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1. Sixth Map of Asia
- Description:
- Abstract: Several editions of Ptolemy’s Geographia (Geography), translated into Latin from the original Greek, were published in Europe in the 15th century. This map is from the 1478 edition, which was published in Rome. Ptolemaic atlases included 12 maps of Asia. The “Sixth Map of Asia” covered the Arabian Peninsula. The outlines of this map are crude, but many geographic features, including the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and different features of the peninsula are clearly recognizable.Physical description: 1 map; 26 x 47 centimeters
2. Pearls, or Selections of Fond Memory and Immortal Imprint
- Description:
- Abstract: Al-Durar wa-hiyya Muntakhabat al-Tayyib al-Zikr al-Khalid al-Athr (Pearls, or selections of fond memory and immortal imprint) is a memorial volume that collects the political and literary writing of the influential Arab nationalist Adib Ishaq (1856−85). Born in Damascus, Ishaq was a precocious youngster who received his formative education in Arabic and French at the French Lazarist school there and under the Jesuits in Beirut. His family’s strained circumstances forced him to leave school for work as a customs clerk. Excelling at languages, he supplemented his income by writing and translating and eventually dedicated himself to poetry, translation, and what today might be called advocacy journalism. He moved to Egypt in 1876, where he joined the circle of the well-known political agitator Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, whose Masonic interests he shared and to whose causes, such as criticism of Western imperialism, he devoted much of his writing. Singly or with like-minded colleagues, such as Salim Naqqash (with whom he produced Arabic plays), Ishaq established newspapers of opinion. His outspoken writings resulted in his being exiled from Egypt. He took up residency in Paris, but at the end of his life he returned to Lebanon, where he died at age 29. Ishaq’s restlessness as a traveler was matched by the variety of his literary and political interests. He collaborated with Naqqash in writing plays and wrote or translated novels. His novel Charlemagne is included in this set of readings, which was compiled by his brother, ‘Awni Ishaq. The volume contains a biography of Adib and numerous panegyrics to him by leading Muslim and Christian writers. The comprehensive selection of readings demonstrates his place in the evolution of Arabic letters and journalism from ornate poetry and rhymed prose to the modern political essay employing a wholly new format and lexicon.Physical description: 263 pages ; 26 centimeters
3. A Syrian Voyage in Central and South America
- Description:
- Abstract: Father Henri Lammens was born into a Catholic family in Ghent, Belgium, in 1862. At the age of 15 he joined the Jesuits and later settled permanently in Lebanon. He mastered Latin and Greek and taught Arabic in Beirut. His first work was an Arabic dictionary, Farā'id al-lugha (The pearls of language), dating from 1889. He also served as editor for the Jesuit newspaper of Beirut, al-Bashīr (The evangelist). He wrote many works, most notably on the history of Arabia in the pre-Islamic era, as well as on the Umayyad dynasty. His scholarly work is marred by a lack of objectivity and an often violently polemical view regarding Islam. Among his well-known works are Remarques sur les mots français dérivés de l' arabe (Comments on French words derived from the Arabic), the Tasrīh al-abṣār (On archeological sites in Lebanon), and Etudes sur le régne du calipha Omaiyade Moʼawia Ier (Studies on the reign of Umayyid caliph Muʻāwiyah I). Lammens died in Beirut in 1937. Al-Riḥla al-sūrīya fī Amīrka al-mutawwasiṭa wa al-junūbīya (A Syrian voyage in Central and South America) is based on the author's trip to America and his essays about the trip published in al-Bashīr in 1893 and 1894. These pieces were translated into Arabic by Rashid al-Shartouni and published as a book by the Catholic Printing Press of Beirut in 1894. In the book, the author provides information regarding the religious practices, agriculture, industry, trade, and demographics of the places he visited. The countries covered are Cuba (chapters 1−3), Jamaica (chapter 4), Mexico (chapters 5−11), British Honduras (present-day Belize, chapter 12), Guatemala (chapter 13), Honduras (chapter 14), Nicaragua (chapter 15), Costa Rica (chapter 16), and Panama (at the time a department of Colombia, chapters 17−19), Colombia (chapters 20−23), and Ecuador (chapter 23).Physical description: 248 pages ; 25 centimeters
