Kitāb al-Mafātīḥ fī sharḥ al-Maṣābīḥ, [1116, i.e. 1705].

Careful copy of a commentary on Maṣābīḥ al-sunnah, the ḥadīth collection compiled from various sources and arranged by subject and degree of authority by al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʻūd al-Farrāʼ al-Baghawī (d.1117?).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 482Origin: As appears in colophon on p.515, transcription completed 20 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 1116 [ca. 15 April 1705] by Bakīr ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl.Accompanying materials: a. Acquisitions slip from Yahuda -- b. Inventory cataloguing slip in hand of Winifred Smeaton Thomas -- c. Scrap with notes and seal impression between pp.40-41.Former shelfmark: From inner front cover, 'title page' (p.1), and spine label, "IL 350a" (likely supplied by Yahuda, see acquisitions slip).Binding: Pasteboards covered in perhaps once-tinted laid paper with edges/turn-ins in red-brown leather and spine covered in paper (manuscript waste) ; Type II binding (with flap, now lost) ; board linings in untinted laid paper ; upper and lower covers bear visible impression of stamped mandorla (filled with vegetal decoration) ; sewn in dark blue thread, two stations, gone from many quires ; worked endbands in blue, damaged with core exposed ; overall in quite poor condition with significant abrasion and staining, upper cover fully detached, probable loss of flap, lifting and losses of paper (particularly at spine), delamination of boards, etc. ; housed in box for protection.Support: European laid paper mainly with 11 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 20-21 mm. apart (vertical), and grapes (raisin) under cartouche with "P A" [?] and crown above watermark (see p.1, etc.), quite thin and transluscent though sturdy, burnished ; another sturdier type with 9 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 25-28 mm. apart (vertical), no watermarks visible (see pp.377-416, etc.) ; staining and tidelines.Decoration: Keywords and section headings rubricated.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) and naskh ; at least three hands ; opening hand through p.177 a nastaʻlīq (talik), bold Turkish hand, virtually serifless and quite compact with marked tilt to the right, mainly closed counters, pointing in strokes rather than distinct dots ; hand supplying by p.177 through p.301 a small and rather compact naskh, partially though irregularly seriffed with effect of tilt to the left, quite rounded with curvilinear descenders, pointing in strokes rather than distinct dots, some free assimilation of letters ; hand supplying p.302 to p.446 another nastaʻlīq (talik) similar to the opening hand, also compact with dramatic inclination to the right ; at p.447 reverts back to the naskh and continues in this hand to the close.Layout: Written mainly in 34-35 lines per page.Collation: V-1 (9), 25 V(259) ; almost exclusively quinions ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (mistakenly skips two pages between pp.3-4).Colophon: "Scribal," reads "تم بعون الله وحسن توفيقه على يدي افقر الورى واحوجهم بكير بن محمد بن اسماعيل تمه في يوم الثاني بعد صلوة الظهر العشرون من شهر ذي الحجة في سلك سنة ستة عشر ومائة والف من الهجرة المصطوية [كذا] عليه افضل التحية واكمل الثنية واسأل الله العفو والعافية ... واحشرنا معهم بلطفك يا رب العالمين"Explicit: "ولانه ثبت فضيلتهم على القرن الثاني بدلائل بكثيرة من الايات والخبار"Incipit: "احمد الله ملأ السموات وملأ الارض وما يشاء بعد هذه الاشياء ... وبعد فقد الح علي زمرة خلاني وثلة خلصاني ان اشرح لهم كتاب المصابيح تصنيف الامام الهمام ... ركن الشريعة محيي السنة ابي محمد الحسين بن مسعود الفراء ... فاجبتهم الى ذلك واوردت في اول الكتاب مقدمة في اصطلاحات اصحاب الحديث وانواع علوم الحديث واوردت فيه كل راو لم يكن مذكورا في متن المصابيح وتركت ذكر من هو مذكور فيه وسميته بكتاب المفاتيح في شرح المصابيح ..."Title from opening matter (preface) on p.2.Ms. codex.Ḥājjī Khalīfah. Kashf al-ẓunūn,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Careful copy of a commentary on Maṣābīḥ al-sunnah, the ḥadīth collection compiled from various sources and arranged by subject and degree of authority by al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʻūd al-Farrāʼ al-Baghawī (d.1117?).Mode of access: Internet.Acquired in 1926 from the bookseller Isaac Benjamin S.E. Yahuda via purchase transacted on his behalf by Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877-1951), his younger brother.Possible former inventory mark on cover label ; occasional marginal corrections