Oriental manuscripts were already part of the original holdings when the library was founded in 1661 by the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (r. 1640 – 1688). Manuscripts belonging to the scholars Theodor Peträus (1630 – 1672) and Christian Raue (1613 – 1677) shaped the early collection. Peträus was a Danish orientalist who had visited the Levant and Egypt between 1656 and 1659 and brought back numerous manuscripts from there. In his studies he worked not only with the Arabic and Persian languages but also Coptic, Ethiopian and Armenian.
Christian Raue, a Berliner, stayed in Asia Minor from 1639 to 1642 where he not only quickly learned Turkish but also acquired manuscripts. He was appointed to a professorship in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1672. A large number of volumes were purchased from Raue’s estate in 1691 and 1707. His collection was predominantly comprised of works in Turkish, Arabic and Persian. With the boom in Oriental Studies in the 19th century, when the expansion of the Berlin’s holdings transformed it into one of the preeminent collections of oriental manuscripts in the West.
Acquaintance with the way of life of Muslim peoples occurred through the study of their handwritten tradition. In particular, during the reigns of the Prussian rulers Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1840–1861) and Wilhelm I (1861–1888), large purchases were made that increased the level of quality of the collection.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collections of the Federal Republic of Germany" (volume XI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
