Excerpt from A Hand-List of the Muhammadan Manuscripts: Including All Those Written in the Arabic Character, Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge

Of course it was evident from the first that there would remain a considerable residue of untitled mss., manu scripts, that is to say, which in the nature of things lacked a title (such as collections of letters, memoranda, common-place books, miscellanies and the like), or which were so mutilated as to render identification impossible, or which had accidentally been left untitled, and which I could not identify with the means at my disposal. These untitled manuscripts had, therefore, to be arranged according to subjects (the system employed by Dr Rieu in his British Museum Catalogues being generally followed) in a separate class, which constitutes Part II of this volume.

Lastly, for the Library officials (whose point of view must necessarily be bibliographical rather than literary, and by whom one work in four volumes is regarded as four manu scripts, while one volume containing four separate works is regarded as one) it was necessary to arrange all the mss. According to order of class-marks, and to indicate opposite each the article or articles under which its description might be found. This portion constitutes Part III of this volume, which concludes with an Index of proper names (those of authors, scribes and former owners being distinguished by appropriate signs, according to the plan adopted in my Persian Catalogue), including some titles of books mentioned out of the alphabetical order adopted in Part I, and a few references of a more general Character.

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