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Deborah Freeman and François de Blois, with contributions by J. M. Rogers, Elaine Wright and Alison Ohta
Deborah Freeman and François de Blois, with contributions by J. M. Rogers, Elaine Wright and Alison Ohta
This volume is devoted to the unillustrated Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts in the Collection. The material covers a wide range of topics, from religious scholarship to personal prayer books, esoteric and sceintific works, anthologies and narrative poetry.
One of the most important manuscripts is a volume of poetry by the great mystic Ibn al-'Arabi, who was born in Spain and died in Damascus. The volume, which bears marginal annotations in the poet's own hand, bears an inscription stating that it was read to him by a student in his house in Damascus a few years before his death in AD 1240. Of historical interest is a beautifully illuminated early 14th-century Persian translation of Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik, which includes several maps. The presence of the seal of Shah Rukh indicates the manuscript later passed into his library.
Of similar date is a beautifully written and illuminated Diwan of al-Mutanabbi, copied in Nakhchavan by Abu al-Mahasin ibn al-Sawigi for his son, whom he describes as the 'apple of my eye'. Aslo of interest is a copy of al-Busiri's Poem of the Mantle, written in Cairo in circa AD 1363 for the exiled Marinid Sultan of Morocco. The orginal notice of commission is hidden beneath a later dedication to the Mamluk Arghun al-Kamili.
Manuscripts from North Africa range from an important group of 11th-century works on religious doctrine to a copy of al-Buni's The Illumination of Knowledge, written for the future Sultan Hasan I of Morocco in 1868, during the reign of his father. Ottoman manuscripts include a copy of Jalal al-Din Rumi's Mathnavi, copied in Sarajevo in 1653-4; several copies of the Dala'il al-Khayrat, one of which bears the tughrah of Sultan Mahmud II; and two deeds of endowment of female memebrs of the Ottoman dynasty.
Illumination and bindings will be covered in two of the essays complementing the detailed catalogue descriptions.
Dr François de Blois is a philologist in Middle Eastern languages, attached to The Royal Asiatic Society, London.
Tim Stanley is Deputy Curator of the Khalili Collection, and an Ottoman historian who has written mainly on the history of manuscripts and calligraphy.
(to be published)
fully illustrated in colour; section on documentary inscriptions with translations
35.5 x 25.5 cm
hardback with dust jacket (slipcased)
£89 $180
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