MIGUEL

See also:

• MIGUEL CASIRI (1710-1791)

CASIRI (1710-1791)  , a learned Maronite, was bcrn at Tripoli (Syria) in 1710 . He studied at Rome, where he lectured on Arabic, Syriac, Chaldee, philosophy and theology . In 1748 he went to Spain, and was employed in the royal library at Madrid . He was successively appointed a member of the Royal Academy of History, interpreter of oriental languages to the king, and joint-librarian at the Escorial, In 1763 he became principal librarian, a post which he appears to have held till his death in 1791 . Casiri published a work entitled Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis (2 vols., Madrid, 1760-1770) . It is a catalogue of above 1800 Arabic MSS., which he found in the library of the Escorial; it also contains a number of quotations from Arabic works on history . The MSS. are classified according to subjects; the second volume gives an account of a large collection of geographical and historical MSS., which contain valuable information regarding the wars between the Moors and the Christians in Spain . Casiri's work is not yet obsolete, but a more scientific system is adopted in Hartwig Derenbourg's incomplete treatise, Les Manuscrits arabes de l'Escorial (Paris, 1884) .