Rana Mikati is interested in the cultural and intellectual history of the eastern Mediterranean in the early medieval period, the history of early Islamic frontiers, warfare, and Islamic archaeology. She is collaborating with Garrett Davidson on a monograph about the Egyptian publisher and bookseller, Muhammad Amīn al-Khanjī (d. 1939).

Garrett Davidson studies the Islamic scholarly tradition, Arabic manuscript culture, and provenance history. While at IAS, he will be working on a monograph examining the recently discovered papers of Muḥammad Amīn al-Khānjī (d. 1939) and his role in the Islamic manuscript trade in the first half of the twentieth century.

This presentation explores the life and legacy of Muhammad Amīn al-Khānjī (d. 1939), a key figure in the early 20th-century Arab cultural and intellectual landscape. Renowned as “Shaykh al-Kutubiyyīn” (The Sheikh of Booksellers),al-Khānjī was a pioneering publisher and a significant dealer in rare manuscripts. The narrative traces his early life in Aleppo, where his passion for rescuing and preserving manuscripts took root, and follows his journey to Cairo, where he built an influential career in the book trade. Al-Khānjiī’s work as a manuscript dealer involved sourcing, preserving, and disseminating invaluable Islamic and Arabic texts, earning him respect among scholars and collectors across the Arab
world and beyond.