Copies of “Annotations of at-Taftazani on al-Zanjani Grammar” from the Oriental Department of Gorky Library of St. Petersburg State University

Abstract

Written tradition in the Middle East was supported by and developed owing to the work of copyists of manuscripts — both professionals and armatures. Educational process involved rewriting the books and also contributed to the emergence of a large number of manuscripts in the Arab world. However, there was not a standard for writing such manuscripts, so often there was no dating of a work and information about its title and author. Sometimes scribes pointed to arbitrary names of the manuscripts, which they rewrote, they also distorted the author’s name, and sometimes attributed it to another person. Only in a few manuscripts we can find the date and place of writing. In some cases the researcher can date a manuscript using watermarks that are sometimes presented in the paper. A paper which was made in the Russian Empire and in Europe usually posses watermarks in contrast to the papers, which were used in the Middle East. The article examines five manuscripts, which are called “Annotations of at-Taftazani on al-Zanjani Grammar” from the Oriental Department of Gorky Library at St. Petersburg State University. The article includes a review of the manuscript text, comments in the text, as well as the study of the paper of the manuscripts and etc. Al-Zanjani grammar is one of the most popular books about Arabic morphology which is widely used even today. Only one of the manuscripts, which we reviewed, is incomplete (№ 1285). The earliest manuscript was dated 1745. The article is relevant and interesting, it examines important practical aims because it attempts to describe some of the many manuscripts, which the Oriental Department of Gorky Library at St. Petersburg State University posseses.

Keywords:

manuscript, handwritten fund, written tradition, the Arabic language, grammar, annotations