His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, visited the El Escorial Library, St. Jerome Royal Church (or Hieronymus Monastery), several museums, monasteries and other historical buildings in Madrid, Spain, on October 10, 2019.

Once the historical residence of the King of Spain and known to house one of most extensive libraries in the world, the El Escorial houses a rare collection of more than 45,000 articles including books, maps, manuscripts, coins, sculptures, and drawings. Of particular interest are the volumes on philosophy, poetry and politics in Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Arabic, Persian and other languages, many of which date back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Sharjah Ruler also visited the main hall which houses geographical prototypes, volumes and books in all sciences and languages, and was briefed on the library’s unique book classification system and maintenance mechanisms.

His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi then visited the library’s rare manuscripts department to review a collection of manuscripts in history, geography, sciences, linguistics, in addition to a collection of manuscripts in Arabic, atlases in Latin and maps of the Arabian Gulf which date back to the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.

His Highness also reviewed some of the important manuscripts by Arab scholars, such as Ibn Khaldun, a scholar  from the 14th century; Ibn Al Wardi, a historian from the 14th century; Mohammed bin Dhafer from the 12th century; and the Book on the Usefulness of Animals by Ibn Al Durayhim, a 14th century scholar.