Dr Ahmed stayed at the Trust’s house in Kensington in May 2025.

Outside the British Library

During my stay in London, I dedicated my time to working on Arabic papyri and documents preserved at the British Library, particularly those for which no digital images are currently available online. To begin, I consulted the printed catalogues to identify relevant item numbers, and once located, I spent considerable time examining and studying nearly 200 texts written on papyrus, paper, parchment, bone, and textile.

These materials included a wide range of important documents such as administrative records, legal texts, personal and official letters, as well as excerpts from the Qur’an and Hadith. I have already started editing and analyzing a selection of these texts with the aim of preparing them for publication. In addition, I visited the British Museum, where I studied a number of Arabic ostraca held in their collection.

At the British Museum

I also made a visit to the Egypt Exploration Society to search for archival material related to the excavations at Qasr Ibrim, a site from which I am currently editing and publishing several Arabic documents. The curator of Arabic Collections at the British Library, along with the Head of the Middle Eastern and Central Asian Collections, were both extremely supportive and offered generous assistance throughout my research. Although I was unable to examine all the materials I had hoped to study—due to time constraints and the conservation status of some items—the quantity and quality of the materials I did access were more than sufficient to make this visit highly valuable for my ongoing research.

For more information about the other students in the 2025 cohort please see here.