Ladhdhat al-sam‘ fī waṣf al-dam‘, [15th century?].

Abstract

Fine copy of the treatise (consisting mainly of verses) on tears by the well-known philologist and littérateur Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī (d.1363).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 645Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper, etc. may suggest 15th century.Accompanying materials: Acquisitions slip from Yahuda.Former shelfmark: From inner front cover and label on lower cover, "IL 310" (likely supplied by Yahuda, see acquisitions slip).Binding: Pasteboards covered in now much damaged green-blue paper with tan leather over spine and traces of dark red-brown leather over edges/turn-ins ; Type II binding (originally with flap, though now lost) ; board linings in yellow laid paper ; sewn in heavy light pink thread ; overall in quite poor condition with significant abrasion and staining, lifting and losses of leather, paper and boards, delamination of boards, fully detached from textblock, etc.Support: non-European (likely Arab) laid paper with 7 laid lines per cm. (20 in 26 mm., vertical) and chain lines (two groups of three visible) with 6-8 mm. between chains and 44-55 between groups (quite curved, horizontal, see pp.8-9, 6-11 and 68-69) ; inclusions, well-burnished, fairly smooth.Script: Naskh ; an elegant 'Syrian' or Egyptian [?] hand ; virtually serifless with slight effect of tilt to the left and of words descending to baseline, quite rounded with curvilinear descenders, elongation of horiztonal strokes, open and closed counters, freely ligatured, pointing mainly in distinct dots though three dots represented by a curved stroke, sīn also marked, bar (shaqq) of kāf often detached from vertical stroke, final hāʼ looking like two inverted commas one atop the other ; extensively vocalized.Layout: Written mainly in 11 lines per page.Collation: V-1 (9), 5 V(59), III+2 (67) ; chiefly quinions ; quire numbering in the form of whole words in the upper outer corner of the recto of the opening leaf of the first two and final quires ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization.Explicit: "اخر المنتقى من لذة السمع في وصف الدمع للمرحوم الشيخ صلاح الدين الصفدي رحمه الله تعالى والحمد لله وحده وصلوته على سيدنا محمد واله وصحبه وسلامه وحسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل"Incipit: "قال الشيخ الامام الاديب البليغ صلاح الدين الصفدي تغمده الله تعالى برحمته ورضوانه الحمد لله الذي جعلني ممن شما بالعلم وسمح ... وبعد فاني لما رأيت الشعراء قد اطنبوا في ذكر الدمع ..."Title from 'title page' (p.1).Ms. codex.University of Michigan Library. Manuscripts & papyri : an exhibition arranged for the XXVII International Congress of Orientalists, Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 13-19, 1967. (Ann Arbor, MI [?], 1967),Rosenthal, F. "Ṣafadī." EI2,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Fine copy of the treatise (consisting mainly of verses) on tears by the well-known philologist and littérateur Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī (d.1363).Mode of access: Internet.Acquired in 1926 from the bookseller Isaac Benjamin S.E. Yahuda via purchase transacted on his behalf by his younger brother, the famous Orientalist and manuscript collector Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877-1951).Ownership statements on 'title page' (p.1) include statement in name of Abū Shihāb al-Maqdisī ( ابو شهاب المقدسي ) reads "من كتب الحقير ابو شهاب المقدسي ..." and statement in name of Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Bayṭār ( محمد بن حسن البيطار ) dated Ṣafar 1253 [May-June 1837], reads "ملكه من فضل الغفار محمد بن حسن البيطار وبالشراء الشرعي في صفر سنه ١٢٥٣ ... عفي عنه م" ; reading / study notice (repeated twice) on verso of final leaf (p.134) and on verso of leaf carrying the close (p.132) in name of ʻAbd al-Ḥayy al-Bahnasī ( عبد الحي البهنسي ) dated 1157 [1744 or 5], reads "نظر فيه الفقير اليه سبحانه عبد الحي البهنسي" and "نطر فيه الفقير اليه عز شانه عبد الحي البهنسي في سنه ١١٥٧" ; statement on lower board lining in name of Ṣāliḥ ibn ʻAlī ( صالح ابن علي )