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Manuscript/Mixed Material Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" with illuminated panels

About this Item

Title

  • Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" with illuminated panels

Created / Published

  • 14th-15th centuries

Headings

  • -  Calligraphy, Arabic
  • -  Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
  • -  Iraq
  • -  Arabic script calligraphy
  • -  Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
  • -  Islamic calligraphy
  • -  Islamic manuscripts
  • -  Persian naskh

Notes

  • -  Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" a treatise of Arabic grammar composed by the famous early Kufan grammarian Sibaywahi (d. 188/793), with illuminated panels, created in the 14th or 15th century, written in the Naskh script.
  • -  Although the fragment is neither dated nor signed, the illuminated panel and the Persian naskh on its verso suggest that the work may have been executed in Persia (Iran) sometime during the 14th or 15th century.
  • -  Dimensions of Illumination Panels: 5.8 (w) x 11.1 (h) cm. Dimensions of Written Surface: 4 (w) x 10.4 (h) cm
  • -  For further information on the "Kitab Sibaywahi", see Michael G. Carter, "Sibaywahi" (London and New York: Oxford Center for Islamic Studies and I.B. Tauris, 2004).
  • -  The illuminated panel includes four rectangular registers above and below the gold medallions, in which the bismillah ("In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful") is inscribed in gold Kufi script on a blue background decorated with gold arabesques. All around the illuminated panels appear marginal finials painted in blue. The two illuminated panels are separated by a crease in the beige rag paper where the folio originally would have been folded in two. In the upper horizontal appear two water stains equal in size and shape (due to the original fold). In the lower horizontal, a note or owner's mark seems to have been erased, and the word 'unvan (title[?]) added in black ink to identify the illuminated panels' function.
  • -  The verso of this calligraphic fragment provides a commentary (sharh) on a treatise of Arabic grammar composed by the famous early Kufan grammarian Sibaywahi (d. 188/793). The text is executed in black ink in Persian naskh script in two columns of fifteen lines per page. Marginal glosses, commentary, and corrections appear in the left column, cross-referenced to the main text by red underlining.
  • -  This double-page illuminated blue and gold panel was intended to contain the title to a work whose text appears on the fragment's verso (1-88-154.10 V). Although the title is not contained in either of the two gold central medallions, the text on the verso makes it clear that the work was a commentary (sharh) on a treatise of Arabic grammar composed by the famous early Kufan grammarian Sibaywahi (d. 188/793).
  • -  This particular sharh to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" provides a mid-level pedagogical textbook rather than one of the various standard commentaries to the work. It combines together several unrelated themes scattered in the "Kitab Sibaywahi". For example, it includes a discussion of grammatical rules applied to numerals above 10 and analyzes dependent clauses (mansub).
  • -  Script: Persian naskh
  • -  1-88-154.10

Medium

  • 1 volume ; 21.1 (w) x 20.3 (h) cm

Repository

  • Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2019714667

Online Format

  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

The contents of the Library of Congress Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions and are free to use and reuse.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, African and Middle East Division, Near East Section Persian Manuscript Collection

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" with illuminated panels. 14th-15th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714667/.

APA citation style:

Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" with illuminated panels. 14th-15th Centuries. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714667/.

MLA citation style:

Commentary to the "Kitab Sibaywahi" with illuminated panels. 14th-15th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714667/>.