AUCTION RESULTS FROM AUCTION 329, 19-20 May/mei 2009
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ARABIC MANUSCRIPTS -- MUHAMMAD al-Saghîr Al-Ifrânî (d. ca. 1743), Nuzhat al-hâdî fî akhbâr al-qarn al-hâdî. Chronicle focusing on the Sa'did Sultans of Morocco in the 16th and 17th century. Manuscript of 178 fols. On European paper with watermark "J. Whatman, 1834". The colophon has no date, but the first page has the following annotation in the handwriting of the scribe of the manuscript: "Al-Hamdu li-'llâhi; mallakahu Allâhu li-kâtibihi 'ubayd rabbihi ta['âlâ], Muhammad ibn Idrîs bi-al-intisâkh fî sanat 1253 (inta)h(â)": "Praise be to God; granted by God as a [lawful] property to its writer, the humble servant of his Exalted Lord, Muhammad ibn Idrîs, through the act of copying, in the year 1253 (=1837). End of note." The scribe can be identitified with Muhammad ibn Idrîs al-'Amrâwî al-Fâsî, copyist, scribe, secretary, poet, and finally minister and prime minister in the service of Sultan Moulay 'Abd al-Rahmân. He died in 1264/1847. Bound in its original brown leather bind. with flap, decorated with guilt frames and red lacquer medaillons. The acidity of the dark ink of the outer frames of the text affected some of the manuscript's paper leaves, but without any loss or dam. of the text. Written in a neat, but elegant and clear script, with a sophisticated lay-out, using different colours and larger types of script for rubrics (names of authors and titles of books quoted, etc.). EUR 2.500 EUR 2.000 ¶ This work deals with the 16th century history of the Sa'did dynasty in Morocco in its first 53 sections (circa two thirds of the book), up till and including the reign of Sultan Al-Mansûr al-Dhahabî who is the main protagonist of this part of the work and died in 1012/1603. In the second part, comprising 22 sections, the author deals with the period between death of Al-Mansûr and the ascension of the shurafâ' (descendants of Muhamad) from Sijilmâssa who founded the Alawite dynasty. These sections deal among others with the role of the Dilâ'iyya lodge and its leader Al-'Ayyâshî in this period of transition. In the third and last part, the author deals in 6 sections with the early history of the Alawite dynasty, ending with the reign of Sultan Moulay Ismâ'îl who assumed power in 1081/1671, and whom the author puts on one line with the great Sultan al-Mansûr al-Dhahabî. This paralel between both rulers is so important, that the work can be seen as a kind of preparatory and introductory study for a biography of Sultan Ismâ'îl. The author completed his work in 1139/1726. Literature: EI (2nd edition), s.v. Al-Ifrânî. The work has enjoyed continuous attention and recognition as one of the major sources of Moroccan history during the Sa'did dynasty, both from Moroccan and European scholars. In addition to the 24 manuscripts mentioned by 'Abd al-Latîf al-Shâdhilî in his printed edition of the work (Casablanca, 1998/1419), there exist an undated lithographic edition from Fes, as well as a printed edition together with a French translation by Houdas (1888-9). Of the edition and translation by Houdas, an undated offset reprint was published by Maktabat al-Talib in Rabat (Morocco). See also Brockelmann, GAL II 457, and GAL S II 681-682, and Lévi-Provencal, Les historiens des chorfa, 120ff.
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