Abu Nasr Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari (d.1008 AD), Taj al-lugha wa sihah al-arabiyya, ('The Crown of Language and the Correct Arabic'), volume 8, copied by Mansur ibn Jama', probably Iraq, Abbasid, dated Rabi al-Awwal 577 AH/July-August 1181 AD

Formerly in the collection of a Middle Eastern Ambassador to the UK, early 1970s

Abu Nasr Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari was a celebrated Arabic lexicographer of Turkish origin. His studies took him to Baghdad where he attended lectures of Abu Sa’id al-Sirafi and Abu ‘Ali al-Farisi. For many years he travelled extensively and maintained an earlier tradition among lexicographers by conducting lexical investigations with the Bedouin tribes of Mudar and Rabi’a, and in the Hijaz and Nejd. After years of travel, he settled in Nishapur and devoted himself to literary activity. His beautiful calligraphy was admired to the point that he was considered to be on the same level as Ibn Muqla.

The fame of our author rested on the text of the present manuscript, Taj al-lugha wa sihah al-arabiyya, ('The Crown of Language and the Correct Arabic'), also known as Al-Sihah. It was a milestone in the development of Arabic lexicography and for centuries remained the most widely used Arabic dictionary. Its importance is proven by the mass of lexicographical literature than derived from the present work. The text itself was innovative, arranging the roots under the last radical, which was been interpreted as an effort to help poets to find rhymes. This manuscript is the last volume of the work dealing with the letter ya’.

Some have suggested that Al-Jawhari died before the work was completed, rumoured to have fallen from a great height while trying to fly with wooden wings, and his student Ibrahim ibn Sahl al-Warrak is thought to have completed it from drafts left by his teacher. However, there are records of autograph copies which has led others to suggest this was a rumour intended to reaffirm al-Jawhari’s position as an unwavering authority given the presence of small errors. For more information on the author and this text, see Kopf 1983, pp.495-7.

Authenticity of the lexicographical data it contained was of the utmost importance and was dependent on a reliable chain of transmission. The present early copy of the work illustrates this by the inclusion of the unbroken chain of transmission on the final leaf. For a full list of the chain of transmission, see the online entry for this lot. For further manuscripts of the Sihah, see Brockelmann, GAL, I, p.133, and GAL, S.I, p.196.