Masabih al-sunna (a compendium of Hadith), copied by Elias ibn Ahmad ibn Elias al-Nawjari, Mecca, dated 2 Dhu al-Qa'da 729 AH/4 September 1329 AD and Sha'ban 734 AH/ April-May 1334 ADAD

Christie's, London, 13 October 1998, lot 36

Ex-Schoyen Collection, Norway, acquired 2000

Abu Muhammad al-Husayn ibn Mas‘ud al-Farra’ al-Baghawi wrote on many subjects but he is most well-known for the Masabih al-sunna. The text is a book of Hadith organised in thematic chapters which have a bearing upon the day-to-day lives of believers, and arranged according to their degree of authority. With this text, al-Baghawi intended to help religious people live a life pleasing to God and it has remained a popular work. Many manuscripts of the work are recorded by Brockelmann and a twelfth century manuscript of the text is in the Khalili Collection (inv. no.MSS 245).

Each chapter begins with traditions which are sound (sahih) i.e. traditions from the Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim; then traditions which are good (hasan), meaning traditions which he has taken from the books of Abu Da’ud, al-Tirmidhe, and other imams. In many chapters he also includes traditions which have only one authority at some stage of the isnad (gharib), and even traditions which are weak (da’if). But he claims that he includes none which are rejected (munkar), or spurious (mawdu).

The present manuscript is copied with notable care for the presentation. The scribe has has used a neat naskh juxtaposed rhythmically against large and elegantly copied muhaqqaq headings. Notably, the colophon records that the manuscript was copied in Mecca.