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This inventory includes the transcription (into Arabic and Turkish) and translation into English of the 18 volumes of reports (55% in Ottoman Turkish, 45% in Arabic) from the Ottoman municipality of Jerusalem between 1892 and 1917.

As the Correspondence Office of Imperial Treasury is a unit that acts as the secretary of the ministry, this fonds includes official letters written by the ministry to the state offices in İstanbul and in the country.
The starting and ending Hijri dates for this fonds are: 1266-1342.

Since the documents were sent from Istanbul and mostly from the former Ottoman ministry of finances’s depositories, they mainly deal with financial issues and are related to all the former Ottoman provinces ( the Balkans, Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa).

The preface of 1984 Sofia’s catalogue explains the way the archival units are described:
[p. 30] From the point of view of diplomatics, the archives in Arabic and Ottoman-Turkish offer mainly the same documents: maktub, daftar, mahdar, sanad, etc. [...].
[p. 31] The elements of the description of each document are defined first of all by the characteristics of the material itself and by the ideas already expressed, concerning the importance of this archive which appears to be a solid basis for the study of important aspects of the economic, political, cultural and religious life of the people of North Africa, the Near and the Middle East, the Caucasus, etc. in the age of the Ottoman-Turkish feudalism. The experience of Bulgarian archivists, who have published archives in Bulgarian and foreign languages, preserved in the National Library and other institutions in the country has been taken into consideration.
In general every description of a document consists of two parts. Part I includes the following elements: date, place of issue, type and number of documents, author, addressee, a brief content and supplementary notes on it.
The date of issue or writing of the document is given first according to the Christian calendar and thereafter the Moslem (i.e. as it is given in the original). When one description contains several documents of different dates, we indicate the earliest and the latest with a dash (-) between the two. Thus we show the whole period covered by the documents [...]. In cases when there is no date on the document, or there are only fragments of the document whose date was eventually on the missing part we proceed as follows:

• if possible we date the document according to the historical event described in it [...].
• when the documents mention Turkish sultans or Grand wazirs, the date is given according to their rule. In cases when names of other well-known people in the political history of the Arab countries are mentioned and whose biographical data cannot be defined, we date the document according to their activity reflected in
  it. If such a document bears also a stamp with a date, we record it at the end thus confirming our considerations when dating it.
• in the cases when we date the documents only according to the Moslem date recorded on the seal of the document, we give only the initial date of the corresponding Christian year, which means that the document has not been written before that date.
  Provided there is no way to date a document, because we cannot make use of any of the above-mentioned possibilities, we resort to paleographic data (paper, watermark, script, ink, handwriting). In such cases we denote the century only and when it is possible to be more concrete, supplement it with phrases like "the
  beginning", "the end", "the first half", etc. [...].

The place of issue of the document shows the settlement in which it has been written or prepared and is given immediately after the date. When the name of the town is missing in the document but we can still define it by logical considerations we write it down in square brackets. When there is no possibility to define the place of issue we use the abbreviation "s.l." (sine loco).

The type of document (daftar, maktub, raftiyya, kasf, etc.) is not always mentioned in the text itself (or above it). In such case we define it on the basis of some principles in the Ottoman-Turkish diplomatics. When the description includes several documents of the same kind, the figure in brackets after the name
of the document shows their number [...]. When the archive unit contains documents of another type also, in some cases for clarity we mark down in brackets which consecutive leaf is the described document.

The author is the person or the authority that has issued the document. In most cases it comes from the same settlement in which the document has been prepared. For that reason the settlement is not mentioned again after his name and office. The name of the author is given in square brackets when it is missing in the document and it has been identified indirectly.

The addressee is the person or the institution to whom the document is addressed and the settlement where he is to be found. This element is not present in all descriptions, since in most cases it is difficult to be established. All additionally fixed data are placed also in square brackets.

