The Irshád al-aríb ilá maʻrifat al-adíb : or, Dictionary of learned men of Yáqút / edited by D.S. Margoliouth, and printed for the trustees of the "E.J.W. Gibb memorial."

The Irshád al-aríb ilá maʻrifat al-adíb, or, Dictionary of learned men of Yáqút / edited by D.S. Margoliouth, and printed for the trustees of the "E.J.W. Gibb memorial."

  • Yaqut al-Hamawi
Date:
1923-1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Irshád al-aríb ilá maʻrifat al-adíb, or, Dictionary of learned men of Yáqút / edited by D.S. Margoliouth, and printed for the trustees of the "E.J.W. Gibb memorial.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The value of the matter contained in Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men, called by him Irshddal-Arib ild nidrifat al-Adib1, should constitute a sufficient justification for a printed edition of it. The present writer designed undertaking this task many years ago, but it is scarcely one for private enterprise, and he shrank from the many inconveniences which attend on appli¬ cation to public bodies. These were spared him by the GlBB TRUSTEES, who signified their willingness to let the book appear in their series, and thereby have earned, he hopes, the gratitude of those who are interested in Arabic literary history. Inquiries addressed to various parts of the Muhammadan world have not as yet elicited any trustworthy evidence of the existence of any copy of the first volume of this Dictionary other than the MS Bodl. Or. 753 of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, on which this edition is based2. This volume was purchased by the Library in 1882 of the bookseller Mr W. H. Gee, who acquired it, with other books, from the heirs of Archdeacon Barnes of Bombay. There appears to be no memoir of this dignitary, who probably obtained the book in India. This copy is quite modern, certainly not earlier than the seventeenth century. Besides various errors of punctuation, and confusions of letters which betray the fact that the scribe’s native language was not Arabic, the MS exhibits some more serious faults. Thus, the paragraph beginning 3 (p. 32,1.4 a f.) down to the end of this Life is placed at the end of the verses on p. 31 (fol. 8a and 8$ in the MS). In the middle of the Life of Ibrahim b. Mimshadh (p. 323), a paragraph from the following Life is l1 An alternative name was Irshdd al-Alibbd ild malrifat al-Udabd.'] 2 Brockelmann’s references to the British Museum and Copenhagen Catalogues for copies of this book are erroneous. The works mentioned in those catalogues are portions of the Geographical Dictionary.