8vo. 169 pp., [1] / 169 pp., [2] / 191 pp., [1] / 175 pp., [1], Arabic text, titles and content pages in both Arabic and French, publisher’s original wrappers, slightly faded, biblio, partly uncut, volume 4 cover foxed, small marginal tear to upper cover of volume 2 without any loss, otherwise set in very good condition, Imprimerie Catholique, Beirut, 1937 -1952.

Synopsis

RARE WORK. Habeeb Zayat is known as a highly esteemed and undisputed pioneer in the history of the Greek Melkite Church. His works are found in major libraries in Europe. He corresponded with the great Orientalist scholars of his time, including Louis Massignon, Claude Cahen and Barbier de Meynard. Zayat devoted his free time to research the manuscripts while still employed by the Imperial Ottoman Bank. From the beginning of his scientific career, Orientalists were attracted by his work. In his early thirties in 1903, he had already spent ten years working in the library of the Daheryé which, at the time of the Umayyad Caliphs, had been the largest in Damascus. In 1936, he founded a bi-annual journal, Al Khizanat al-Charquiyat whose purpose was the study of literature and Oriental history. The review was published in Harissa in Lebanon while it was put together in Cimiez, a suburb of Nice in France. Habib Zayat published original articles found in libraries in which he worked.