Fonds GT - Papers of Gerald Tibbetts

Zone d'identification

Cote

GB 891 GT

Titre

Papers of Gerald Tibbetts

Date(s)

  • 1954 - 1981 (Création/Production)

Niveau de description

Fonds

Étendue matérielle et support

1 archive box

Zone du contexte

Nom du producteur

Notice biographique

Gerald Tibbetts was born on the 22nd January 1926, in Brackley, Northants. He was called into the army just before the end of the Second World War when he was 18 and was posted to Malay and India in the Royal Army Education Corps. Through this experiences he developed an interest in languages with unique scripts and taught himself Arabic, Hebrew and Assyrian. In addition to this, he decided to study Arabic and Hebrew at Magdalen College in Oxford graduating in 1951.

Tibbetts also had an interest in library studies and took a Postgraduate qualification in Librarianship at London University. Whilst studying he was also associated with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, and completed a dissertation entitled: 'Arabia in early maps.' Whilst he was undertaking this course he met his future wife (Hazel). After completing the course he took up a post in the Library at the University of Singapore (1953) where he was responsible for the classification of works in oriental languages. Through this work he developed a specialist interest in medieval Arab navigation on which he wrote a number of publications. In 1956 he became the Deputy Librarian at the University of Khartoum where he had special responsibility for the collection of Arab books and manuscripts.

In 1960 he returned to the UK when he was appointed Librarian at the newly founded Oriental Institute in Oxford. However, in 1964, he became Deputy Librarian at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and then Librarian of the newly founded Abdullahi Bayero University College in Kano. In this post he received considerable support from the Ford foundation to assist in the gathering of Arabic and Islamic texts for the Library.

In 1967 he became Administrative Secretary at the University of London Library where he remained until his retirement in 1990. While working at the University he published two monographs under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society: 'Arab navigation in the Indian Ocean before the coming of the Portuguese' (1971) and 'A study of the Arabic texts containing material on South-east Asia' (1979). His work on these publications led to him being awarded a D.Litt at Oxford University in 1982. He also served on the RAS council between 1985-1988.

Tibbets was involved in 'The Sindbad Voyage project' (1980-1981) which was led by the explorer, Tim Severin, and involved recreating ancient voyages. Tibbetts gave specialist advice to the project. He served as an Associate Editor for The History of Cartography Series published by the University of Chicago Press.

Nom du producteur

Histoire archivistique

The Papers belonged to Gerald Tibbets and his family before their donation to the Society.

Source immédiate d'acquisition ou de transfert

The material was donated to the Society by the family of Gerald Tibbetts in October 2020.

Zone du contenu et de la structure

Portée et contenu

The Papers include publications written orcollected by the academic Gerald Tibbetts connected to his research interests in early Arab navigation in the Indian Ocean. Related to this are draft copies of a lecture given by Tibbetts at the Royal Asiatic Society concerning the origins of navigation in the Indian Ocean.

There is also material collected by Tibbetts relating to his work on the Sindbad Voyage project (1980-1981) and his invitation to participate in the Heritage of Oman Festival.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

The collection has been organised as follows:

GT/1: Publications

GT/2: Sindbad Voyage Project

GT/3: Lecture to the Royal Asiatic Society

Zone des conditions d'accès et d'utilisation

Conditions d’accès

Open. Please contact the archivist. Details can be found here : https://royalasiaticarchives.org/. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.

Language of material

  • anglais
  • allemand
  • français
  • portugais
  • arabe

Script of material

    Language and script notes

    Caractéristiques matérielle et contraintes techniques

    Finding aids

    Zone des sources complémentaires

    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

    Related units of description

    Some maps were also donated which are part of the Society's map collection. Copies of both of his books published by the Royal Asiatic Society are available to researchers. Several books by Tim Severin connected to the Sindbad project are also available.

    Descriptions associées

    Zone des notes

    Identifiant(s) alternatif(s)

    Mots-clés

    Mots-clés - Lieux

    Mots-clés - Genre

    Zone du contrôle de la description

    Identifiant de la description

    gb891-gt

    Identifiant du service d'archives

    Rules and/or conventions used

    Statut

    Niveau de détail

    Dates of creation revision deletion

    Langue(s)

      Écriture(s)

        Sources

        Archivist's note

        Catalogued by Emma Jones in November 2020.

        Accession area