48 - Abu ‘Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam (D. 224AH/838AD): Kitab al-Amthal,

Abu ‘Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam (D. 224AH/838AD): Kitab al-Amthal, Probably Andalusia, before 660AH/1261-62AD, Lexicography, Arabic manuscript on brown paper, 134ff., as numbered with 16ll. of sepia maghrini, titles in larger script, copious contemporary marginal annotations, opening flyleaf with title and name of author and long inscription recording the oral transmission of the work dated 660AH, final folio with remains of colophon, recently restored worm damage, some re-inking of the final folios due to warer damage, red Morocco binding with flap with watered paper doublures, Folio 22 x 16.7 cm Provenance: Christie’s 23 April 2002, Lot 128 Abu ‘Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam ibn Miskin ibn Zaid al-Harawi was born in Herat, worked in Basra and Kufa and died in Makkah. He wrote philology, the Qu’ran, Hadith and Fiqh. The earliest recorded copy of this work is a 5th Century Hijra copy in Tunis (Ahmadiya 4793). Allegedly, the colophon of the present copy was dated 466 A.H. (1073 - 1074 A.D.), but the date was lost during restoration. Not enough is presently known about Maghribi paper or manuscripts to permit a more precise dating. A manuscript in the Bibliotèque National de France, Arabe 6090, on parchment dated 472 A.H. (1080 A.D) is written in a very similar hand to the preset of the piece, Les Andalousies de Damas à Cordue, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2009, no.181, p.159.) Even if the present copy was made in the 7th Century A.H. (13th Century A.D.), it is still one of the earliest copies of this work extant. The use of paper in this very early manuscript suggests that it was copied in Spain rather than North Africa where parchment was preferred writing material. (F. Sezgin, Geschichte de Arabischen Schriftums, Leiden 1982, Band VIII, pp.81-84.