This post is a personal reflection on a professional friendship that African Section librarian Eve M. Ferguson had with renowned bibliographer, Abdul Samed Bemath, who recently passed away after producing a third bibliography of the legendary African historian, the late Ali Al’Amin Mazrui, who was memorialized at the Library of Congress in December 2014. Eve Ferguson worked with Bemath to create a chapter in a book of tributes, A Giant Tree Has Fallen: Tributes to Ali Al’Amin Mazrui. Abdul Samed Bemath died in South Africa on July 31, 2020.
The African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress welcomes three Junior Fellows for their summer internships. They are: Chelsey Brown, Briana Gausland and August Kahn.
The Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division recently acquired a rare Gospel book printed in Rome in 1548 AD. It is the first printed edition of the New Testament in Geez, ግዕዝ (Ethiopic), the ancient liturgical language of Ethiopia.
In 1911, Jewish children in the Russian Empire woke up to find a Tom Thumb of their own, a Hebrew Tom Thumb of the greatest charm imaginable, and written, moreover, by that greatest of modern Hebrew poets, Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934). Bialik's "Etsba'oni" first appeared in the pages of Ha-Shahar [The Dawn], one of a growing number of Hebrew periodicals created specifically for children in the early decades of the 20th century, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia. The Library of Congress has an almost complete run of the periodical from its seven months of existence, covers included.
A collection of Afghan lithographic books is now accessible online as part of the Persian Rare Language Material collection on the Library of Congress’ website.
This blogpost highlights a single parchment leaf in Hebrew letters that has survived the centuries as binding for a Latin book printed in Frankfurt am Main in the late 16th century. The Hebrew leaf comes from a manuscript copy of "Beit Yosef" [The House of Joseph], a monumental code of Jewish law composed by Joseph Karo (1488-1575), one of the most important Jewish figures of all time.
Two Junior Fellows discuss the displays of the Hebrew calendars and American Yiddish Theater collections that they prepared for the Junior Fellows Display at the Library of Congress.
