Since Arabic manuscripts began to be collected over the
last five centuries in Europe, European librarians seem to
have come to distinguish between "good" and "bad" manuscripts.
A “good” manuscript is a complete manuscript,
with the beginning and the end, written in clear handwriting,
and preferably a holograph copy. A “good” manuscript
traditionally must have a beginning containing information
on its provenance and authorship. Such information includes
an invocatio (or in Arabic basmala), followed by the
name of the author (or his pen-name) introduced by the
word qāla (“said”), definition of the subject of the book,
and its title after the words wa-samaituhu (“... and I called it ...”). All manuscripts lacking these features are automatically
considered deficient or “bad”, since the lack of the indications
enumerated above for a “good” manuscript impedes
unambiguous identification of manuscripts and their
classification. In other words, such “bad” manuscripts cannot
be easily catalogued because of the lack of necessary
data about their authors, scribes, and exact titles...
14—17 мая 2024 г. в Санкт-Петербурге пройдут Сорок пятые (XLV) Зографские чтения «Проблемы интерпретации традиционного индийского текста». Предлагаем вашему вниманию программу конференции.
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