Al-Khulasa al-alfiyya [The Alfiya of Ibn Malik].

8vo (184 x 229 mm). 60 ff. (the main text comprising the first 38 ff.). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black maghribi script ruled in red and blue, with important words and phrases picked out in red and blue, diacritics in red. Modern burgundy leather. A Moroccan manuscript compendium, the majority of which is taken up by Ibn Malik's 13th-century Arabic grammar (nahw). Nominally composed of 1000 rhymed verse couplets, the work is known in Arabic as "al-Khulasa al-alfiyya" (the Millennium Conclusion). Its rhymed verse was a mnemonic device which helped students remember their grammar. - Abu Abd Allah Jamal al-Din Muhammad, better known as Ibn Malik (ca. 1204-74 CE), was one of the three "great masters" (Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, p. 256) of classical Arabic grammar. He was born in the Almohad Caliphate in what is now southern Spain, studied in Aleppo and settled in Damascus, where he taught and wrote "al-Khulasa al-alfiyya", which became a standard work throughout the Islamic world. - Following Ibn Malik are six accompanying texts: Al-Sulam al-akhdhar fi 'ilm al-Mantiq by Abu Zaid al-Akhdhari (11 pp.), Al-Jumal li al-Mijrâdi fi 'ilm al-Nahaw by Abu Abdellah ibn 'Umran (7 pp.), Mandhumat al-Sheikh Taiyeb bin Kîrân al-Fâssi (7 pp.), and two short Risalas and a poem. - Two corners torn away, entirely from the margins (no loss to text). A few instances of close trimming affecting only marginalia. In very good condition.