4. The Superabundance of the Commendable and the Reinforcement of the Yet-More Commendable: Poetry Collection
- Description:
- Abstract: This diwan, Al-Faydh al- Muhammadi wa-al-Madad al-Ahmadi wa Huwa Diwan (The superabundance of the commendable and the reinforcement of the yet-more commendable: Poetry collection), is a book of poems, mostly in praise of the Prophet Muhammad or in supplication of his blessing and assistance. Some of the verses vary from this theme, for example, poetic prayers addressing Ahmad al-Rifa’i, founder of the famous Sufi order of which the author, Abū al-Hudá al-Ṣayyādī, was a prominent (and controversial) leader. Abu al-Huda was a prolific writer who rose from humble origins in rural Syria to become teacher and advisor to Sultan Abdülhamid II. He was a religious figure of great importance, and a power broker whose influence at the Ottoman court was unrivaled. He was responsible for the appointment to high office of many contemporaries, specifically Ahmad Izzat al-Abid (1851−1924), a Syrian adviser to the sultan. Abū al-Hudá’s presence as an Arab at the imperial court involved him in Ottoman-Islamic politics, causing his decisions to be felt in many parts of the empire. He was associated with major figures of the Islamic reform movement, such as Mahmud Shukri al-‘Alusi (1856−1924) in Iraq and Muhammad ‘Abdu (1849−1905) in Egypt. Leadership of the Rifa’iyah Sufis caused rival orders to try to undermine his religious claims and court position. History has not been kind to Abū al-Hudá. His rapid rise to power, key patronage position, and the ambiguities of his writings led him to be termed an obscurantist, reactionary, and fraud. It seems ironic that one of the sultan’s favored links to his Arab subjects should be, until today, widely ignored in Arab historiography. An indefatigable writer and publicist, he is credited with more than 200 works. The poems in this collection are, for the most part, short. Couplets and short verses are interspersed with longer poems. Many verses were written on special occasions, such as the post-Ramadan feast, or composed to commemorate an event.Physical description: 207 pages ; 22 centimeters
5. Travels in Arabia: Comprehending an Account of those Territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans Regard as Sacred
- Description:
- Abstract: John Lewis Burckhardt (1784−1817) was born Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in Lausanne, Switzerland. His accounts of his travels in the Middle East in the early 19th century are among the earliest modern European descriptions of Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan. Upon finishing university studies in Switzerland, he went to England to enroll in Cambridge University, where he studied Arabic and Islam in order to prepare himself for a career as an explorer-adventurer. As his acquaintance Muhammad ‘Ali Basha, ruler of Egypt, said of his adventurism, he possessed the “travelling madness.” Burckhardt spent his early twenties in Syria, where he perfected his Arabic and established himself as a scholar of Islam and a mendicant. In 1814−15 he travelled to the western Arabian Peninsula. Travels in Arabia is one of several anthropological and geographical works written by Burckhardt before his life was cut short at age 33 by an illness that he contracted in Cairo. The chapter entitled “Remarks on the inhabitants of Mekka and Djidda” is rich in detail and opinions regarding domestic customs, tribes, treatment of slaves, everyday commerce, feast days, relations with other nationalities, and intellectual life. At the time of Burckhardt’s visit, Mecca and the whole of the Hejaz region was under the control of the governor-general of the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad ‘Ali Basha. His defeat of the Wahhabi forces affected daily life in the region. Burckhardt’s other works include descriptions of Syria, the Levant, Sinai, and the Nile Valley; Notes on Bedouins and Wahabys; and a collection of Arabic, primarily Egyptian, proverbs compiled posthumously from his field diaries. This book is in two volumes and contains several maps and diagrams. Appendices give details of pilgrimage and trade routes emanating from Mecca. Burckhardt personally traveled some of these routes; others he learned about from descriptions by travelers and Bedouin. The book was published under the auspices of the African Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, which was founded in England in 1788 to foster the exploration of Africa and abolition of the African slave trade.Physical description: 2 volumes ; 22 centimeters
