ART. X.-An Account of the Autograph MS. of the first volume of Ibn Khallikán's Biographical Dictionary, by the REV. W. CURETON. Scriptoris politissimi Ebni Khallikan opus historicum non magis verborum elegantia et ubertate commendatur quam illustriorum Poetarum versibus quibus conspergitur. Ac nescio an hic omnibus vitarum scriptoribus sit anteponendus. Est certè copiosior Nepote, elegantior Plutarcho, Laertio jucundior et dignus est profecto liber, qui in omnes Europa linguas conversus prodeat.-GUL. JONES. Poes. Asiat. Com. p. 431. THE Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallikán, although it hardly merits the extravagant praise bestowed upon it by Sir William Jones, has always, and deservedly so, been held in great estimation by all those who have been induced to enter upon the study of the noble language and extensive literature of the Arabs. There is, perhaps, no other book in the whole range of the learning of Islamism which throws so much light upon Arabic literature; while the extensive erudition, and general accuracy of the writer, have caused it to be considered of great authority upon all such subjects of information as come within the design of the work. It has consequently been very frequently referred to by Orientalists, and many detached lives have from time to time been given in different publications. Within the last four years two complete editions of the entire work have been undertaken by the zeal and industry of two distinguished Oriental scholars: the one by M. Wüstenfeld, lithographed, 4to. Göttingen, 1835-39, of which seven fasciculi, comprehending six hundred and ninety-eight lives, have been published; the other, in type, by the Baron Mac Guckin de Slane, 4to. Paris, 1838-40, of which three livraisons have appeared. At this moment then, when two editions of this celebrated biographical dictionary are in the course of publication, it cannot fail to be interesting to the lovers of the language of the Arabs, to learn that the autograph copy of a great part of this famous work, containing all the emendations and corrections of the author during a period of upwards of twenty years, is still in existence. The MS. in question was purchased in the East, by Mr. Carlyle, editor of Maured Allatafet Jemaleddini filii Togri-Bardii. 4to. Cantab. 1792, and Specimens of Arabic Poetry. 4to. Cambridge. 1796. After his death, it passed into the hands of a professor of Oriental languages still living, and was by him disposed of to a bookseller from whom I pur VOL VI. Q chased it. This is all the information I have been able to gather respecting the MS. after it ceased to belong to the author, further than having been formerly a bequest to some mosque, as the word Wakf, written on several leaves of the book implies; it was possessed in the year of the Hijrah 1074, A.D. 1663, by one Masúd bnu Ibrahim, who has written a note to that effect on the first leaf of the MS. The book consists of 284 leaves of thick silk paper in quarto. It has suffered a little from age and use. A few of the leaves which were torn have been mended. The edges of all have been much worn, and consequently in many places, part of the marginal annotations has disappeared. The margins, which originally were left broad, are throughout the greater part of the book filled with additions and emendations, evidently made at various intervals of time, and written with ink of different shades of darkness, but all, with perhaps one or two exceptions, in the same hand as the body of the work. The style of the writing, the texture of the paper, and the colour of the ink, at once show the antiquity of the MS., and that it must have been written about the thirteenth century of our era. The handwriting, so different from that of a professed scribe, the great number of additions and corrections in the margin and between the lines, all written by the same hand as the rest of the work, led me immediately to conclude that the MS. was written by the author himself, which further examination has fully established. Upon turning to the first leaf of the book, which however does not form a part of the original MS., the following note occurs: The rough المرحوم ابن خلكان عليه رحمة الملك المنان بخطه “The sketch of Ibn Khallikán, who has obtained mercy; may the mercy of the Beneficent King rest upon him; in his own handwriting." On the next leaf, which is the first of the original MS., there is وهذه النسخة مسودة المصنف .written on the margin in blue link :This copy is the original draught of the author“ رجه الله تعالي may the most High God have mercy on him." Below this, in كتاب وفيات الاعيان وانبا ابنا : the same hand as the rest of the work الزمان عني بجمعه لنفسه و لمن يشا الله تعالي من بعده الفقير الي - رحمة الله تعالي احمد بن محمد بن ابرهيم بن ابي بكر بن خلكان عنا 1 See the fac-simile of this passage. I should observe that 'some one has clumsily attempted to restore three or four words which had been a little defaced. |