamburg at the
time as regards its calligraphy.
Collection History
The 1878 catalogue, compiled by the former director and librarian of the Christianeum, Marx Johannes Friedrich
Lucht (1804−1891), notes that it is not known how the manuscripts became part of Christianeum's library. It merely
mentions a Mr Theodor Heinrich (Henry) Goverts (1748−1819), who had given the manuscripts for review to Mr Anton
August Heinrich Lichtenstein (1753−1816), who knew Arabic.
Catalogues
Marx Johannes Friedrich Lucht,
Bericht ueber das
Koenigliche Christianeum
in dem Schuljahre von Ostern 1877 bis Ostern 1878. Vorangehen Nachrichten ueber die Bibliothek des Gymnasiums
und die in derselben befindlichen Handschriften, Bericht erstattet von Professor Dr. M. J. F. Lucht, Director.
Altona, 1878, 20–22.
