The second of two oblong duodecimo volumes containing abbreviated notes recorded by Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, during the course of a journey through Syria, Turkey and Iraq, from Damascus to Aleppo via Baghdad. The volume covers the period 19 April to 23 May 1911, covering the journey from the vicinity of Dara, in Turkey, to Bell’s arrival in Aleppo. The notes record: places passed or visited; times of arrival and departure; temperature and atmospheric pressure readings; some description of the topographic character of the places passed through; and copies of Greek, Syriac, and Nabatean tomb inscriptions.The volume also includes:drawings depicting two anthropomorphic figures, possibly of stone carvings from a tomb at Kermati [Kayabali], above a drawing of three arches. All three drawings have dimensions indicated (ff 3v-4)Folios 25-37 are blank.1 volume (37 folios)Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with i, and terminates at the inside back cover with 38; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
The first of two oblong duodecimo volumes containing abbreviated notes recorded by Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, during the course of a journey through Syria, Turkey and Iraq, from Damascus to Aleppo via Baghdad. The volume covers the period 9 February to 18 April 1911, covering Bell’s departure from Damascus to the vicinity of Dara, Turkey. The notes record: places passed or visited; times of arrival and departure; temperature and atmospheric pressure readings; some description of the topographic character of the places passed through; and a number Arabic aphorisms and inscriptions.The volume also includes:descriptions of architecture and mosaics in Damascus, including Malik ez Zahir [Az-Zahiriyah library] (ff 1-3)a plan of an unnamed and unidentified building (f 14v)five signatures, belonging to the German archaeologists Walter Andrae, Conrad Preusser, Walter Bachmann, Paul Maresch, and Julius Jordan (f 23)two profiles, with measurements indicated, of gate mouldings at Dara (f 32)1 volume (33 folios)Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with i, and terminates at the inside back cover with 33; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.The file has two foliation anomalies f 25A, and f 32A.
Origin: Possibly author's working copy, with many notes in marginalia. This copy finished 993/1585.Decoration: Titles and place names in red and gold ink. Central text on each page is framed in simple blue and gold border. Initial page features an elaborite design in blue, gold, orange, and green paint. Incidental maps and diagrams in margins are usually executed in blue ink. Map of Mediterranean world laid in page 22. A single page of notes with diagram depicting the kaʻbah as the center of the world along with many notes is laid into this codex.Script: Text written in naskh script with black ink.Binding: Leather bound codex with tooling on upper and lower covers as well as envelope flap; gold paint on medalions.Title from rubricated inscription on opening leaf (p.3) and inscription on 'title page' (p.7).Ms. codex.Geographical work ; geographical dictionary.
Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center Isl. Ms. 214Origin: Final record entries dated Ṣafar 1026 [February-March 1617] ; copy likely executed just after.Former shelfmark: "537 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro de Marinis]" inscribed in pencil on verso of front flyleaf.Binding: Pasteboards covered in shell marbled paper (in shades of lavender, brown, etc.) with spine in gray leather ; Type III binding (without flap) ; pastedowns and flyleaves in coated, green surface-dyed wove paper ; sewn in red thread, six stations ; overall in fair condition with some abrasion, staining, lifting