1853.] Catalogues of Oriental Libraries. 537 



* JjJ) ♦A** ^i c-^^l ^ lyu* U by Mohammad b. IsMq Na- 

 dym who is usually called Abu-1-Faraj Ibn Aby Ya'qub and who 

 compiled this book in 377, and died in 385. In the Leyden library is 

 the third and last volume of this important work, and at Paris is the 

 first of the same copy ; a complete copy has been sent from Constan- 

 tinople to the Paris library by Baron de Slane. This book contains 

 short biographies of all Arabic authors and the names of all their works, 

 and is one of the most precious relics of antiquity we possess. 



2 Chapter ; Grammar. 

 Nos. 39, 42, 44 and 46 are specimens of the manner in which 

 Grammar was treated during the earliest period of Arabic literature, 

 and they are precious on account of their rarity. There is nothing 

 else of much importance in this chapter. 



3 Chapter; Lexicography. 



Nos. 142 and 143 are two valuable copies of two valuable works 

 of Ibn al-Sikkyt, a grammarian of the third century, but the most 

 important work in this chapter is No. 116 — the Jamharah of Ibn 

 Dorayd. To the best of my knowledge there is only one copy of 

 it in India, and that not a very good one. 



No. 146. Ac^\ w_aAkJ ^US is usually ascribed to £)adr aldyn 

 and Qunyawy (on whom see Jamy, NafaMt, No. 538) and not 

 to Mo^yy aldyn Ibn al'araby. I have two copies of this work, 'abd 

 al-Razzaq's 9 u fy Dictionary is an abridgment of it. 



Passing over the next three chapters, we come to Belles-lettres, 

 here the first book of great importance is the Kamil of al-Mobar- 

 rad, No. 365, (I have seen the name written with a Kasrah " Mobar- 

 rid,") it is not only valuable for philology but also for history, 

 containing the best account of the Khawarij. There is a very cor- 

 rect MS. of it at Lucnow which has been copied for me ; Mr. 

 Wright has promised to edit it. Nos. 366 containing the Mowash- 

 sha of Abu-1-Tayyib and 367 are still rarer and nearly as important. 

 The latter No. contains an old copy of a work in which Ibn Dorayd, 

 who died in 321, has collected words and idiomatic phrases referring to 

 the saddle and bridle. This and Nos. 368 and 369 are among the few 

 remaining specimens of the hundreds of works of the same nature, 

 which were compiled during the first three centuries of the Islam. 



3 r 2 



