Meca

1896 · ref. 056105 — Mecca: Hicâz Vilâyet Matbaasi Mecca AH 1314 CE 1896/97. 1896. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Contemporary quarter purple cloth. 4to. 28 x 20 cm. In Ottoman Turkish and Arabic with sporadic Persian verses. 1 blank page 3 222 p. A label on spine slight wear to spine single leaf of index is loosely inserted. Else a very good and collectible copy "Al-Matba'a al-Miriyya" seal on colophon as a common practice of preventing counterfeits in the period. An exceptionally rare first Mecca edition of a single-volume work containing two celebrated texts representing the final nineteenth-century Turkish commentaries on the Qasîda-i Burda. Authored by Necib Bey of Antioch an Ottoman official who served in the Hijaz the volume was printed at the first press established in the region by Osman Nuri Pasha. The Qasîda-i Burda is a thirteenth-century ode of praise to Muhammad composed by the Egyptian Shadhili mystic al-Bûsîrî. The first two pages of the work are devoted to complimentary letters written for the book by the then Governor of the Hijaz Ahmed Ratib Pasha 1846-1913 and by the Arab scholars Abd al-Jalil Burade and Arif Khan Tashkendi. One of the letters is in Arabic the other in Ottoman Turkish. The final Turkish commentary on the Qasîda-i Burda produced in the nineteenth century belongs to Necib Bey of Antioch d. after 1319/1902 who served as an official in the Hijaz region. Necib Bey held administrative posts at both institutions known as al-Tekiyyât al-Miriyya The Egyptian Tekke charitable imarets established by Mehmed Ali Pasha of Kavala the Khedive of Egypt d. 1265/1849 one in Mecca and the other in Medina. As he himself states in his commentary Necib Bey received his education in Western Anatolia and travelled extensively across a wide geographical area including regions beyond Ottoman territory such as Europe and Russia marking him as a Turkish traveller and scholar of broad experience. In addition to these qualities he was also active as an educator and is known to have tutored members of the elite including Khedive Abbas Hilmi II of Egypt d. 1944 and his brother Mehmed Ali Pasha. Two works by Necib Bey are known both of which are Turkish commentaries on the Qasida-i Burda poems of Ka'b b. Zuhayr and al-Bûsîrî. The first bears the title Is'âd: Shar-i Bânet Su'âd and the second Mukhtaar Tawassul: Shar-i Qasîda-i Burda. These two works were published together in a single bound volume in 1896/97 at the Hijaz Provincial Printing House. The title Mukhtaar Tawassul derives from the fact that this work is an abridgement of the commentary entitled Tawassul by Mekkî Mehmed Efendi d. 1212/1797. The commentary entitled Is'âd takes its name from the Arabic commentary Is'âd 'alâ Bânet Su'âd written by the Egyptian scholar Ibrâhîm b. Muammad al-Bâjûrî d. 1277/1860. The commentator explains this choice of title with the statement: "This commentary being in the nature of a translation of Bâjûrî's commentary has therefore been named Is'âd after its original title." However the diversity of sources evident in the work the inclusion of autobiographical details Sufi narratives poetic examples in three languages and several critical remarks directed at the primary source clearly demonstrate that the text stands much closer to an original composition ta'lîf than to a mere translation tarjama. Gürler. ON THE FIRST PRINTING HOUSE IN THE HIJAZ: The distinctive cultural character of Meccan society as a centre for learning intellectual exchange and scholarly debate was a decisive factor in the introduction of printing to Mecca. This development was welcomed by both scholars and the local population and materialized in 1882 under the auspices of the Ottoman governor of the Hijaz Osman Nuri Pasha. Although the Ottoman government had established the first printing press in the Arabian Peninsula earlier in Sana'a in 1877 1295 AH Mecca became acquainted with printing shortly thereafter in 1300 AH 1882-83 with the founding of an official government press. The Meccan pres Hicâz Vilâyet Matbaasi, Mecca, AH 1314 [CE 1896/97]. hardcover