At this time there is no online catalogue of the College's substantial collections of non-western manuscripts.
However, some printed catalogues describing our Arabic, Coptic, Pali, Sanskrit and other non-western holdings are available to download below.
Alternatively, Library staff will be happy to check the College's holdings on your behalf. Please email library@christs.cam.ac.uk or phone 01223 334905.
Arabic manuscripts
The College has a large collection of Arabic manuscripts. These are described in Edward G. Browne, A Supplementary Handlist of the Muhammadan Manuscripts Including All Those Written in the Arabic Character, Preserved in the Libraries of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922). A brief listing of our holdings, based on Browne's work, is available to download here.
A 2023 publication by Dr Majid Daneshgar describes nine manuscripts not listed in Browne's catalogue. It is titled A Handlist of Nine Newly Discovered Middle Eastern and Islamic Materials, and can be accessed here.
Coptic
The library has seventeen Coptic manuscripts. A catalogue is available to download here.
Pali and Burmese manuscripts
The library has seven manuscripts in this category. Located in the Old Library at shelfmark range DD.7.22 to DD.7.28, all are written on palm leaves. The majority date from the 19th century and are in Burmese script. A catalogue is available to download here.
Sanskrit manuscripts
The library has eight Sanskrit manuscripts, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and located in the shelfmark range DD.7.12 to DD.7.21. A catalogue is available to download here.
The majority of our Sanskrit materials were donated by the scholar and classicist William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950). As well as being headmaster of The Perse School in Cambridge, Rouse was a Fellow at Christ's from 1888 to 1894 and an Honorary Fellow from 1934 until his death. In addition, Rouse donated a substantial collection of early printed books and Greek manuscripts.
Other non-western manuscripts
A catalogue describing our Ethiopic, Hindi, Samaritan, Syriac and Urdu manuscripts will be available to download at some point in the future.