In the first decades of the nineteenth century, British Calcutta stood as one of the most important cities in the world for the editing, printing, and selling of Arabic books. Before the famous Bulaq Press in Cairo was established in 1820, from 1801–19, European Orientalists and Indian munshis (scribes and clerks) and maulvis (Arabic, mawlanas), alongside one Yemeni scholar, had already printed 22 Arabic titles in movable type—many for the first time—at Fort William College in Calcutta (alongside 18 in Persian and 24 in Sanskrit).1 By 1831, a published “List of Oriental Works for Sale at the Government Education Depository, near the Hindu College, Potoldanga, Calcutta,” advertised 27 Arabic, 31 Sanskrit, 36 English, 16 Hindi and Urdu, 30 Persian, and 29 Bengali books.2 Far from a marginal undertaking, Arabic books represented a sizeable proportion of printing in Bengal at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

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This article presents an introduction to an array of historical sources from Sindh (in modern‐day Pakistan) in the Arabic and Sindhi languages. It highlights the sizeable number of Arabic manuscripts in Sindhi institutions and discusses some of the larger historical forces that shaped their collection in the colonial and pre‐colonial periods. In addition, it reflects on the significance these sources may hold for the field of Indian Ocean history, especially in terms of legal and intellectual history. Finally, this article lists and discusses bibliographical resources and catalogs that researchers can use to navigate major libraries and archival institutions across Karachi, Jamshoro, and interior Sindh.