Dictionaries [IO Islamic 2775]

Dictionaries.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2775 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 1002 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

1002.

2775. Size 9 in. by 6 in.; foll. 358. Twenty-one lines in a page.

An Arabic Dictionary, entitled المصباح المنير ( فى غريب الشرح الكبير ) , by Shihâb al-dîn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alî FAIYÛMÎ Muḳrî׳ Shâfi׳î, who completed it A.H. 734. As the title indicates, this work was originally intended only to explain unusual words occurring in Râfi׳î׳s (d. A.H. 623) commentary on Ghazzâlî׳s digest of Shâfi׳ite law, الوجيز . A full account of it is given by Mehren in Zeitschrift der D.M.G. xxvii. 204-210, according to the Bûlâḳ edition of A.H. 1281. Cf. Ḥ. Kh. v. 586; Codd. Hafn. 118; Lane׳s Arabic Lexicon, i., preface, p. xvi.

Begins: قال العبد الفقير الى الله تعالى احمد بن محمد بن على العمدانى ( sic ) الفيّومى عفى الله عنه الخ.

At the end is stated, in rather incorrect language, that this MS. was transcribed from a copy which had been written by the author himself, and completed by him near the end of Dhu׳l- ḥijjah, A.H. 737.1

Legibly written in small Nasta’lîḳ. Dated Thursday, 26th Jum. II, 987. It was copied by حاجى محمد بن ناخدا قاسم خورى ( ؟ ) ساكن بندر ديو , for the use of Shaikh Shams al-dîn Muḥammad b. al-Najmî.. 2 Worm-eaten.

Foll. 121 and 130 should be transposed.

Among the successive owners of the book, whose names are written in it, we remark Faḍâ׳il Khân, a servant of ‘Âlamgîr, and a “poet-laureate׳׳ ( ملك الشعرا ) , named Mîr Ḳamar al-dîn.

1 The MS. has تسعمائة , but سبعمائة must be read .

2 The next name is indistinct.