The content of the document is the most important part of the description. Our ambition is to render it fully as much as possible and to give in concise form that information in the document which will be made use in further studies. The annotations points out first of all the event and the persons taking part in it, their position and titles, also the names of settlements, gamis, mazra'as, muqata'as, or it is mentioned whether the document contains such information.It is mentioned also whether the archive unit includes documents in Ottoman-Turkish and if so their content is also reflected in the annotation.

The supplementary notes can be of various kind, but the most common are the additional entries. These are the legalizations, notes, decisions, resolutions, accounts, etc., made on the top or in the margins of the main text by the financial authorities, predominantly in Ottoman Turkish. Moreover, in the earlier documents they are in “siyaqat”, “diwani” or in “inge diwani”. In order to avoid repetition, these details were not included in the description.

When the annotated document is “hugga zahriyya” (“hügget-i zahriyye”) we mention also the type of the document (original or copy in Ottoman-Turkish) given at the back. If the document was prepared by a person other than the one that had issued the “hugga zahriyya”, we mention his name and position as well [...].
Part II of the description of the documents is concerned with their paleographic characteristics. It includes the following elements: number and size of leaves, paper, condition of the document and text in respect to their preservation, watermark, ink, script, seals and reasons for dating.

The documents in Ottoman-Turkish and Arabic kept in the “Cyril and Methodius” National Library contain valuable material for the study of the social, economic, political and cultural development of the Arab countries from the XVIth to the XXth century.
These documents offer a rich material for studies in the field of the Arabic and the Ottoman-Turkish diplomatics and paleography, language research, as well as for special regional and town studies.

This fonds is part of the Archives of Religious Houses (or Archives of convents) held by the Historical Archive of the Custody of the Holy Land.

Structure of the fonds: Global extent: 67 files; 1875-11-01-1996-06-01
Series A, Assets and administration. Global extent: 12 files; Nov. 1875 - Sept. 1989
A-I, Special accounts. Global extent: 1 file; Nov. 1875 - Apr. 1878
A-II, Cash desk journal. Global extent: 2 files; Sept. 1977 - Sept. 1989
A-III, Revenues and expenditures, Minutes. Global extent: 1 file; July 1971 - Dec. 1974
A-IV, Revenues and expenditures. Global extent: 8 files; Oct. 1925 - Dec. 1982
Series B, Holy Masses. Global extent: 54 files; 1st. Aug. 1888 - 1st June 1996
B-I, Bastardelli. Global extent: 1 file; Jan. 1967 - Apr. 1979
B-II, Mixed registration. Global extent: 2 files; 24 Sept. 1921 - 4 Feb. 1943
B-III, Masses dedicated to benefactors ("Pro benefactoribus"). Global extent: 6 files; 1st Aug. 1888 - 8 Apr. 1962
B-IV, Masses "pro defunctis fratribus, pro parentibus religiosorum et iuxta kalendarium". Global extent: 9 files; 30 Aug. 1889 - 15 March 1995
B-V, Masses dedicated to the clergymen's relatives ("ad intentionem religiosorum de familia"). Global extent: 5 files; 1st Nov. 1923 - 29 Apr. 1962
B-VI, Masses “pro eleemosyna”. Global extent: 28 files; 21 Nov. 1923 - 1 June 1996
B-VI-I, Pro eleemosyna I. Ad intentionem dantis et p. custodis. Global extent: 15 files; 21 Nov. 1923 - 31 Dec. 1974
B-VI-II, Pro eleemosyna II. Ad intentionem dantis e gregoriane. Global extent: 8 files; 19 Sept. 1939 - 30 Apr. 1962
B-VI-III, Pro eleemosyna III. Corsi di gregoriane. Global extent: 5 files; 19 Apr. 1953 - 1st June 1996
B-VII, Masses “ad mentem ministri generalis et pro Capitulo”. Global extent: 2 files; 18 May 1960 - 1st Dec. 1979
B-IX, Masses “pro basilica Nazaret”. Global extent: 1 file; 16 July 1959 - 1st Sept. 1961
Series C, REgisters of the pilgrim priests. Global extent: 1 file; 5 Jan. 1926 - 29 Dec. 1962

This fonds contains the archives of the Dominican Fathers who were members of the convent of Saint-Etienne and died there. Their archives were then transferred to the conventual archives. We therefore find a certain number of collections, classified by Father, grouping together scientific archives - preparation of courses, publications - and personal archives. The fonds is of a private nature.

