Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- XIXe-XXe (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
Unknown.
3 notebooks selected for the Archival City project.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Ruhi al-Khalidi was a writer, teacher, activist and politician in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century.
He joined the Sultanic School in Istanbul in 1893, went on to teach in Jerusalem and held a number of administrative posts under Ottoman rule. He studied the philosophy of Islamic sciences and oriental literature at the Sorbonne University in Paris and was appointed professor at the Société des publications en langues étrangères (foreign language publications society) and Consul-General of the Ottoman Empire in Bordeaux (France) from 1898 to 1908.
In 1908, Ruhi al-Khalidi was one of three delegates elected to represent Jerusalem in the new Ottoman Parliament. He became Vice-President of the Parliament in 1911 and representative of the National Assembly of Jerusalem. He raised the issue of Zionism on several occasions during parliamentary sessions, warning of the potentially negative consequences of Jewish immigration and the continued sale of land that represented his homeland.
In particular, he was one of the pioneers in writing manuscripts on Zionism ("Le sionisme ou la question sioniste").”).
He also published other writings on a variety of themes that reflect his subjects of study: An Introduction to the Eastern Question (1897), Victor Hugoand A Comparative Study of Arabic and French Literature (first published in Arabic in 1904; republished in 1912), Chemistry Among the Arabs (Arabic, 1953).
Repository
Archival history
A recolement was begun in 2018 by heritage curator Elise Wojszvzyk as part of the Open Jerusalem project.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The Ruhi al-Khalidi collection is composed in part of vocabulary collections (Arabic-English lexicons organised into lists), notes taken from various works, including those of Ibn Khaldun, letters, a book inventory, a catalogue of library works and at least two diaries containing a succession of collages. The documents identified were produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the volumes in the collection, entitled "Catalogue of the books of Ruhi Bey El Khalidi at the Khalidieh Library, Jerusalem" (Rwhi_25/14), records in writing a large collection of printed works from Ruhi Khalidi's personal library. This catalogue would have been produced after Ruhi Khalidi's death or at the end of his life and reflects his varied interests, with several titles relating to religion, history and travel, particularly to Bordeaux, where Ruhi Khalidi was consul, and to the Gironde. This collection is kept at the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem.
Items inventoried from the fonds:
- Rwhi_25/01 Diary.
- Rwhi_25/02 Diary.
- Rwhi_25/03-09 Arabic-English glossary.
- Rwhi_25/10 Chrono courrier.
- Rwhi_25/11 Notebook.
- Rwhi_25/12 Notebook.
- Rwhi_25/13 God is good (drafts of letters, list of books).
- Rwhi_25/14 Inventory of books.
- KHD_Ind_43 Catalogue of library books.
- DOC_02 Letters.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Arabic
French
Greek
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
ISAD(G), 2nd edition, Ottawa 2000. Available online : https://www.ica.org/en/isadg-general-international-standard-archival-description-second-edition
For dates: ISO 8601, 2nd edition, 2000.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Entry prepared on 2022-09-05, revised on 2023-08-29.
Translation in English entered on 2023-11-21.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Archival description prepared by Élise Wojszvzyk for Open Jerusalem and completed by Fanny Brière and Cassandre Maubert for Archival City.