Clik here to view.
Calculating Coptic Orthdox Easter
This manuscript deals with the calculation of Easter Sunday according to the Coptic calendar. Fixing this date each year governs much of the liturgical and devotional life of the Coptic Orthodox...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Towards Salvation through Fervent Prayer
This manuscript of devotions attributed to Butrus al-Sadamanti appears to have been copied in the 19th century by an anonymous scribe. The manuscript includes a 40-page introduction to the devotions....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medical Digest. Book I. On the Diseases of the Respiratory System
Fī ʻilal al-jihāz al-tanaffusī (On the diseases of the respiratory system) is a translation from the French into Arabic of Hippolyte de Brun's Traité des Maladies de l'Appareil Respiratoire.Hippolyte...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Selected Techniques in the Art of Agriculture
The author of this book, Bishārah ibn Salwān Naḥūl al-Lubnānī, explains in the introduction how he had long desired to write an Arabic text on the agricultural sciences but was only able to do so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Elements of Geometry
This copy of Mabādi' al-handasa (Elements of geometry) is a second edition of a work by Rifā‘ah Rāfi‘ al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801−73), a leading intellectual and a pioneer of the 19th century Egyptian...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Summary of the Structure of Plant Parts and Their Functions
The work presented here is Kitāb mukhtaṣar tarkīb a‘ḍā’ al-nabāt wa waẓā’ifihā (A summary of the structure of plant parts and their functions) by ‘Uthmān Ghālib (1845−1920), an Egyptian physician and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Facilitator of Utility on Medicine and Wisdom; including the Curing of...
This 1898 printing of a 15th-century work by a Yemeni author, Ibrāhīm ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Abū Bakr al-Azraq, or al-Azraqī, is a book of remedies dealing with medicinal uses of seeds, grains, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The True Account of Veterinary Medicine
Kitāb ṣidq al-bayān fī ṭibb al-ḥayawān (The true account of veterinary medicine) is a late 19th century veterinary science manual by Lebanese author Jirjīs Ṭannūs ʻAwn. It is divided into two main...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Hidden Treasure on Arts and Crafts
Kitāb al-durr al-maknūn fī al-ṣanā’i‘ wa al-funūn (The hidden treasure on arts and crafts) is a compendium of several crafts and artisanal techniques by 19th century Lebanese author Jirjīs Ṭannūs ʻAwn....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lanterns Burning for Students Discerning
This mid-19th century publication is a basic textbook of Arabic grammar and syntax. Originally written by Jirmānūs Farḥāt (1670 or 1671−1732 or 1733), it was edited by the famous Lebanese teacher and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poetry Collection of Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Ḥilli
Scholars consider al-Hilli one of the leading poets of postclassical times, that is, the period following the fall of the Abbasid Empire in 1258. His Diwan (Collection of poems) is in 12 chapters,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Discourse on Universal History
This work is a translation into Arabic of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet’s history of the world, Discours sur l’histoire universelle (Discourse on universal history), in which the author argues for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Three Collections of Proverbs and Sayings
This printed book was published in 1883 at the famous Jawa’ib Press founded by the Arab printer, author, and journalist Ahmad Fāris al-Shidiyāq. As is often the case with early printed books, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Secret of Success
Samuel Smiles was a Scottish author and physician. He dropped out of school at 14 years of age but returned to finish the study of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. His most famous work,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Literary Essays by Classical Arab Authors
Jesuit scholar Louis Cheikho was born in Mardin, Turkey, and educated at the Jesuit school in Ghazīr, Lebanon. He remained associated with the seminary and its successor institution in Beirut,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summary of the History of the Arabs
Louis-Amélie Sédillot was a French astronomer and orientalist, son of Jean-Jacques Sédillot, who influenced the boy toward pursuing these same interests. Sédillot the younger translated and published...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poetry Collection
Born in what is now the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, ‘Ali ibn al-Muqarrab (1176 or 1177−1231 or 1232) had an adventurous life that included political intrigue and involvement with trade as well...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Students' Guide
Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, a Shafi’i jurist, teacher, and Sufi, was born in Egypt and studied at al-Azhar, the Sunni Islamic center of learning in Cairo. Throughout his long career (he lived...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History of Arab Literature
Jirjī Zaydān was born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a Syrian Orthodox family of modest means. After a mediocre experience at local schools, he moved to Egypt to study at al-Qaṣr al-ʻAynī medical college,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ukraine
In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background...
View Article