Gibb Memorial Trust, 1997.
First edition. Hardcover. Dust Jacket.
Quarto. [4], 22pp (text in English) + pages in Arabic. Original illustrated dust-jacket over black cloth with gold lettering on spine. The aim of this work is to present a text of the Jaysh Al-Tawshih of Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib* in a format parallel to that of the Uddat al-jalis of Ibn Bishri (Gibb Memorial, New Series 33). Thus the Introduction is similarly brief; the indices are again confined to simple references; and the bibliography is limited to the few works that the reader is likely to need for textual cross-references. Attention is thus focused on the texts of the poems themselves, not in this case because the texts have never been printed, but to enable scholars to have for the first time a clear picture of what is in the manuscripts. This work is illustrated with 3 full-page b/w photographic reproductions. Text in Arabic with some English. Dust-jacket, binding and interior in very good condition.
*Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib (or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani) (1313–1374) was a poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician and politician from Al-Andalus. Some of his poems decorate the walls of the Alhambra in Granada. He was born at Loja, near Granada. al-Khatib spent most of his life as vizir at the court of Muhammed V, but was exiled from Granada twice and lived for some time in the Marinid empire in Morocco (the first time 1360-62 and the second time 1371-74 in Ceuta and Tlemcen and Fes). He was murdered in 1374, at Fes, in revenge of a private feud. He excelled as a historian and he wrote excellent poetry some of which was put to music as muwashshahat.
