Asma al-Kutub al-Mutammim li-Kashf al-Zunun
- Author died
- 1078 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
Asma al-Kutub al-Mutammim li-Kashf al-Zunun (Arabic: أسماء الكتب المتمم لكشف الظنون, lit. 'Names of Books: Complement to Kashf al-Zunun') is an Arabic bibliographic dictionary compiled by the Ottoman Hanafi jurist and judge Riyad Zada (Abd al-Latif ibn Muhammad ibn Mustafa, d. 1078 AH / 1667 CE), cataloging Arabic, Persian, and Turkish works alongside biographical notices on their authors.
Composition and Context
The author completed writing the work on 1 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1054 AH (1645 CE), as recorded in his colophon. Because it was finished in 1054 AH, it is likely that Riyad Zada compiled it prior to the completion of Kashf al-Zunun by Katib Celebi (Hajji Khalifa). It served as an early model and complement to Kashf al-Zunun and later Ottoman bibliographies, containing numerous titles not found in Kashf al-Zunun, Idah al-Maknun, or Hadiyyat al-Arifin.
Riyad Zada drew his material from his personal readings, the library of the Rustam Pasha Madrasa where he taught, his father's collection, and referenced biographical and encyclopedic texts such as Tashkubri Zada's Miftah al-Sa'adah, al-Khulasah, and al-Hidayah. He maintained strict standards of documentation, explicitly noting when he had not personally examined a cited text.
Structure and Method
The work is organized in alphabetical order by book title in a single small volume. In its original Ottoman arrangement, the letter waw was placed between ha' and ya'.
Unlike bibliographies that list only book titles, Riyad Zada included biographical sketches of authors, listing their major works and dates of death, and occasionally dates of birth. Furthermore, while Kashf al-Zunun typically grouped commentaries directly under the base text, Riyad Zada generally assigned separate entries to commentaries, while occasionally cross-referencing them under the base work for the reader's convenience.
Manuscript and Publication
The work survived in a unique autograph manuscript of eighty-five folios (170 pages), measuring 15 × 21.5 cm with a text block of 7 × 15 cm, featuring sixteen lines per page. The author penned the book titles in red ink and the descriptions in black ink.
Because the opening of the manuscript lacked a title, it was designated Asma al-Kutub based on its mention in Ismail Pasha al-Babani's Hadiyyat al-Arifin. It was edited by Muhammad al-Tunji and published under the title Asma al-Kutub al-Mutammim li-Kashf al-Zunun.
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