A Yemeni man reads the Qur'an at the Great Mosque in the old city of the capital Sana’a. — Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images via the National Endowment for the Humanities

Zaydi Manuscript Tradition Featured in NEH “Humanities” Magazine

“Working together, the Institute for Advanced Study and HMML provide an accessible digital platform, a sophisticated cataloging system, and the capacity to keep the Zaydi corpus free and available for the foreseeable future.

The project has made possible many new discoveries, including among scholars in Yemen itself, despite air raids, famine, and targeted destruction of cultural heritage. ‘As a scholar, you continue working, no matter what the circumstances—I think it’s a kind of mental freedom that you create for yourself,’ says [Sabine] Schmidtke.”

Writing for Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Erica Machulak profiles the Zaydi Manuscript Tradition, a collaboration between the Institute for Advanced Study and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library that will provide open access to approximately 15,000 digitized Zaydi manuscripts from Yemen and neighboring countries.

Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, is the director of the project, which in 2018 received a $315,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.