How did the collection end up in Leiden?

In 1887 Salme met the Dutch orientalist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) in Berlin. A close friendship developed between him and the family based on their mutual interest in the Middle East and Islam.

This resulted in the donation by the family of the personal library of Salme and Rudolph to the Oriental Institute in Leiden in 1937. After its original placement at the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands Institute of the Near East (NINO) became the curator of the Oriental Institute collection in 1977. In 1996 most items connected to Salme and personal memorabilia were transferred to the vault of the Leiden University Libraries for better conservation. The bookcase ended up on display at the library of the NINO.

Since its donation, several descendants of Salme have visited the collection and even used it for the publication of their own translation of the Memoirs.

In 1993 the book titled An Arabian princess between two worlds. Memoirs, letters home, sequels to the memoirs, Syrian customs & usages was published. The book is written by dr. Emery van Donzel, who used to be director of the NINO and chairman of the Eastern Institute. He had been fascinated with the history of the exceptional book collection ever since it had been placed in his office in 1982. In 2016 Dr. Van Donzel was interviewed by Deborah Gianessi and Anita Keizers, see the video above (in Dutch).