Takhlis al-Bayan fi Majazat al-Qur'an, or 'Mujazat al-Radi',
copied in the hand of the author, second volume only,
Bayid Persia (Baghdad), dated 13 Shawwal 401 AH (1010 AD).
The details given in the colophon of this codex are solidly supported by both a C14 test (by CIRAM -Science for Art Cultural Heritage of Martillac, France and New York, their report reference 0415-OA-98R-4 carried out in 2015, with them extracting the sample of paper from the book themselves: strip of paper from blank lower edge of fol. 10), as well as a report on the antiquity of the paper stock by Helen Loveday. The C14 analysis establishes a date of 986-1048 AD with a probability of 79.1%, and the paper stock is characteristically Persian and of the twelfth century or before (the extreme rarity of comparative eleventh-century manuscripts from this region forcing the dating parameters to be set as 'twelfth-century or before').
Single volume, second volume only of the text, decorated manuscript in Arabic, complete in alternating quires of 8 and 12 leaves with a bifolium at the end to complete the text, 162 leaves (plus one contemporary and 3 later endleaves), 218 by 118 mm; single column of 11-12 lines in sepia naskh hand of the author al-Sharif al-Radi himself, title on recto of first leaf, colophon at end of text in same hand, on distinctively Persian dark-cream paper, most leaves with mould markings (of 7-8 laid reed lines per centimetre, and with no chain lines apparent), final free endpaper with numerous ownership inscriptions (pre-fourteenth century), occasional marginal commentary (also pre-fourteenth century), some early damp-staining and mottling to leaves to entirety of volume affecting upper and outer corners, a few repairs to preliminary leaves including a closed tear to first leaf, strip of modern paper pasted along length of pastedown (probably from modern description once pasted there and subsequently removed), later endpapers and doublures inserted; fourteenth-century leather boards, stamped in blind and ruled with geometric patterns, skilfully rebacked, resewn and edges repaired, very presentable and attractive condition.
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