Preservation of Islamic manuscripts in the Philippine’s libraries: issues and prospects

Abstract

In order to find out what the prospects are for the collection and preservation of the Islamic manuscripts within a state, which is predominated by Catholic Christians, we need to asses the role of the National Library in the Philippines in committing itself for preserving these valuable cultural treasures. But before that, this paper will discuss the issues on why some of the important Islamic manuscripts in the country, such as, the Luwaran of Maguindanao and the Diwan Tausog which are the very important sources of the Muslim Filipino cultures are not available in the National Library. In the Constitution, it clearly provides that, “The state shall recognize, respect and protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and institutions.” However, we have not seen an expert under the direction of the National Library, who will identify the collections and preservation of Islamic manuscripts in the Philippines. With this, the Muslim Filipino cultural resources may not be safe after many years due to lack of preservation through proper conservation methods. To ensure that this problem will not happen, Muslim librarians in the country, with the support of the librarians in the Muslim World will commit themselves in preserving these manuscripts to ensure that they will be available in the rest of the world and also to make them safe for many centuries to come.