.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Abu 'Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam ibn Miskin ibn Zaid al-Harawi was born in Herat, worked in Basra and Kufa and died in Mecca. He wrote on philology, the Qur'an, hadith and fiqh.
The earliest recorded copy of this work is a 5th century hijra copy in Tunis (Ahmadiya 4793). Allegedly, the colophon of the present copy was dated 466 AH (1073-4 AD), but the date was lost during restoration. Not enough is presently known about maghribi paper or manuscripts to permit a more precise dating. A manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 6090, on parchment dated 472/1080 is written in a very similar hand to the present piece. Les andalousies de Damas à Cordoue, Paris, 2000, no. 181, p. 159. Even if the present copy was made in the 7th/13th century, it is still one of the earliest copies of this work extant.
The use of paper in this very early manuscript suggests that it was copied in Spain rather than North Africa, where parchment was the prefered writing material.
Sezgin, F.: Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden 1982, Band viii, pp. 81-4.
The earliest recorded copy of this work is a 5th century hijra copy in Tunis (Ahmadiya 4793). Allegedly, the colophon of the present copy was dated 466 AH (1073-4 AD), but the date was lost during restoration. Not enough is presently known about maghribi paper or manuscripts to permit a more precise dating. A manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 6090, on parchment dated 472/1080 is written in a very similar hand to the present piece. Les andalousies de Damas à Cordoue, Paris, 2000, no. 181, p. 159. Even if the present copy was made in the 7th/13th century, it is still one of the earliest copies of this work extant.
The use of paper in this very early manuscript suggests that it was copied in Spain rather than North Africa, where parchment was the prefered writing material.
Sezgin, F.: Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden 1982, Band viii, pp. 81-4.