6. The Book of Adornment in the Rhetorical Arts
- Description:
- Abstract: Kitāb al-tarṣīʻ fī ʻilm al-maʻānī wa-al-bayān wa-al-badīʻ (The book of adornment in the rhetorical arts) is primer on Arabic rhetoric. The author, ‘Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad Salīm al-Kīlānīlal-Iskandarānī, states he will be “brief, useful, and simple.” In this he is largely successful. Kitab al-tarsi’ was printed at the government press in Damascus in 1922, presumably for use in schools, although there is no evidence that it formed part of the official syllabus. A note on the title page says that the book was distributed “for love of the Prophet,” from which it can be inferred that the author financed the printing himself. Al-Kilani treats ‘ilm al-balaghah (rhetoric) in its traditional divisions of al-ma’ani (clear expression), al-bayan (use of tropes), and badi’ (embellishment and beautiful style). He states at the outset that the goal of communication is al-fasahah (eloquence), that is, expression that is free of fault, distraction, and infelicity. Little is known about al-Kilani other than that he was a Syrian Islamic scholar who was born in Alexandria (also called Alexandretta, present-day Iskenderun, Turkey) and lived in Damascus. In addition to works on language, he wrote a rebuttal of the Protestant criticism of the Qur’an. He is perhaps best known for his refutation of the doctrines of Wahhabism contained in Al-Nafkhah al-Zakiyah (The refreshing breeze) and al-Minhah al-Ilahiyah (The divine gift), which he advertises in a note at the end of this volume.Physical description: 33 pages ; 22 centimeters
7. Compendium of Latin Translations of Persian Astronomical Tables
- Description:
- Abstract: This volume is a compendium of six works that includes Latin translations of portions of the Zīj-i Sulṭānī by Muḥammad Ṭaraghāy ibn Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr (1394–1449), known as Ulugh Beg. The other works include an excerpt from the Taqwīm al-Buldān (entitled “A Description of Khwārazm and Transoxiana from the Tables of Abū al-Fidāʾ”) by Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl Ibn ʿAlī (1273-1331), and a star table by Muhammad ibn Muhammad Tizīnī. Ulugh Beg (“Great Commander” in Turkish) was a grandson of Tīmūr (known in the West as Tamerlane) and the governor of Transoxiana. In the brief period following the death, in 1447, of his father, Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr, Ulugh Beg was sultan of the Tīmūrid realms. He is known as a patron of poetry, literature, and especially of architecture. He built madrasahs in Bukhara and in his capital city of Samarqand, both of which were supported by substantial waqfs (religious endowments). His other building projects included those at Gur-Emir, Shahrisabz, and Shah-i Zindah. His most famous act of patronage, however, was the building, in circa 1420, of the observatory at Samarqand, of which he also served as director. There he assembled a large number of scientists, the most famous of whom were the renowned astronomer Jamshīd ibn Masʻūd Kāshī and the head professor in Ulugh Beg’s madrasah, Mūsá ibn Muḥammad Qāḍīʹzādah. The observational program was led by Kāshī and Qāḍīzāda until their deaths (Kāshi in 1429 and Qāḍīzāda in 1436). The astronomical observations were continued under ʻAlī Qūshchī, a student of Qāḍīzāda and Ulugh Beg. Ulugh Beg completed his astronomical tables, the Zīj al-Sulṭānī or Zīj-i Ulugh Beg, in about 1441. Based largely on observations carried out at his observatory, this work became the standard star table well into the following century. The sections from the Zīj-i Ulugh Beg included in this book were translated by John Greaves (1602–52) and Thomas Hyde (1636–1703) and printed at the Oxford University Press in London in 1655. Greaves was an English mathematician, astronomer, orientalist and antiquary. Hyde was professor of Arabic and Persian and Bodley’s librarian at Oxford.Physical description: 239 pages ; 25 centimeters