AL-MARGHITHI AL-SUSI, ABU ABDULLAH MUHAMMAD IBN SA'ID.

Kitab Al-Muqni,

Sharh al-Muqni fi llm al-Muqni (a commentary of al-Muqni's treatise on astronomy and time-keeping)

Stock Code

105241

Morocco, North Africa, 1719

£7,500

Excellent copy of Al-Susi's commentary, relating to astronomy and timekeeping. Al-Susi, known also as Al-Marghithi, was born in Sous (southern Morocco) in 1598 and was a very well respected scholar and religious leader in the region. At the height of his career he was the Imam of the grand mosque in Marrakech before his death in 1678. The present manuscript was copied in Morocco only 41 years after al-Susi's death.

There are two other manuscript copies of this text at the British Library, these are both entitles Al-Mumti' fi sharh al-muqni' fi 'ilm Abi al-Muqri and are dated AH 1040 1630 AD and AH 1188 1774 AD respectively (see C. Baker (ed.), Subject Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London 2001, p. 380, M5). A further two copies of this work, with the variant title al-Muqti' (al-Mumti') fi sharh al-muqni', are in Cairo and Vienna (see B. A.

Description

Single volume, decorated manuscript copied on Western ruled paper with watermark, in Arabic, 29 leaves, 210 by 160 mm.; single column, 26 lines sepia maghribi script, with important sections and headings in red, numerous tables and diagrams in the text, some key words in larger green maghribi script, catch-words, some later marginal annotations, some very light staining, overall attractive condition; near-contemporary red morocco boards with centrally blind-stamped medallions, good condition.