8vo. 216 pp., Arabic text within borders, modern hard back binding in green with gilt lettering on upper cover, ink annotations in margins, small cut to inner margin of title page without loss to text, outer margin of the last four leaves cut without loss, foxing and date inscription on title page, otherwise copy in overall good condition, Matbaʻat ʼal-Jawaʼib, Qustantiniyah, Turkey, 1301 A. H./ 1884.

Synopsis

Al-Tha’ālibī (961–1038) was a famous writer, born in Nishapur. He wrote prose and verse of his own, and he was most famous for his anthologies and collections of epigrams. Of the twenty-nine works known to have been written by him, the most famous is his Kitāb Yatīmat ad-Dahr, on the poets of his own and earlier times, arranged according to the countries of origin of the poets, and containing valuable extracts. Another one of his works, the Kitāb Fiqh ul-Lugha, is lexicographical, a dictionary, where the words have been arranged in semantic subject classes.
This book is a selection of four letters from four different books by al-Tha’alibi. The selection is as follows:
The first letter is a selection from Kitab al-Tamthil wal Muhadara.
The second is selected from Kitab al-Mabhaj.
The third from Kitab Sihr al-Balagha wa Sirr al-Bara’a.
The fourth is selected from Kitab al-Nihaya fi al-Kinaya.
Not listed at Copac.