Abstract: This file consists of correspondence regarding a proposal for a Pan-Islamic Congress based on the suggestion of Dr Zaki Ali, author of
Glimpses of Islam, as reviewed by the Censorship Control Quarters in Cairo.The correspondence is recorded in English and French.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 6; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: Louis-Amélie Sédillot was a French astronomer and orientalist, son of Jean-Jacques Sédillot, who influenced the boy toward pursuing these same interests. Sédillot the younger translated and published Arabic astronomical works. Khulasat Tarikh al-‘Arab (Summary of the history of the Arabs) is a translation and adaption by ‘Ali Mubārak Pasha of Louis-Amélie Sédillot’s Histoire des Arabes. Mubārak is revered as the father of modern education in Egypt. Born in a rural village in the Nile delta, he rebelled at the quality of his early schooling. After more unsuccessful years of schooling in Cairo, he eventually was chosen for education in military sciences in Cairo and in France. He returned to Egypt after several years to practice as a civil engineer and later as overseer of the reform of Egypt’s rudimentary school system. He is also credited with founding the National Library and Archives of Egypt. The rank of basha (pasha) was awarded by Egyptian monarchs. It denoted the highest rank in civil administration or recognition of extraordinary accomplishment in public service. The designation did not imply nobility, nor was it hereditary, except as applied to men of the dynasty of Muḥammad ʻAlī Pasha. Khulasat Tarikh al-‘Arab is an outline of Arab history with a table of contents, introduction by Mubarak, and index. It begins with the geography of Arabia and Arab history before the Prophet Muhammad, and proceeds to cover Arab customs and the achievements of Arab civilization until the Napoleonic invasion of 1798. It was printed at the Muḥammad Mustafa Press in Cairo in 1892.Physical description: 298 pages ; 25 centimeters
Abstract: Rasa’il al-bulagha’ (Correspondence of the masters of eloquence) is a compilation of classical epistolary writing assembled by the famous modern authority on the Arabic language Muhammad Kurd ‘Ali. It focuses on the writings of the eighth-century literary master ‘Abd Allah ibn Muqaffa’ and contains shorter pieces by other writers whom Kurd ‘Ali judged to be exemplars of style, such as ‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib and Ibn Qutayba. ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa’, whose prose style is regarded as a model for writers to this day, is represented by several works in the anthology, including al-Adab al-kabir (The greater essay) and al-Adab al-saghir (The lesser essay), as well as his letter of advice to princes known as Risalah fi-al-sahabah (A letter of friendship). In order to assist the student in appreciating and emulating Ibn Muqaffa’, each of these works is fully vowelled. Each selection is preceded by a biographical-bibliographical essay detailing the textual history of the piece, extant manuscripts, and critical editions. Muhammad Kurd ‘Ali was a foremost figure in the revival of literary and journalistic Arabic. His influence extended until well into the 20th century and was based both on his own writing and his leadership of the prestigious Arabic Language Academy of Damascus, which he founded after World War I and continued to lead until his death in 1953. Kurd ‘Ali himself was not a native speaker of the language he did so much to influence. Born into a Kurdish family in northern Iraq, he developed an interest in languages at an early age. He is known for his fluency in Turkish and Arabic as well as his native Kurdish. He spent most of his life in Damascus, although he practiced journalism in Cairo and Paris for short periods. This is the second, expanded, edition of the work. It was published in Cairo at the well-known press operated by the Al-Babi al-Halabi brothers, Mustafa, Bakri, and ‘Isa.Physical description: 320 pages ; 22 centimeters
Abstract: Samuel Smiles was a Scottish author and physician. He dropped out of school at 14 years of age but returned to finish the study of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. His most famous work, Self-Help, which Ya’qub Sarrūf here translates into Arabic, made him a best-selling author and celebrity. Sarrūf was one of the earliest graduates of the American University in Beirut. He was a significant figure in what is called the Arab renaissance of the second half of the 19th century and was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater in 1890. As a publisher, Ṣarrūf founded the general interest magazines al-Muqtaṭaf in 1876 and al-Muqaṭṭam in 1889. He was an active translator. Secret of Success advocates self-reliance as the key to a life of advancement and prosperity. It includes biographies of notable personalities and their success stories. In this edition, he adds commentary and pertinent Arabic proverbs. Also included are indexes and a glossary of English terms. The book was first published in Beirut in 1880. This second revised edition, printed at Muqtataf Press in Cairo in 1886, added proverbs, quotations, and biographies of inspiring personalities from East and West.Physical description: 326 pages ; 21 centimeters
Abstract: Sirāj al-mulūk (Lamp of kings) is by Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Ṭurṭūshī, a Maliki imam also known as Ibn Abū Zandaqa. Al-Ṭarṭūshī was born in Tortosa in Catalonia (in what was then al-Andalus, present-day Spain) in 1059 or 1060. He died in Alexandria, Egypt in 1126 or 1127. The topic of the Sirāj al-mulūk, his most famous work, is political theory. The present edition was published in 1888−89 by Maṭbaʻat al-khayrīyah in Cairo. According to Kitāb iktifā' al-qanūʻ bimā huwa matbuʻ min ashhar al-ta'ālīf al-arabīya fī al-maṭābiʻ al-sharqīya wa al-gharbīya (Contentment of the seeker regarding the most famous Arabic compositions printed by Eastern and Western printing presses), a bibliographic dictionary of Arabic literature published by Edward Van Dyck in 1896, an earlier print edition of this work was made in Alexandria in 1872 or 1873. Included in the margins of this work is the text of al-Tibr al-mabsuk fī naṣā'iḥ al-mulūk (The golden ingot of advice for kings), a translation from Persian into Arabic of al-Ghazzālī's Naṣīhat al-mulūk (Advice for kings). Born in Ṭūs, Persia (present-day Iran), in 1058, al-Ghazzālī was one of the foremost intellectual luminaries of the Islamic world. However, the authorship of a fair amount of the Naṣīhat al-mulūk has been called into question on stylistic and other grounds.Physical description: 168 pages ; 28 centimeters
