A 16th century Ottoman manuscript on Arabic grammar.

This manuscript is a commentary on Kitab al-Tasrif (The Book of Derivation), a treatise on the derivations of Arabic words composed in 1254 by Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ibrahim Zanjani. The author of this commentary, Masud ibn Umar al-Taftazani (d.1390), was an Iranian scholar born in the village of Taftazan in Khurasan who wrote extensively on grammar, rhetoric, theology and law. The Sharh al-Tasrif is said to be Taftazani’s first work, written in 1336, at the age of 16. His commentaries on well-known Islamic works were widely used as textbooks in Ottoman madrasahs.

This copy was made in the Ottoman Empire and is dated mid-February 1531. It is written in naskh script on thin white polished paper and bound in dark red morocco covers with impressed medallions and a flap. There are numerous notes written in the margins throughout, many in elliptical patterns, and folio 1r contains a calendar for the Islamic year 1436–7. There are several seals and inscriptions on the flyleaves, including those dated 1139AH (1726) and 1287 AH (1870).

Text adapted from Islamic Manuscripts in the Royal Collection: A Concise Catalogue (Leiden: 1992).