In the Author's Hand: Holograph and Authorial Manuscripts in the Islamic Handwritten Tradition


Book Description

In recent years, a growing interest in “oriental manuscripts” in all their aspects, including the extrinsic ones, has been observed. Research that focuses on holograph, autograph and authorial manuscripts in Arabic handwritten script has nevertheless been casual, although these manuscripts raise important and varied questions. The study of the working methods of authors from the past informs different disciplines: paleography, codicology, textual criticism, ecdotics, linguistics and intellectual history. In this volume nine contributions and case studies are gathered that address theoretical issues and convey different, disruptive perspectives. A particularly important subject of this book, so far rarely discussed in scientific literature, is the identification of an author’s handwriting. Among the authors specifically dealt with in this volume one will find: al-Maqrīzī (m. 845/1442), al-Nuwayrī (m. 733/1333), Akmal al-Dīn b. Mufliḥ (m. 1011/1603), al-ʿAynī (m. 855/1451) and Ibn Khaldūn (m. 808/1406). Contributors: Frédéric Bauden, Julien Dufour, Élise Franssen, Adam Gacek, Retsu Hashizume, Marie-Hélène Marganne, Elias Muhanna, Nobutaka Nakamachi, Anne Regourd, and Kristina Richardson.




The Nusayri Path of Knowledge


Book Description

This book is a study and edition of the Manhaj al-ʿilm wa l-bayān wa-nuzhat al-samʿ wa l-ʿiyān (The Path of Knowledge and Clarification and the Bliss of Hearing and Seeing). The Manhaj is a Nusayri doctrinal treatise composed by ʿIṣmat al-Dawla during the fifth/eleventh century. This edition makes this important source available to scholars for the first time. The Manhaj is a comprehensive compendium of knowledge for followers of the faith. It is also an autobiographic account detailing the author’s conversion and the teachings of his teacher, Abū l-Fatḥ al-Baghdādī. The Manhaj thus provides a personal, vivid account of the networks through which esoteric knowledge was sought and shared




Personal Manuscripts: Copying, Drafting, Taking Notes


Book Description

Some manuscripts have been produced for the personal use of their scribe only; whereas a number of them are valued as autographs, most have been ephemeral and were discarded. Personal manuscripts were not written for a patron, commissioner, or client. They are personal copies, anthologies, florilegia, personal notes, excerpts, drafts and notebooks, as well as family books, accountancy notebooks and many others; these forms often being mixed with one another. This volume introduces a number of such manuscripts in a comparative perspective, from Japan to Europe through the Middle East, with a focus on the Near and Middle East. The main concern is the possibility of identifying typical features of such manuscripts in terms of materials, visual organization and content. In attempting this, both the conditions of production and traces of the manuscripts' use are taken into consideration, with particular attention to their material aspects.




Florence et le sultanat mamelouk: les documents de la diplomatie (début XVe - début XVIe siècle)


Book Description

Cet ouvrage présente l’édition, la traduction en français et l’analyse de tous les documents de chancellerie (en arabe, latin et italien) concernant les relations établies entre Florence et le sultanat mamelouk entre 1422 et 1510. Prenant en compte les recherches accomplies au cours des dernières décennies dans le domaine des études diplomatiques, ce travail corrige plusieurs erreurs et inexactitudes contenues dans les précédentes éditions de ces sources et contient quelques documents inédits. Une introduction aborde le cadre historique des relations diplomatiques et examine les caractéristiques des sources. Un riche ensemble de notes explicatives et un glossaire analysent leur contenu. Les sources publiées dans ce volume constituent le témoignage historique disponible pour tracer le cadre des échanges diplomatiques entretenus par la Ville du Lys et Le Caire mamelouk. This book offers the edition, translation into French and analysis of all the chancery documents (in Arabic, Latin and Italian) concerning the relations established between Florence and the Mamluk sultanate between 1422 and 1510. Taking into consideration the achievements made in recent decades in the field of Mamluk diplomatics, this work corrects several errors and inaccuracies contained in previous editions as well as presents some unpublished documents. An introduction addresses the historical framework of diplomatic relations and examines the characteristics of the sources. A rich body of explanatory notes and a glossary analyze their content. The sources published in this volume constitute the historical testimony available for outlining the framework of the diplomatic exchanges maintained by the City of the Lily and Mamluk Cairo.




Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule


Book Description

In this volume, twelve essays by leading scholars of Mamluk history provide an informative reading and insightful analysis of the political, social and economic systems of Egypt and Syria under Mamluk rule (125-1517).




Qurʾān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries


Book Description

Qurʾān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries is the first book on the Qurʾān’s Sitz im Leben, i.e. on how the Qurʾān was quoted in Arabic original letters, legal deeds, and amulets. Qurʾān Quotations also serves as an in-depth exploration of the radiocarbon dating of documents and Qurʾānic manuscripts. Contributors: Ursula Bsees; Tobias J. Jocham; Andreas Kaplony; Michael Josef Marx, Daniel Potthast; Leonora Sonego; Eva Mira Youssef-Grob.




The World in a Book


Book Description

Based on the author's dissertation (doctoral)-- Harvard University, 2012.




Lost Libraries


Book Description

This pioneering volume of essays explores the destruction of great libraries since ancient times and examines the intellectual, political and cultural consequences of loss. Fourteen original contributions, introduced by a major re-evaluative history of lost libraries, offer the first ever comparative discussion of the greatest catastrophes in book history from Mesopotamia and Alexandria to the dispersal of monastic and monarchical book collections, the Nazi destruction of Jewish libraries, and the recent horrifying pillage and burning of books in Tibet, Bosnia and Iraq.




Arabic Manuscripts


Book Description

Arranged alphabetically by subject and/or concept, the present handbook has been conceived, for convenience sake and quick reference, as an aid to students and researchers who are often puzzled or even sometimes intimidated by the ‘mysterious’ world of Arabic manuscripts and the technical language that goes with it. A companion volume to the recently published The Arabic Manuscript Tradition (2001) and its Supplement (2008), the vademecum comprises some 200 entries of varying lengths dealing with almost all aspects of Arabic manuscript studies (codicology and palaeography). It is richly illustrated with specimens from manuscripts and expertly executed drawings. The main sequence is followed by a number of appendices covering abbreviations, letterforms, sūrah-headings, major reference works and a guide to the description of manuscripts, as well as charts of major historical periods and dynasties.




The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition


Book Description

For the first time in English, a catalog of the world through fourteenth-century Arab eyes—a kind of Schott’s Miscellany for the Islamic Golden Age An astonishing record of the knowledge of a civilization, The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition catalogs everything known to exist from the perspective of a fourteenth-century Egyptian scholar and litterateur. More than 9,000 pages and thirty volumes—here abridged to one volume, and translated into English for the first time—it contains entries on everything from medieval moon-worshipping cults, sexual aphrodisiacs, and the substance of clouds, to how to get the smell of alcohol off one’s breath, the deliciousness of cheese made from buffalo milk, and the nesting habits of flamingos. Similar works by Western authors, including Pliny’s Natural History and Diderot’s Encyclopédie, have been available in English for centuries. This groundbreaking translation of a remarkable Arabic text—expertly abridged and annotated—offers a look at the world through the highly literary and impressively knowledgeable societies of the classical Islamic world. Meticulously arranged and delightfully eclectic, it is a compendium to be treasured—a true monument of erudition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.