8vo. [23 introduction by Amin al-Haddad] / Part I: 98 pp., / Part II: 159 pp., / Part III: 144 pp., Arabic text, corrected by Ibrahim al-Yaziji, modern hard back binding, few ink annotations in margins, small marginal tear to first leaf without any loss, otherwise copy in very good condition, al-Matba’a al-Sharqiyah, al-Hadath, Lebanon, 1904.

Synopsis

Nasif al-Yaziji (1800 – 1871) was a Lebanese author and father of Ibrahim al-Yaziji. He was one of the leading figures in the Nahda movement.
Al-Yaziji moved to Beirut in 1840, where he became an Arabic tutor and it was in this role that he came into contact with American and British Protestant missionaries. He would help fulfil one of the greatest ambitions of the missionaries – the translation of the Bible into Arabic – when he corrected a translation started by Eli Smith, an American missionary, and Butrus al- Bustani in 1847.
After that, he taught at the Syrian Protestant College (later renamed the American University of Beirut) and wrote poetry, rhetoric, grammar and philosophy. It was for his attempts to emulate the style of classical Arab writers, thereby rediscovering the literary heritage of the Arabs, that he is best known.