al-Sirr al-Masun ala Kashf al-Zunun - Qita minhu
- Author died
- 1352 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Fikr
al-Sirr al-Masun ‘ala Kashf al-Zunun (The Preserved Secret: A Supplement to Kashf al-Zunun) is a bio-bibliographical dictionary by the Damascene scholar Jamil ibn Mustafa al-Azm (d. 1352 AH / 1933 CE), composed as a continuation and supplement (dhayl) to Katib Chalabi’s celebrated reference work Kashf al-Zunun ‘an Asami al-Kutub wa-l-Funun .
Composition and Scope
al-Azm began compiling the work in 1309 AH (1891/1892 CE) and noted in his book al-Musara‘a that he completed it over a span of twenty years . In draft notes originally written for the preface, the author recounted that he had temporarily abandoned the project until comments made by peers in scholarly gatherings prompted him to resume and complete it .
According to Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli, the complete work was roughly equal in volume to Hajji Khalifa’s original Kashf al-Zunun and opened with an extensive introductory treatise on the disciplines, classifications of knowledge, and renowned authors and works, spanning roughly one thousand large pages under the title al-Isfar ‘an al-‘Ulum wa-l-Asfar .
Structure and Extant Portion
Following the method of Hajji Khalifa, the book arranges entries alphabetically according to book titles, recording authors, subject matters, opening incipits, commentaries, and historical annotations .
Only the first volume (qit‘a minhu) of the main biographical text is known to have survived . Preserved as an autograph manuscript in Damascus (formerly at the Zahiriyya Library, MS 4754, later transferred to the Asad National Library), it spans 208 folios and covers book titles under the first two letters of the Arabic alphabet, Alif and Ba .
The author completed copying this surviving portion in the forenoon of Thursday, 4 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1314 AH (13 August 1896 CE), concluding with a short poetic chronogram and noting that this volume catalogues exactly 1,026 distinct titles, concluding with the Turkish-language work Bayd Aftab .
Publication
The extant portion of the manuscript was edited by Muhammad Khayr Ramadan Yusuf and published in a single volume by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut in 2004 .
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