This is an interim version of our Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue while we continue to recover from a cyber-attack.
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Recto: A practice prescribed to a woman who cannot conceive a child involving the use of "the seven letters", accompanied by a number table. Verso: a talisman for success in trade, to washed and rubbed over the body, accompanied by a number table.
Recto: A talisman for acquiring a child. The man must recite his prayer beads and write out the number table on the day the woman washes her menstrual dress. Verso: the lines "I have bought a black shirt. You will buy it God willing". Significance unclear
"The Star of Shining Pearls", a life of the Prophet Muḥammad in poetic metre by Zayn al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿIrāqī al-Miṣrī (1325–1403), a well-known hadith scholar. Finely written in Sahrawi script. Extensive commentary in Arabic. Some commentary in a lighter ink has all but faded.
The complete collection of the poems of Zuhayr Ibn Abī Sulmā (c. 520 – c. 609), considered one of the greatest pre-Islamic poets. Extensive commentary in Arabic. Cruciform drawing to introduce the work on f. 134r and ornate colophon f. 154.
A treaty on Arabic language by the Egyptian Ibn Hishām al-Anṣārī (1309-1360), a noted Arabic grammarian. No biographical details of copyist in colophon.
A famous versified treatise on Arabic grammar by Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Mālik al-Ṭāʾī al-Jiyānī , known as ibn Mālik (c. 1204-1274 AD), traditionally used in the education of students in the Arabic language. In fine Sahrawi script, with extensive notation in the same hand. No biographical de...
The first pages of a versified work on Arabic grammar by the Syrian historian and geographer ʿUmar Ibn al-Wardī (1292–1349), with elaborate calligraphic frontispiece, possibly by a different hand, outlining various ritual practices to gain understanding of the Qur'an. Ibn al-Wardī is best known f...
A poem on the practices of the Tijānī Sufi brotherhood in fine Sudani script. Elaborate colophon on f. 211r reports that the work was copied "at the house of ʿAbd Allāh, nicknamed Jibrīl, in the country of Ghāya" and gives praises to the Prophet who "put an end to unlawful innovations". Then foll...