Meet Hiba Abid: The first curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the New York Public Library

“Being at the service of a diverse community of patrons is extremely rewarding and meaningful to me,” Hiba Abid, the curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the New York Public Library, tells The New Arab.

This highly coveted role at one of the nation’s largest public libraries was newly created back in 2022, for which Hiba, with her vast and diverse experiences, was a natural fit.

"Already home to a diverse collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic material, Hiba is keen to continue developing new areas of research and collecting to reflect the current artistic, literary, and political productions, including zines, ephemera and graphic novels, within the library"

Having studied Islamic Art History at Paris’ Sorbonne University and completing a PhD in the art and codicology of Islamic manuscripts Hiba began her career working at various European and North African national libraries, universities, museums (including the world-famous Louvre), and international heritage organisations (UNESCO).

“Prior to my current role at the New York Public Library, I taught Islamic Art history and the Art and Codicology of Islamic Manuscripts at New York University and the Institute of Fine Arts,” she continues. 

Describing this new role as "an incredible position" Hiba muses on the library’s wider mission: “To bring knowledge to the communities of scholars, students, children, young adults, either to their table in our reading rooms or to their homes.”

Already home to a diverse collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic material, Hiba is keen to continue developing new areas of research and collecting to reflect the current artistic, literary, and political productions, including zines, ephemera and graphic novels, within the library.

“I also want to develop inclusive materials of diasporic publications, films and sound recordings to document the role and impact of diaspora artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers from the region in American and New York City’s cultural life,” she explains. 

With this newly formed role, there come endless possibilities, but also the huge challenge of curating and assessing the sheer volume of collections within the library, something Hiba refuses to shy away from. 

“The most important challenge to me is to understand our collection and the way it was built since the first acquisition made by the Astor Library, NYPL’s predecessor institution, in 1854 – a very early time to collect Orientalia in New York City and in the United States in general," Hiba says. 

“Throughout the years, a wide variety of Middle Eastern and Islamic materials was collected by the library, including manuscripts, lithographs, rare books, early maps, photographs and paintings by Orientalist French, Russian, and American artists. These collections need to be further assessed, described, and hopefully digitized to provide the conditions for inviting more readers and scholars to study them.”

Looking to the future, Hiba hopes to digitise most of the library’s manuscripts collection to reach a wider, more diverse audience.

“The library owns unique Middle Eastern and Islamic manuscripts, rare books, maps, photographs, moving images, and recorded sound,” she says. “We are continuing to work on processing and digitizing these materials in order to make special collections widely accessible to the world, for teaching, research and exhibition, both locally and globally.”

Speaking about the general day-to-day activities of her role, Hiba recounts her first precious 30 minutes at the library every morning before the hustle and bustle of visitors begin. 

“It’s the most magical part of my day,” she muses. “It’s such a unique experience to witness this majestic and imposing building so empty and quiet before we let visitors in.”

"I want to continue building collections that would nuance and challenge stereotypical narratives about the Middle East, Islam, and Muslims by reflecting on the voices of religious, linguistic and ethnic communities in the region and the diasporas"

The rest of the day usually goes by in a flurry of requests and research – an integral part of a curator’s role.

“Once at my desk, I start by answering requests from our patrons ranging from questions about documents and books they are looking for in our collections, to requests from faculties willing to organize a class visit or users who need help navigating our collections.

“The rest of my day is usually dedicated to research on the history of our Middle Eastern and Islamic collection or on specific items, buying books for our general research division and exchanging with book vendors located in the Middle East; and collaborating with colleagues from other divisions.”

Given the current political climate in the US, some might say Hiba’s work at the library is urgently needed to shape and challenge stereotypes towards the Middle East and Islam.

“I want to continue building collections that would nuance and challenge stereotypical narratives about the Middle East, Islam, and Muslims by reflecting on the voices of religious, linguistic and ethnic communities in the region and the diasporas,” she says.

“It is equally important to me to address the needs of our patrons in New York City and beyond from scholars, to students, from early learners to teens and adults. To this aim, it is important to rely on vendors in the US and in the Arab and Muslim world, as well as art centres, museums and galleries where books have a lesser/limited exposure.”

Hiba shares some of her favourite and most remarkable pieces from the library’s collection

Tarjumah-i Suwār al-Kawākib, copied in 1630-33 in Mashhad, Spencer Collection Persian ms. 6

This is one of my favourite manuscripts in the collection: it was copied by Muhammad Baqir al-Hāfiz around 1630-33 in Iran, possibly for Abu al-Fatḥ Manuchihr Khan, the governor of Mashhad.

The title translates to The Translation of the Book of Images of the Fixed Stars.

It is a Persian translation of the famous Arabic treatise, the Book of Constellations, originally composed by the Iranian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (986).

The text records the position of the forty-eight constellations which, according to the medieval conception of the universe, inhabited the eighth of the nine spheres surrounding the earth.

Tashrih-i Mansuri, copied in 1675 in Iran. Spencer Coll. Persian ms. 17

The Tashrīḥ-i manṣūrī is an illustrated anatomy text composed in Persian in the late 14^th century by Manṣūr ibn Ilyās, a scholar from Shiraz, and commissioned by a Timurid patron.

The text, likely used for medical instruction, merges Greek Galenic science with Prophetic medicine.

It includes five treatises (maqāla) describing the bones, nerves, muscles, veins, and arteries of the human body, while one last section deals with the composite organs and the development of the foetus.

Each of these chapters is accompanied by full-page detailed illustrations enriched with labels and explanations.

The library’s manuscript was supposedly copied in 1675 in Iran and contains six full-page anatomical drawings as well as two diagrams integrated within the written surface.

The images show the bones of the human body (f. 14v); the arterial and nervous systems as viewed from behind (f. 21v); the musculature with captions in red and black ink (f. 23); the viscera and venous system, featuring the veins, heart, liver, kidney and intestines with different colours (f. 29v); and the arteries (f. 32v). Lastly, f. 46 depicts a pregnant woman in a crouching pose with a fully formed foetus in the womb.

Menu of a Syrian restaurant in New York City, 1917, The Buttolph Collection of Menus, Rare Book Division

Finally, this is a very fun document: NYPL has an incredible collection of New York City’s restaurant menus.

One of them is a menu from 1917 of The Syrian Restaurant for Ladies' & Gents’, a Syrian restaurant owned by a certain Said Khoury located on 92 Washington Street.

The restaurant was part of one of the many restaurants and businesses run by Syrian immigrants on Washington Street, in the Lower West Side, the former Syrian Colony in New York City.

We are currently working on digitizing and promoting our collections on the history of the Syrian Colony in New York and this menu is one of the expressions of the early Arab cultural presence in early 20th-century New York.

You can see all these materials and more digital collections here

Sami Rahman is a freelance lifestyle writer based in London. 

Follow her on Twitter: @bysamirahman