[MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SCIENCES / FIRST TECHNICAL DICTIONARY IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD] Ta'rîfât Sayyid [with] Ma'a al-mutammimât fî al-hâshiyyah. [i.e. The book of definitions of Sayyid, with Supplementary]

ALI IBN MUHAMMAD AL-SHARIF AL-JURJÂNÎ, (1339-1414), Dar Al-Tibaat Al-Amire, Istanbul (Constantinople), [AH 1265] = 1848.

Contemporary cloth bdg. Light green boards. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Arabic. 119 p., a drawn table. Occasionally stained on margins, loosened spine, otherwise a very good copy.

Lithographed edition. Exceedingly rare early Arabic edition printed in Istanbul, of the first technical dictionary in alphabetical order of the Islamic world written by Medieval Islamic theologian Jurjani (1339-1414). The book contains definitions of about one thousand five hundred important scientific terms including such as philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, commentary, hadith, fiqh, kalam, mysticism, Arabic language, and literature and it later became the main source of important lexicons of the Islamic literature such as Tahanavî's "Kashshafu istilahât al-funûn", Abul Baqa's "Kulliyyât", and Riza Tawfiqi's "Mufassal Qamus". This work is also known as only "Tarîfât".

Traditionally framed text in Nastaliq script, and marginal second text in inclined Nastaliq script to the left, formed an empty triangle on the right and left centers of the pages. The text starts with "Basmala" under the calligraphic head title in a symmetrical composition surrounded by a decorative floral design, after a four-page "Fihrist" [i.e. Index]. The text goes on with the praise of God and the Prophet Muhammad. Some underlined words were originally in print not only in the main text but also in the marginal annotation. The marginal text of the book which is written and annotated by an undefined author titled "Ma'a al-mutammimât fî al-hâshiyyah" [i.e. Supplementary annotation] is included. A drawn table on the 17th page.

Although encyclopedic works have been written along with a description of Islamic sciences before Jurjânî such as Alpharabius' "Ihsân al-Ulûm", Avicenna's "Aqsamu-l-Ulûm", Kharezmi's "Mafatihu-l-Ulûm”, Fakhr Al-Dîn Razi's "Hadâîqu-l-Anwâr", Fargânî's "Latâifu-l-ilâm", Al-Ta'rîfât is the first systematical compilation of the terminology of Medieval Islamic sciences in alphabetical order.

This is the second Constantinople edition, the fourth in literature. Leipzig edition in 1845 edited by G. Flügel, first European edition published by De Sacy in French, 1818. The First Istanbul edition was printed in 1837 by Muhammad As'ad. This work of Jurjânî was later published together with Ibn Arabi's "Istilahat-i Sufiyye" [i.e. Terminology of the Sufism].

Al-Jurjânî was a leading traditionalist theologian of 15th-century Iran. received a varied education, first in Harât and then in Egypt. He visited Constantinople in 1374, and, upon his return in 1377, he was given a teaching appointment in Shîrâz. In 1387 Shîrâz fell to Timur, the famous central Asian conqueror, and Jurjânî, whose fame as a teacher and scholar had reached its height, was taken to Timur's capital of Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan). He stayed in Samarkand until Timur's death in 1405, when he returned to Shîrâz. Most of Jurjânî's scholarly work was written in Arabic. Of his 31 extant works and commentaries, the best-known work is the Kitâb at-ta'rîfât ("Book of Definitions"), a short dictionary of technical terms from theology, philosophy, and philology.

This early edition is both in scarce institutional holdings and market rarity. Two copies in OCLC (44898849): Indiana University & The George Washington University Jacob Burns Law Library.