‘A Rich Treasure of Manuscripts’: Robert Huntington in Syria

Abstract

Chapter 3 follows Robert Huntington during the decade he spent in Syria (1671–81), piecing together one of the most extensive collections of oriental manuscripts to come into Europe before the nineteenth century. It describes the changed circumstances in Aleppo since Edward Pococke’s years in the city: the more extensive presence of European (particularly French) collectors. It then surveys Huntington’s work on behalf of a community of English scholars, reconstructing a network of correspondents – from Syria, to Cyprus, to Iraq – which Huntington exploited in his quest for books. This section develops the theme of the working relationships between European collectors and local scholars, charting Huntington’s epistolary exchanges with the Maronite patriarch of Antioch, Isṭifān al-Duwayhī, and the Samaritan scribe, Marhib ben Jacob. It also points to English scholars’ reliance on the longer-established Roman Catholic missions, here exemplified by Huntington’s attempts to secure books and information on the Mandaeans through Carmelite missionaries in Basra. Following Huntington and his books back to England, a concluding discussion describes the sale of Huntington’s library and Huntington’s own career prospects after ten years’ service to English scholarship in Syria. It ends with an assessment of English collectors’ achievements by the end of the seventeenth century.