Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charles W. Hack (born 1870) span the years circa 1800-1926 and consist primarily of journals by Hack, two manuscripts in Arabic, and one in Maranao, a Philippine language from Mindanao, in Arabic script. Hack was a surgeon with the United States Army in the Philippines, 1901-1903, whose typewritten transcripts of a journal describe his impressions and experiences as a medical officer on the island of Luzon, including Manila, and especially at Camp Vicars in the interior of the island of Mindinao, in 1902, under the command of Major John J. Pershing. Mindinao is the traditional homeland for Islamic ethnic groups native to the Philippines, often referred to as “Moro” even though they are comprised of many ethnic groups with different languages. The journal describes social customs, the difficult and often violent interactions of the U.S. Army with the local population, and public health problems.
The manuscripts in the collection include portions of the Koran in Arabic dating, it is estimated, from circa nineteenth century. The two Koranic manuscripts are in black ink with red ink headings, roundels, and other markings. A third item in Arabic script is in Maranao, a Philippine language from Mindanao. It is an excerpt (20 pages) of the “Darangen,” a Maranao oral literary epic. The cover, in English and probably added later, gives the title as “Book of Moro Songs.” Also in the papers is a listing of “Moro” artifacts that Hack sent to his wife that were exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in New York in the 1920s. An assessment of the manuscripts was made in 1926 by Richard J. H. Gottheil, chair of Semitic languages and rabbinical literature at Columbia University. A summary of his comments is included in the collection. The summary incorporates additional comments by “Kelekian,” probably Dikran G. Kelekian, an art dealer and collector specializing in Islamic art.