8vo. [6], 216 pp., 13 genealogy tables printed on 12 folding sheets, Latin & Arabic text, 19th century half calf gilt, rubbed to joints and extremities, green speckled edges, appendix, errata, some spotting to title and preliminary leaves and light spotting to tables at end, bookseller's ticket of Arthur Probsthain London to front paste down, copy in very good condition, Caroli Guilhelmi Ettingeri, Gothae, first edition, 1775.

Synopsis

Important first edition of the German orientalist and theologian Johann Eichhorn’s text, based on the writings of Albert Schultens and containing extracts from the work of early Islamic scholar Ibn Qutaybah (828-889 CE), printed with Arabic types. [Sotheby’s, Library of Camille Aboussouan, lot 304]
The greater part of the book consists of extracts from Ibn Qutaibah’s historical treatise Uyūn al-Akhbār.
Ibn Ibn Qutaybah (213 – 276 AH) was a renowned Islamic scholar. After studying tradition and philology he became qadi in Dinawar, and later a teacher in Baghdad, where he died. He was the first representative of the eclectic school of Baghdad philologists that succeeded the schools of Kufa and Basra. He was viewed as a hadith Master, foremost philologist, linguist, and a man of letters. Translations of his works to European languages continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827) succeeded Michaelis (Johann David) as Professor at Göttingen in 1788. The diversity of Eichhorn’s studies and labours is remarkable. He was one of the first commentators to make a scientific comparison between the biblical books and other Semitic writings. In 1775 he was made professor of Oriental languages at the Faculty of Theology at Jena University. His published habilitation lecture was about “monetary matters of the early Arabs (De rei numariae apud Arabas initiis)” on the basis of the chronicle of Makin ibn al-‘Amid. Later he edited the “Briefe über das arabische Münzwesen” by Johann Jacob Reiske. As a supplement to it, he compiled the first commentated bibliography of Islamic numismatics in 1786 with more than 100 pages. It is still a reference tool for numismatic literature prior to this date.
Bibliographic references: J. Zenker 768; Fuck I, 768; Schnurrer 182; Camille Aboussouan.