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| 1. Qur'an. Ca 1500. Tiny and exquisite nashki script. Donated by Ali Abdalla to ambassador Claes Rålamb in Constantinople 1657. [Riedel 6]. |
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| 2. Sacred book of the Lebanon Druze. Ca 1690. A collection of Druze scriptures, arranged by Hamza ibn 'Ali ben Ahmed, d. 1041. Donated to embassy preacher Jacob Berggren at Damascus 1821 by a Maronite bishop who had received it from a Druze prince at the latter's conversion to Christendom. [Riedel 20]. |
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3. Omar en-Nasafî, Manzûma, an Arabic didactic poem in 2660 lines on the four Sunni
schools of religious law. Turkish recipes and prayers. Dated 1676.
The author Omar was born in Uzbekistan 1068, d. in Samarkand 1142.
Taken as war-booty at the Austrian conquest of Turkish Ofen (Budapest) 1686. Donated to the Royal Library by Gustaf Carlholm, who belonged at the time to the regiment of Swedish general Nils Bielke and later became Professor of Philosophy at Dorpat. [Riedel 15]. |
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| 4. Turkish prayer-book. Dated 1615. Fine, dense and vocalized nashki script within gilt frames. Name of writer: Ahmed Naghami. Gilt Oriental leather binding in a leather bag with silver stitchings and a silk braid. Probably the property of a soldier, taken as war-booty in the time of Charles XII, later in the Drottningholm palace library. [Riedel 46]. |
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5. Turkish prayer-book. Ca 1650. Sura 6, amulet texts, prayers, incantations. Oriental
leather binding in a red cloth bag with a flap, leaden buttons for closing and a silk braid.
Taken by Swedish officer Christoffer Ekeblad from a Turkish captive soldier at Argos in Greece 1686, where he fought with Königsmarck on the Venetian side. He soon fell victim to the pestilence, but the book came to his father in Sweden. [Riedel 47]. |
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6. Al-Busiri, Al-Burdah, "The Mantle" . Poem of praise to the prophet Muhammad.
Maghribi script. North Africa, ca 1700.
Al-Busiri (c. 1213-95, Egypt), Arabic poet of Berber descent, won fame for his poem al-Burdah which he wrote after being cured of illness when the Prophet appeared to him in a dream and wrapped him in a mantle. The poem has been much venerated by Muslims, its verses have been used as amulets and it has frequently been commented on. [Riedel 13]. Literature: Riedel, W., Katalog över Kungl. bibliotekets orientaliska handskrifter. Stockholm 1923. |