20 volumes of manuscripts restored

THE NATIONAL RECORDS and Archives Authority (NRAA) has cataloged, restored and documented electronically hundreds of manuscripts and documents in 20 volumes for Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Saif bin Muhammad al Kaabi from the village of Masah in the Wilayat of Mahdha in Al Buraimi Governorate (1870-1950 AD).

Most of these manuscripts and documents were written by the Shaikh himself, while others were in his possession. Among the documents he wrote a hundred years ago is a volume containing surahs from the Holy Quran and manuscripts that included many topics such as the hadiths, fatwas, the honourable prophetic biography, poetry, literature, interpretation and jurisprudence issues. NRAA has restored, indexed, photographed, sterilised, restored and preserved the documents in a professional manner, in order to ensure that these documents remain a memory of history and a bright aspect of the Omani civilisation.

Khalid al Kaabi, one of the Shaikh’s grandsons, said that Shaikh Abdulrahman excelled in various aspects of knowledge and fields like science and literature, as he specialised in the field of jurisprudence, biographies, fatwas and poetry, and devoted himself to science, reading, writing and blogging. He added that the Shaikh used to teach his students Quran and Sharia sciences in a mosque in the village of Masah, which is about 11 kilometres from the centre of the wilayat.

He indicated that the village of Masah, in which the Shaikh grew up, means remedy and was called by this name because people used to come to the village for treatment with folk medicine, cupping and legal Islamic ruqyah.