Small 4to. [24], CLXXII, 603 pp., [27 indices], trade paper wrappers, title in red and black, printer’s vignette, small hole on page 11 of the index, light damp staining to margins of end leaves, otherwise copy in good condition, S. Luchtmans en Zoon, Leiden, 1748.

Synopsis

An important reprint of Eerpenius’s “Arabische Grammatica” by Schultens. This work introduced generations of Europeans to the rudiments of Arabic grammar. Erpenius was the first to render the native Arabic grammarians intelligible. In his edition of the Ajrumiya he welded Arabic terminology into the Latin language. He dedicated this work to the Lebanese scholars, Jibrai’l al-Sahyouni (Sionita) and Yuhanna al-Hasrouni (Hesronita), and his consilium or advisory notes to prospective students of Arabic, are repeated from the first edition of 1620. Surat al-Taghabun is included as reading material with detailed grammatical notes.
Luqman’s reputation for sagacity unites his three separate identities as the legendary hero of the lost ‘Ad tribe of the Jahiliyya, the father who admonishes his son in a chapter of the Qur’an which bears his name, and the late medieval writer of the fables printed in this book, fables which have no trace of the most important animals known to the Arabs, such as the ostrich, the hyena, the jackal and the camel, and therefore must be a translation and adaptation of the Syriac version of Aesop’s fables originating in Christian circles in Mamluk Syria.
Bibliographic references: Brunett, II, 1050; Zenker I, 174; Fück 59 ff.