Description

Folio (225 x 327 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 190 plus 17 leaves (incomplete). 21 lines of Maghribi script in black ink, titles and a few terms in red and blue, text enclosed within red and blue rules. Binding with flap in green morocco with stamped decoration of a medallion enhanced with red and circled with golden lines. A section of the important hadith commentary by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (1372-1449 CE), the classical Islamic scholar and polymath whose life work is considered to constitute the final summation of Hadith scholarship. His commentary is on the "Sahih al-Bukhari", a collection of hadith compiled by Imam Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870 CE) which is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world as the most authentic collection of reports of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. - Binding worn at extremeties. Leaves loose, extensive worming, mildew and dampstaining throughout; edges chipped or limp and flaking. The majority of the manuscript appears to date from the 18th or 19th century CE; this is supplemented by an additional section of 17 leaves, taken from another, earlier manuscript, probably dating from the 17th or 18th century CE and loosely inserted at the end. - GAL I, 159, no. 12.