and losses of paper, etc.Support: non-European laid paper with 8 laid lines per cm. (horizontal or vertical, fairly indistinct), cloudy formation, thin and transluscent though sturdy, burnished.Decoration: Superb illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening on p.2 consisting of large rectangular piece with empty gold cartouche surrounded by arabesques and floral motifs in gold with pink and red accents on a field of bright blue (cobalt), bordered in a band of red with white crosses and surmounted by a scalloped dome or triangular piece filled with similar vegetal decoration also on grounds of gold and blue, all set in a well of gold bands and surmounted by vertical stalks (tīgh) in blue ; second illuminated headpiece (rectangular with empty gold cartouche and delicate floral designs in white, pink, light blue, gold, etc.) on at opening of main text following preface on p.4 ; written area surrounded by gold frame ; textual dividers in the form of gold rosettes ; some keywords and headings chrysographed or overline in gold, others rubricated or in white ink ; marginal decorations in the form of roundels setting off seal impressions (on the rectos of many folia see pp.2-3, 5, 7, 9) with gold and blue borders and vertical stalks, or carrying invocation "نحمد الله على نعمائه الجميلة وعلى آلائه الجليلة وعلى الطافه الجزيلة حمدا دائما كثيرا" (p.4) or vegetal designs (see pp.6, 8, 10, i.e. on the versos of those same folia, filling the outline of the roundel bordering the seal impression on the recto) .Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; exquisite Turkish / Ottoman hand in a medium line ; serifless with effect of inclination to the right, gentle descent of words to baseline, elongation of horizontal strokes, pointing mainly in strokes or conjoined dots.Layout: Written in 29-30 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: i, II (4), I+1 (7), i ; catchwords present (though now obscured in some places) ; pagination in Western numerals, supplied during digitization.Explicit: "أن الشريف جليل ابن صلبي للشريف سيدى [؟] ابن الشريف مصطفى ابن الشريفة سلام من النسب الطاهر وذلك بعد أن أبرز حجة دالة على شرف جده وهو الشريف مصطفى ... معنونة بعنوان النقباء السالفين"Incipit: "الحمد لله الذي خلق من الماء بشرا فجعله نسبا وصهرا وربى شجرة هذا النسب بمياه الحسب والادب والتقوى وجعل أصلها آدم الصفي الذي اجتباه ربه وهدى وأطلع ثمرتها النامية السامية في غصنها الاعلى سيد الورى فصارت كشجرة طيبة أصلها ثابت وفرعها في السما ... وبعد فالسبب الداعي إلى تحرير هذه النميقة الأنيقة والوثيقة الوثيقة هو أنه قد تبين وبهر وتعين وظهر وكالشمس في رابعة النهار اشتهر باخبار العالم العامل الرباني خادم الشرع الشريف الصمداني ... شيخ الاسلام ... مولانا اسعد افندي ... ابن المولى المرحوم ... مولانا سعد الدين ... أن شيخي ومولاي ... الشيخ السيد محمود افندى الاسكدارى ... من النسب الطاهر وسيادته بين الأنام بين وظاهر ..."Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.3. p.12-p.14 : Nat-i Hazret-i Server-i Kainat ve Müfahhar-i mevcudat2. p.11 : [blank].1. p.2-p.10 : [records of the office of nakibüleşraf].Elegant copy of what appears to be a record book of the Niqābat al-Ashrāf (office of nakibüleşraf or nakıbü'l-eşraflık) with each entry after the first (which is for al-Shaykh al-Sayyid Maḥmūd Afandī al-Uskudārī / Şeyh Mahmut Efendi Üsküdarî, d.1626) numbered and signed "شهود الحال خدام مجلس النقابة." Entries are followed by a poem in praise of the Prophet in Ottoman Turkish. Identification and contributions to the description provided by Ahmad Nazir Atassi. "Each entry is an attestation in front of prominent witnesses that a certain person has proven to be a sharīf by a document he produced that was signed by some previous Naqīb al-Ashrāf and that testifies the sharīfian rank of one of his ancestors." - from description provided by Ahmad Nazir Atassi.
Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center Isl. Ms. 683Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper, etc. suggests 18th century.Accompanying materials: a. Acquisitions slip from Yahuda -- b. Inventory cataloguing slip in hand of Winifred Smeaton Thomas.Former shelfmark: From verso of front flyleaf "IL 362" (likely supplied by Yahuda, see acquisitions slip).Binding: Boards covered in dark purple cloth with black leather over spine (quarter binding) ; Western style binding ; pastedowns and flyleaves in paper printed with floral / landscape design in shades of blue, tan, olive green, and white ; upper and lower covers carry embossed central ornament (oval scrollwork design) ; raised bands on spine, accented with stamped (turquoise-colored onlays) bands and floral motifs ; sewn in white thread, five stations, stab sewn as well ; stuck-on endbands in black and yellow ; overall in fairly good condition with minor abrasion and staining.Support: European laid paper with 11 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 22-24 mm. apart (vertical), and watermarks of crown above grapes (see p.20, 24, etc.) alternating with "P S" (see p.22, 26, etc.), thin though sturdy, well-burnished, dark cream to beige in color ; some foxing, staining and tide lines.Decoration: Illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening on p.10 consisting of rectangular piece with empty gold cartouche flanked by lavender floral motifs surmounted by scalloped semi-circular piece (dome) filled with swirling floral vegetal motifs in lavender, pink, salmon, white, etc. on a gold ground, entire piece surmounted by vertical stalks (tīgh) in blue and red and set in a well of pink with red accents ; written area of incipit and facing page surrounded by gold frame, elsewhere written area (including margin) surrounded by red rule-border ; keywords, section headings and abbreviation symbols (mainly two-teeth stroke over keywords) rubricated ; grid of table of contents outlined in red ; textual dividers in the form of gold discs on incipit and facing page ; overlining in red.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; two elegant Turkish hands ; opening two works in an elegant nastaʻlīq (talik), characteristically serifless with effect of tilt to the right and of words descending to baseline, elongation of horizontal strokes, letterforms characteristic of nastaʻlīq (talik) ; final work in another nastaʻlīq (talik) similar to the first hand but with greater effect of words descending to baseline, thicker line and exaggerated thickness of horizontal strokes.Layout: Written in 29 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: i, IV (8), V (18), V+1 (29), 23 V(259), i ; chiefly quinions ; fol.110-111 and 112-113 bound in reverse order ; catchwords present ; foliation in black ink, Hindu-Arabic numerals ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals (includes flyleaves).Incipit: [Fetava-yi Ali Efendi] "الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلوة والسلام على سيدنا محمد واله كتاب الطيبين الطاهرين الطهارة [الطيبين الطاهرين كتاب الطهارة] زيد جنب ايكن ذكر وتسبيح والصلوة على النبى ايتمك جائز اولورمى الجواب اولور ..." ; [Tarjīḥ al-bayānāt] ; "الحمد لله عظيم البرهان وعميم الاحسان ... فان افقر عباد الله السبحان عبد السيد الرحمن بن سليمان الشهير بخصالى بين الاجناب والاخوان قد اختصر هذا الرسالة بحسب الامكان في الكتب المعتبرة البيان ..." ; [Maruzat-ı Ebussuud] "الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلوة والسلام على سيدنا خاتم النبيين وعلى اله وصحبه اجمعين اما بعد سعادتلى وفضيلتلى ومروتلى سلطانم حضرتلرينه عرض داعى منشالرى بو در كه بوندن اقدم مرحوم سيخ الاسلام ... حضرت ابو السعود ..."Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.7. p.519-520 : [assorted excerpts].6. p.504-p.518 : [Maruzat-ı Ebussuud] / Ebussuud Efendi.5. p.482-p.503 : Tarjīḥ al-bayānāt / ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sulaymān, al-shahīr bi-Khilāṣī.4. p.478-p.481 : [blank].3. p.10-p.477 : Fetava-yi Ali Efendi / Ali Efendi Çatalcalı.2. p.8-p.9 : [blank].1. p.3-p.7 : [added contents listing and table of contents].Fine copy of the collection of legal decisions (fetvas) by Ali Efendi (d.1692), followed by Tarjīḥ al-bayānāt, a work of fiqh in Arabic by Hisâlî Abdurrahman Çelebî bin Süleyman bin Eyüp Sârûhânî (d.1676) and Maruzat-ı Ebussuud, a collection of legal decisions (fetvas) issued by Abū al-Suʻūd al-ʻImādī (Ebussuud Efendi, d.1574) and sanctioned by Sultan Süleyman I (r.1520-1566).
Three treatises in different hands, bound together. The first is an abridgement of Ibn al-Bannāʼ's Talkhīṣ by Ibn al-Hāʼim. The second is a short work on astrolabe terminology and use. The third appears to be an autograph of Sharḥ mukhtaṣar al-Tuffāḥah fī ʻilm al-misāḥah by ʻAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Aḥmad al-Dimashqī.
18th-century text on the Pillars of Islam. The basmalah at the beginning is upside down (f. 1r). One bifolium or more may be missing from the center of the gathering, where the catchword does not appear to link to the text of the following page (f. 4v-5r).