Monde islamique - Manuscrit arabe ancien – Traité de grammaire et morphologie (Ṣarf) - 1750-1800

Ancient Arabic manuscript – Treatise on Grammar and Morphology (Ṣarf) – 22 handwritten pages – Leather binding – 18th century
Interesting ancient Arabic manuscript dedicated to the grammatical and morphological study of the Arabic language, all leaves detached including the old brown leather binding, in a compact format of 18 cm × 12 cm.
The manuscript comprises 22 handwritten pages, copied by hand in black ink. A particularly neat portion of the text features rubrication in red ink, technical terms, divisions and numbering appear in red, while the body of the text is traced in black. Several pages are also delimited by a double red border line.
The visible content mainly concerns Arabic grammar and morphology (ṣarf), study of verbal forms, conjugations, the imperative, present, letter modifications and different grammatical categories. The successive divisions are clearly materialized by red-rubricated ordinal terms.
The manuscript’s interest is reinforced by the presence of numerous old annotations in the margins, corrections, additions and reading marks, evidencing probably prolonged pedagogical or scholarly use.
This is not a Quran. Some religious references and phrases mentioning God appear naturally in the text and its examples, but the visible work is primarily a linguistic treatise intended for the learning of classical Arabic, inscribed in the intellectual and educational tradition of the Islamic world.
The old binding is particularly interesting, brown leather over cardboard, with an enveloping flap, a feature characteristic of many handwritten bindings in the Islamic world. The cover presents a central polylobed medallion and a sober decoration.
The binding is heavily patinated, with wear, cracks, material loss, stains and significant signs of use. The inner structure is also weakened and reveals across parts the stitching and reinforcement.
The leaves show browning, stains, smudges, small tears, marginal gaps and old restorations. The worn condition nevertheless provides a highly evocative material testimony to the long history of use of the manuscript.
Binding size: 18 cm × 12 cm.
22 plain or double-sided handwritten pages.
Language: Arabic.
Manuscript in black and red ink on paper.
Circa 1700–1800.
An authentic witness to the traditional teaching of Arabic, a small learned manuscript of 22 pages, abundantly annotated by its former readers, with red rubrication and a remarkable ancient Islamic binding with a flap.
*Conservation advice, as it is very fragile.
Store flat
No direct light
Stable hygrometry: 50–55%
Temperature ~ 18–21°C
Never moisten → immediate loss
Very rare.
Photos are an integral part of the description.
Shipping Chronopost or other depending on country with insurance.