Messenger of Thought

Selections from the Rare Book Collections

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"The pen is the ambassador of intelligence, the messenger of thought, and the interpreter for the mind"
– Islamic writer on calligraphy

The written word records man’s intellectual and spiritual journey. Words, whether written on clay, papyrus, parchment, or paper, are a lasting memorial of humankind. If words are the essence of books, the materials used and the technologies developed to write those words are the building blocks of a captured culture. In books, verbal collaborates with visual, textual with textural. This collaboration enhances meaning and invites intimacy between writer and reader. The arts of the book – papermaking and decorating, calligraphy, illumination, binding, were highly developed in Middle Eastern culture early in its history – in the ancient lands in which the written word was first developed, where papyrus and pen were first used and artwork was first added to elucidate the text. The elegant Arabic alphabet lent itself to numerous decorative forms and abstract patterns, entrancing the eye even when direct images could not. From ancient times to the present, the written word and the craft of Middle Eastern bookmakers has established law, recorded history and myth, inspired faith, stimulated intellectual exploration, and created bonds between cultures both east and west.

ca. 2276–2231 BCE Sumerian tablet. xPS3824

ca. 2100 BCE Sumerian tablets.

ca. 200–300 Coptic inscription on stone slab. Uncataloged

ca. 200–300 White stone slab with Coptic inscription. Uncataloged

ca. unknown Arabic script on bone.

ca. 798–835 Arabic papyrus #114a.

ca. 862–871 Arabic papyrus #201a. Uncataloged

ca. late 3^rd–early 4^th c. AH/late 8^th–early 9^th c. CE Paper leaves from a Qur’an. Uncataloged

3^rd c. AH/10^th c. CE Diwan al-mubash. Uncataloged

500 AH/1106 CE Qur’an leaf on laid paper. Egypt, 1106 ND2895 S2 U5 1106

12^th–13^th centuries CE Arabic woodblock amulets. Uncataloged

9^th c. AH/15^th c. CE St. Gregory (325?- & St. Basil (329–379). Commentaries. Uncataloged

9^th c. AH/15^th c. CE Molla Husrev (d. 1480). Mir’at al-Usul fi sharh mirqat al-Wusul. xMs Or. 11.3

902 AH/1496 AD ‘Uthman ibn ‘Ali Zayla’i (d. 1342 or 3). Al-juz’ al-rabi’ min sharh al-Kanz. xMs Or. 11.5

1547 Arba’ esrim…ha-shumash im targum u-ferush Rashi u-Ibn Ezra u-farperetot mi-ba’ al ha-‘urim: eha-Nezivim ha-d’nishonim im perush Rashi e’-aml ‘e’-Ralbag e-Rabi Yeshayah: u-Nevi’im ha-a’aromim im pe’ Rashi e’-aml: e’ha-Katumim…e’ha-mi’atot meturgamim… Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1547-49 Third edition xBS715

1566 Pirke ‘avot. Venice: Giorgio de Cavalli, 1566 Second edition xBM506 A23 A27 1566

1587 Bibliotheum hebraicum. Hamburg: Impressa typis Elianis, per Johannem Saxonem, 1587 First edition xBS715 1587

1587 ben Isaac de Pomis, David (1525-ca. 1593). Tsemah David: dittionario novo Hebraica: lexicon novum hebraicum. Venetus: Ioannem de Gara, 1587 xPJ4835 L3 P6 1587

1593 Avicenna (980-1037). Kitab al-najah. Rome: Medici Printing Press, 1593 xB751 N3 1593

1007 AH (4 Muharram)/1598 AD ibn Humam Khwandi Mir, Ghiyas al-Din (d. 1535-37). Habib al-siyar fi akhbar afrad al-bashar. xDS289.7 K485 1598 ARC

1608 Meir ben Baruch, of Rothenburg (ca. 1215 – 1293). Sefer she’elot u-teshuvot… Prag: Mosheh ben Yosef Betsaleel Kats…, 1608 xBM522.62 B28 1608

1625 Nizami (1140?-1216? CE). Layli wa Majnun Iran?, 1625 xND2895 S2 U5 1106

1080 AH/1669 CE Ma’zubi, Ubayd Allah ibn Mas’ud (d. 1346/7). Al-Tam’if fi al-ghamam. xMs Or. 8.11

1675? ibn Sulayman Jazuli, Mu’ammad (d. 1465). Kitab dalayil al-khayrat wa-shawariq al-anwar fi dhikr al-salah ala al-nabi al-mukhtar. Late 17th century xPB188.2 J39 1600z

ca. 1700 Dala’il al-khayrat. Muhammad ibn Suleyman al-Jazuli (d. 1472) Ca. 1700-1900 xMs Or.8.3

ca. 1700 al-Nisa, Zib (1638-1702). Diwan –I qib al-nisa’ makhtuf. Manuscript, between 1700 and 1850

ca. 1700 ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Azhari, Khalid (d. 905 AH/1499 CE). Sharh al-ajurumiyyah. xMs. Or. 9.32

1708 Sefer otiyot shel rabi akiba. Amsterdam: Published by the commentators, 1708 xBM517
O8 1708

1709 Yom Tov Lipmann Muelhausen (14th/15th cent.). Sefer nitsahon. Ams’erdam: Be-vet Shelomoh ben Yosef Props, 469 (1709) xBM648 L5 1709

1772, bef. Hebrew scroll. Uncataloged

1780 Bukhara Qur’an. Uzbekistan, ca. 1780

1870 Wadi al-nil. al-Qahirah: Ma’ba’at Wadi al-Nil, 1866-1878 xAP95 A6 W33 v.4 (1870-
1871)

19--? Persian illumination. xND2895 S2 U5 1106

19--? ibn Jurjis Mazlum, Maksimus (1779?-1854?) xms BR1710 M29 1900z Kitab al-kunz althamin fi achbar al-qiddisin…

1930 Tharaud, Jerome (1874-1953) & Jean Tharaud (1877-1952). Fez: or, the citizens of Islam. London: 1930 xDT329 F4 T513 1930

1992 Boullata, Kamal (1942-). Adonis, beginnings: an artist’s edition. Riverdale, MD: Pyramid Atlantic, 1992 xN7433.4 B679 A36 1992

Ginsberg, Allen. Kaddish: for Naomi Ginsberg, 1894-1956). San Francisco, CA: The Arion Press, 1992 xZ232.5 A7 G56 1992

1994 Shereen LaPlantz, (1947-). Historical Jewish wedding rings. California: Press de LaPlantz, c1994 xN7433.4 L36 H57 1994

1999 Yehoshua, Abraham B. A journey to the end of the millennium. Huntington Woods, Mich: Land Marks Press, 1999 xPJ5054 Y42 M37132 1999

2000 From the valley of the kings. Orinda, CA: Shoestring Press, 2000 xPJ1675 F72 2000z

Rubottom, Sibyl and Jim Machacek. New rule: a poem by Rumi. San Diego, CA: Bay Park Press, 2000 xN7433.4 R73 N49 2000