These sources describe the events, and the manoeuvrings behind the events, in Middle Eastern Politics and Diplomacy between 1904 and 1950. Storrs’ own observations are enriched by letters from Amir Abdullah, Allenby, Leo Amery, Gertrude Bell, Norman Bentwich, Bernard Berenson, Violet Bonham-Carter, Curzon, King Faizal, Prince Ibrahim Hilmi, Sharif Hussein, Kitchener, T E Lawrence, Rose Macauley, Milner, Nashab Pasha, Sirri Pasha, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Samuel, Ethel Smythe, Arnold Toynbee, Robert Vansittart, Chaim Waizmann and others.

The papers describe in detail the various troubled areas in which Storrs served:

EGYPT, 1904-1917. Storrs began his career in the Egyptian Civil Service, holding a variety of posts before his appointment as the Oriental Secretary ("the eyes, ears, interpretation and intelligence" of the Consul) under Gorst, Kitchener and McMahon. He was present at the time that the Coptic Premier was assassinated, during the ministerial crisis of 1914, and played a major role in steering Egypt away from Turkish or German alliances during World War I.

WITH LAWRENCE OF ARABIA DURING THE ARAB REVOLT, 1914-1917. Storrs was involved in the planning and diplomacy that preceded the Revolt in the Desert, shuttling back and forth between Sharif Zaid, Aziz al-Masri, Sharif Abdullah, King Faisal and King Hussein. He gathered intelligence in Hejaz, Jeddah, Cairo, Aden, Basra, Baghdad, Muscat, Oman and Kuwait and it was during this period that he became a close friend of T E Lawrence.

JERUSALEM, 1917-1926. From 1917 to 1920 Storrs served as Military Governor in Jerusalem; and from 1920 to 1926 he was Civil Governor of Jerusalem and Judea. He was present at the time of the "Balfour Declaration," during the 1921 riots, and when King Faisal was expelled from Syria. He attempted to unite Arabs and Jews and brought together The Mufti of Jerusalem and Musa Kazem Pasha al Husseini with Theodore Herzl and Chaim Weizmann. He also promulgated the work of the Pro-Jerusalem Society, bringing together hostile groups to safeguard antiquities.

CYPRUS, 1926-1932. Storrs was appointed Governor of Cyprus in 1926 and gained early popularity by engineering the cancellation of the Cypriot share of the Turkish debt. Tensions soon resurfaced, with the Enosis movement pressing for unification with Greece, and both Greeks and Turks protesting at his attempts to keep religion out of education. Anti-British sentiments were symbolised by the burning of Government House in 1931, destroying his library and art collection.

NORTHERN RHODESIA, 1933-1934. At the expiry of his normal term of Governorship in Cyprus, Storrs was appointed Governor of North Rhodesia. He organised the building of a new capital in Lusaka and toured Barotseland, Congo, South Africa and Zanzibar, before retiring due to ill health.

TOURIST, LECTURER AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTATOR, 1934-1950. After he had regained his health, Storrs pursued an active retirement - writing, lecturing and travelling the world. His diaries describe visits to Tunisia, Canada, USA, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Balkans, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Iran, Libya, Abyssinia, and Sudan. There is a fine World War II diary and a he kept in touch with Arab opinion through meetings with ibn Saud, Aga Khan, King Faisal, Aziz al-Masri, Prince Muhammed Ali, Albert Hourani and King Abdullah.