Abstract: This publication is a dictionary of words, idioms, and proper names taken into Arabic from other languages. It includes personal names from scripture and literature, their supposed derivations, and examples of usage. Place-names are included, along with guides to variant pronunciation. With its intriguing title, Shifa’ al-Ghalil fi-ma fi-Kalam al-‘Arab min al-Dakhil (Soothing the desire to learn about speech from other languages) is a fascinating lexical history of classical and colloquial Arabic. The author, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad Al-Khafājī (1571 or 1572−1659), was born in Egypt and received his early education from his father, a distinguished scholar. Al-Khafājī continued to study in many fields and was licensed to teach both Shafi’i and Hanafi texts. The title page of the book provides details of his career, which differ significantly, however, from those contained in standard biographical sources. It is doubtful, for example, whether Al-Khafājī ever attained the elevated rank of Qadi al-Asakir [sic] (chief judge) or Shaykh al-Islam, as claimed in this work. Rather, he was appointed by Sultan Murad IV to more modest judgeships in Thessaloniki and later in Egypt, which appointment he subsequently resigned in order to travel to Istanbul, Damascus, and Aleppo. After clashing with a local religious authority in Aleppo, he returned to Cairo, where he spent the rest of his life, presumably as a teacher. He is the author of several surviving manuscripts including a biographical dictionary of contemporary writers and a diwan of poems. This edition of Shifa’ al-Ghalil was printed at the Bulaq Press in Cairo in 1865, a time of transition of ownership and administration under Egyptian ruler Isma’il Pasha (reigned 1863−79).Physical description: 245 pages ; 23 centimeters
Abstract: Ṭabaqāt al-umam aw Al-salāʼil al-basharīyah (The generations of the nations, or The descendants of humanity) is an ambitious work of ethnography and anthropology, aimed at describing human societies in both their historical development and contemporary features. The book was published in 1912 by the Hilāl printing house of Cairo. Its author, Jirjī Zaydān, was born in Beirut in 1861 and studied medicine at the local American University. He later completed his literary and philosophical education in Cairo, before returning to Lebanon, where he studied Hebrew and Syriac. Zaydān worked as a journalist for the newspapers Al-Muqtaṭaf and Al-Hilāl, and his works include books on the philosophy of language and on Arabic rhetoric. In the book presented here, he offers an overview of historical and contemporary societies from all over the world. The book opens with chapters on the geological eras of the earth, the origin of man, and prehistoric societies. Zaydān devotes several chapters to the invention of writing and to the use of different systems of numeration in early civilizations. Subsequent chapters deal briefly with historical and modern societies, including ancient Egypt, the Sumerians, Akkadians, Mongols, Native Americans, Mayans, Aztecs, and modern Western societies. For each of these societies, Zaydān offers an overview of their customs, main discoveries, religious and philosophical beliefs, and literary production.Physical description: 286 pages ; 24 centimeters
Abstract: ʻArā'is al-Murūj (Nymphs of the valley) is a collection of short stories by the celebrated Lebanese-American author and artist Gibran Khalil Gibran. Gibran was born in 1883 to a Maronite Catholic family in the village of Bsharri in the north of Lebanon. His family immigrated to the United States in 1895, where he began his formal schooling, studying English and art. He is best known in the West for his book The Prophet, which was completed in 1923 and subsequently translated into more than 40 languages. Gibran died in New York City in 1931; he was buried in Lebanon according to his wishes. The book consists of three stories: Ramād al-ajyāl wa al-nār al-khālida (The dust of ages and the eternal flame), Martā al-bāniya (Martha of Ban), and Yūḥanna al-majnūn (Yuhanna the mad). Nymphs of the Valley was translated into English by H.M. Nahmad in 1948, and it has been translated as well into Spanish, Persian, and other languages. The present copy is the second printing of the book, published by al-Hilāl in Cairo in 1922.Physical description: 72 pages ; 20 centimeters
taṣnīf Abū al-Thanāʼ Shihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusaynī al-Ālūsī al-Baghdādī.Lithograph.Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation. December 2002. http:purl.oclc.orgDLFbenchrepro0212 MH
Abstract: This volume, Qanun al-Tijarah (Commercial law of Egypt), contains two printed works, the commercial and the maritime codes of Egypt. The two documents are extracted from a more comprehensive but unidentified work, possibly covering civil procedure and the criminal code. Each title is preceded by the order of Egyptian ruler Khedive Muhammad Tawfīq authorizing publication and implementation of the law. The first title, Commercial Code, includes definitions of terms and focuses on debt and bankruptcy. The second title, Maritime Code, covers ships operating under the Ottoman flag and the rights and duties of ship owners, officers, crew members, and passengers. Also included are provisions for required documents, insurance, and leasing. The laws came into effect in 1883 and were printed the same year at the Bulaq Press, the Egyptian government’s publishing arm. Egyptian law, like imperial Ottoman law, was based on European, mainly French, models. It was applied by the so-called Mixed Courts in the context of increasing internationalization of trade and under the influence of the Great Powers. The codes promulgated here remained in effect until a further legislative revolution occurred in the 1940s. Codified laws such as these operated concurrently with Islamic law governing personal matters, such as marriage and inheritance.Physical description: 72 pages ; 21 centimeters