The Smala designates a meeting of tents sheltering families around a tribal chief.
The ambition of Emir Abd el-Kader thanks to the manuscripts of Tagdemnt
The Château de Chantilly contains the Oriental manuscripts, 38 of which come from the “nomadic capital” named, in French, the Smala of Emir Abd el-Kader.
The smalah camp is made up of 4 circular and concentric enclosures where each douar, each family, each individual has his place according to his rank or his functions. The Emir’s tent stands in the center. It is immediately surrounded by the 4 tents of relatives of Abd el-Kader who make up the 1st enclosure.
In total, 368 douars of 15 to 20 tents each, estimated at 30,000 people.
The smala was stormed by the Duke of Aumale and his troops, in the region of Mascara, on May 16, 1843.
The Art of the Arabic Book.
In the Arab-Islamic world, the manuscript dominated until 1850. The veneration shown by the Koran and then by books in general, placed calligraphy at the center of Islamic art.
The religious ban on the representation of animate beings favors non-figurative illumination.
The book represents an important market in the Arab world thanks to the early use of paper. An immense religious, philosophical or scientific production, resulting from professional copyists or scholars, favors the development of libraries.
The princely or caliphal libraries are places of study and exchange. In Cairo, in 1004, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hâkim thus founded a “House of Knowledge” where scholars from all disciplines compare their points of view.
The libraries of the mosques and those of the madrasas (which are colleges for the teaching of religious sciences) lend works intended for public reading and for teaching. The wealth of their funds depends, to a large extent, on the generosity of donors who use the procedure of waqf or habous, noted in the books.
Libraries are finally constituted by scholars. At the end of the reading sessions, scholars acquire a “licence” which allows them to transmit the text in turn. These readers also leave their names in the books.
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