Dictionaries [IO Islamic 832]

Dictionaries.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 832 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 992 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

992.

832. Size 8 in. by 51/2 in.; foll. 297. Twenty-six lines in a page.

كتاب الغريبين فى لغة كلام الله و احاديث رسوله عم للامام الاجل الشريف ابى عبيد احمد بن محمد الهروى رحمة الله عليه الخ.

A Dictionary to the Koran and the Traditions, by ABU ‘UBAID Aḥmad b. Muḥammad HARAWÎ (d. A.H. 401). Cf. Ḥ. Kh. iv. 338, 327, and Ibn Khallikân, ed. Wüstenfeld, no. ٣٥. Copies of this valuable work seem to be rare. The second part of it is to be found in the Rifâ’îyah Collection at Leipzig, no. 69.

Begins:

قال الامام ابوعبيد احمد بن محمد الهروىّ رحمه الله سبحان من له فى 1 كل شئ شاهد بانه اله واحد الخ.

After long praises of God and the Prophet, the author proceeds to say (fol. 2): و بعد فانّ اللغة العربية انما يحتاج اليها لمعرفة غريبى القران و احاديث الرسول صلعم و الصحابة و التابعين الخ.

The dictionary is arranged and subdivided according to the first and second letters of the words to be explained, but always the whole passage in which the word occurs is given. The first book begins (fol. 2v.): كتاب الهمزة بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم قلت و بالله التوفيق الالف عند العرب الفان الف مهموزة و هى الهمزة و انما جُعلت صورتها الفا لانّ الهمزة لا تقوم بنفسها الخ.

باب الالف مع الباء قول الله تعالى و فاكهة وابّا قال ابن اليزيدى الابّ المرعى و قال غيره الابّ للبهائم كالفاكهة للناس الخ.

Beautifully written in a very small hand, with most of the vowel-points inserted, on a brownish paper.

Dated A.H. 510. The colophon runs as follows:

وقع الفراغ من تنميقه لناصر بن احمد بن عبدالكريم بن على الكاتب الغزنوىّ الارغندينىّ بولوالج 1 المنتصف من صفر سنة عشر و خمسمائة و الحمد لله رب العالمين و الصلوة على نبيّه سيّد المرسلين محمد و آله الطيّبين الطاهرين الاخيار كتبه لنفسه متّعه الله به دهرا بمنّه و سعة فضلة .

Revised and collated with another copy.

Damaged by worms, especially in the earlier portion.

The first eight leaves supplied by a more modern hand.

According to the seals and notes on the title-page, the book went, after its restoration, through the hands of the following owners: Taḳî al-dîn Bukhârî; his sons Aḥmad Faḍl Allah and Sa’îd; ‘Imâd al-dîn Muḥammad (about A.H. 1155); and al-Ḥusain b. al-Ḥasan … Ḥusainî of Madînah. It has also recently been a وقف . Strongly bound in red leather covers, with gold ornaments.

[Gaikwar.]

1 This word is omitted by Ḥ. Kh. in quoting this passage.

1 Walwâlij in Badakhshân.