• Sālikūtī ʻalá al-Muṭawwal (Siyālkūtī on Al-Taftazani’s Long commentary)
    سالكوتى على المطول

Uniform title:
  • Ḥāshiyah ʻalá al-Muṭawwal
  • حاشية على المطول
Author:
  • Siyālkūtī, ʻAbd al-Ḥakīm ibn Shams al-Dīn, -1656
Contributor:
  • Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Islamic Manuscripts, Garrett no. 421H
Extent:
  • 186 leaves : paper ; 240 x 146 (180 x 85) mm. bound to 240 x 150 mm.
Format:
Abstract:
  • Elegant copy of a gloss on al-Muṭawwal of Masʻūd ibn ʻUmar al-Taftāzānī, which is a commentary on Talkhīṣ al-Miftāḥ by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī, which in turn is an abridgment of Miftāḥ al-ʻUlūm, the famous treatise on rhetoric by al-Sakkākī.
Description:
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from title page (fol. 1a).
  • Marginal notes and glosses. Later table of contents on fol. 1. Title also appears on lower edge.
  • Collation: Paper ; fol. ii + 186 + i ; catchwords ; foliation in red ink using Hindu-Arabic numerals ; modern foliation in pencil using Western numerals.
  • Layout: 35 lines per page ; frame-ruled in gold, black and red.
  • Description: Rubricated ; watermarks (coat-of-arms?) ; MS in very good condition.
  • Decoration: Elaborate illuminated headpiece with floral motif in gold, orange blue, lilac, white, red and black. Opening page of text separates text with gold dots. Fols. 2b-3a are frame-ruled with double gold bands and red and black lines.
  • Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. قوله افتتح کتابه المقدر في الذهن ان كانت الخطبة ابتدائة
  • Ending: والمقصود ان البصرة مصر جامع تمت
Binding note:
  • Later? type II (with flap) binding in red leather. Gold-stamped mandorla with pendants and surrounding gold painted decoration. Gold-tooled decorative edging. Similar decoration on flap. Orange paper pastedowns. Endbands. In case (245 x 155) of red leather and marbled paper with cloth and leather pull strap.
Subject:
Provenance:
  • Acquired from Brill, Leyden, 1900.
Edm rights:
  • Copyright Not Evaluated
View in catalog:
Curator's notes:
  • ʻAbd al-Ḥakīm ibn Shams al-Dīn Siyālkūtī عبد الحكيم بن شمس الدين سيالكوتي (–1656)

    Arabic
    Pakistan?, 17th–18th century, paper

    The lower cover here is extended creating a protective fore-edge covering and a flap to be placed under the upper cover. Such flaps could double as bookmarks. Already in use in fourth-century Coptic books, this type of binding became distinctive for Islamic works. This opening with its multicolored headpiece is a gloss on a commentary of an abridgment of the Key to Knowledge by al-Sakkākī. The binding may have been added later to the original text.

    Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942
    Garrett Islamic Manuscripts 421H

    For further reading

    Bella, Marco di. “From box binding to envelope-flap binding: the missing link in transitional Islamic bookbinding.” Suave mechanicals: essays on the history of bookbinding 3 (2016): 165-79.

Exhibit category: