Min Nawadir Makhtutat Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki al-Sharif - Dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi'
Min Nawādir Makhṭūṭāt Maktabat al-Ḥaram al-Makkī al-Sharīf (Arabic: من نوادر مخطوطات مكتبة الحرم المكي الشريف, Among the Rare Manuscripts of the Library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca) is a bibliographical inventory compiled by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE), identifying select rare manuscripts housed in the library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca.
Composition and Manuscript Origin
The work was preserved in a handwritten notebook bearing number 4658 in the Library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, where al-Muʿallimī recorded the entries across five pages. A contemporaneous note inscribed on the notebook and signed by Muḥammad ʿUthmān al-Kanawī states that al-Muʿallimī extracted these rare titles in 1385 AH (c. 1965–1966 CE), approximately one year before his death, making it one of his final scholarly undertakings. The treatise was later edited from the author's autograph and published as the eighth treatise in volume 23 of Āthār al-Muʿallimī.
Content and Structure
The inventory contains entries for 61 selected manuscript works, recording their shelf numbers, primary bibliographical details, and al-Muʿallimī’s critical observations regarding their dates, scripts, defects, and contents. The selections are confined to three disciplines, as the author apparently was unable to complete the project across other subjects:
- Quranic readings and recitation (qirāʾāt and tajwīd): 6 titles, including early copies and commentaries such as Ibn al-Qaffāl al-Shāṭibī’s commentary on ʿAqīlat atrāb al-qaṣāʾid, al-Rawḍah fī al-qirāʾāt al-iḥdā ʿashrah, Shams al-Dīn al-Mawṣilī’s Kanz al-maʿānī, Muḥammad al-ʿImādī’s Mubriz al-maʿānī, al-Budūr al-zāhirah, and Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Jaʿbarī’s Sharḥ al-Rāʾiyyah.
- Quranic exegesis (tafsīr): 23 titles.
- Hadith and its terminology (ḥadīth): 32 titles.
Scholarly Value
The work preserves records of holdings that are otherwise undocumented or misplaced; for example, al-Muʿallimī documented an incomplete copy of Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Qubrus’s commentary on al-Qadi Iyad’s al-Shifāʾ under shelfmark 270, a manuscript that is missing from the printed catalog of the library and could not be traced by its staff.
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