Nuzhat al-nāẓirīn fī al-akhbār wa-al-āthār al-marwīyah ʻan al-anbiyāʼ wa-al-ṣāliḥīn نزهة الناظرين في الأخبار والآثار المروية عن الأنبياء والصالحين Ibn al-Muná al-Bābī, ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī ابن المنى البابي، عبد الملك بن علي

Content

Encyclopaedia on ethics based on traditions of the pre-Islamic prophets by Taqī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Muná al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī al-Ḍarīr (تقي الدين عبد الملك بن أبي المنى البابي الحلبي الضرير, d. 1435), known as ʻUbayd (عبيد), imām, preacher (خطيب) and teacher at the Ummayad Mosque in Aleppo (الجامع الكبير الأموي بحلب). The present manuscript is Volume One (الجزء الأول), which contains the first twenty books (كتب) of the work. A table of contents, which includes the names of the books and chapters (أبواب) into which each is subdivided and the folios on which the books and chapters begin, is found on ff. 1v-6v. A short biographical sketch of the author is found at the foot of the title page (f. 10r).

The scribe is Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Bābī (?) al-Shāfiʻī (محمد بن أحمد بن حسن الٮاٮي الشافعي, see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 266r, line 22, transcribed below).

Between the table of contents and the main text (ff. 7r-9r) is a short Chapter on the Virtue of [the Month] Rajab (فصل في فضل رجب), which begins with a prophetic tradition (حديث) transmitted by Abū al-ʻAlāʼ Ḥāmid ibn Uways (? أبو العلاء حامد بن أويس [؟]). This text was not copied by the hand of the scribe of the main text and the relationship between this text and the main text is unclear.

Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-4):

الحمد لله الذي أحيا قلوب العارفين باتساع رحمته وألهمهم

من التوسل إليه ما يدفعون به عظيم أخذه وعقوبته ووهب

لهم من مطايا الحزن والبكاء ما يتوصلون به إلى منازل جنته

Ends (f. 266r, lines 16-19):

وقال بن (!) زيد نجت الناهية وهلكت الفرقتان وهذه أشد

آية في ترك النهي عن المنكر قوله تعالى فلما عتوا عن ما نهوا عنه

أبوان (!) يرجعوا عن المعصية قلنا لهم كونوا قردة أمر تحويل

وتكوين خاسئين مبعدين مطرودين ...

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 266r, lines 19-24):

... تم الربع الثاني وهو

ربع العادات ونبدأ الآن في الربع الثالث وهو ربع المهلكات

وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وآله وصحبه وسلم تسليمًا كثيرًا إلى يوم الدين

بيد (؟) محمد بن أحمد بن حسن الٮاٮي الشافعي

رحم الله كاتبه ومؤلفه ولمن نظر فيه ولكل

أمة محمد آمين الحمد لله رب العالمين

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+266+i

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 267 x 170 mm leaf [190 x 125 mm written]

Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink (begins at 1 on f. 10 of the British Museum foliation); British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 12 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh; the scribe is Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Bābī (?) al-Shāfiʻī (محمد بن أحمد بن حسن الٮاٮي الشافعي, see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 266r, line 22)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in red

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum navy blue half-leather binding; indication of envelope flap on previous binding (ff. 14v and 15r)

Condition: Insect damage to edge margins with some loss of text, repaired with paper infill and occasional silk netting on ff. 3-98, unrepaired on ff. 99-121; damage in head and edge margins repaired on ff. 1-2; tidemarks in head margins at front of volume; corrosion caused by envelope flap from previous binding repaired in places with silk netting (ff. 14-19)

Marginalia: Occasionally numerous (see ff. 20v-22r), by many hands

Seals: Ff. 1r and 10r; British Museum stamp ff. 9v, 10r, and 266v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 7793

History of this record

Date(s)

15th century (CE, Gregorian)

Provenance

• ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻAlī Afandī al-Shahrānī (عبد الرحمن ابن علي أفندي الشهراني): his inscription without date (f. 1r);
• Defaced inscription with two illegible seal impressions (f. 1r);
• Ḥamzah ibn ʻAlī Afandī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl Afandī ibn ʻAlī Afandī ibn Ṣahrāli (?) ... Afandī ʻUthmānī (حمزة ابن علي أفندي ابن محمد أفندي ابن إسماعيل أفندي ابن علي أفندي ابن صهرالي [؟] ... أفندي عثماني): his inscription without date and seal without date both partially mutilated (f. 10r);
• ʻAlī ibn Muḥammad Sūzjī (? علي ابن محمد سوزجي [؟]): his inscription without date (f. 10r);
• al-ʻUmarī Ḥājī Sulaymān, imām in the al-ʻUmarī Mosque in the citadel of Aleppo (العمري حاجي سليمان الإمام بقلعة حلب بالمسجد العمري): his inscription withoutdate (f. 266v).

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from David Fetto, 12 April 1913

Related material

Select Bibliography

Editions:

• Ibn al-Muná al-Bābī, ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī, Nuzhat al-nāẓirīn fī al-akhbār wa-al-āthār al-marwīyah ʻan al-anbiyāʼ wa-al-ṣāliḥīn, 2 vols, ed. by Nāṣir Muḥammadī Muḥammad Jād (Cairo: Dār al-Āfāq al-ʻArabīyah, 2016)
• Ibn al-Muná al-Bābī, ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī, Nuzhat al-nāẓirīn fī al-akhbār wa-al-āthār al-marwīyah ʻan al-anbiyāʼ wa-al-ṣāliḥīn, ed. by Aḥmad Farīd al-Mazīdī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2008)
• Ibn al-Muná al-Bābī, ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī, Nuzhat al-nāẓirīn fī al-akhbār wa-al-āthār al-marwīyah ʻan al-anbiyāʼ wa-al-ṣāliḥīn, (Cairo: Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭbaʻat Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlādihi, 1954)

Subjects

Islamic ethics--Early works to 1800Prophets, Pre-Islamic -- Early works to 1800Muslims -- Conduct of life -- Early works to 1800

People & organisations

ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī Ibn al-Muná al-BābīMuḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Bābī (?) al-Shāfiʻī

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Nuzhat al-nāẓirīn fī al-akhbār wa-al-āthār al-marwīyah ʻan al-anbiyāʼ wa-al-ṣāliḥīn نزهة الناظرين في الأخبار والآثار المروية عن الأنبياء والصالحين Ibn al-Muná al-Bābī, ʻAbd al-Malik ibn ʻAlī ابن المنى البابي، عبد الملك بن علي, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 7793, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100093647654.0x000001> [accessed 27 August 2024]

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