Kitāb Dīwān Miṣr
Contributors: Muslim World Manuscripts (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Published: 1793
Place of publication: Palermo, Italy]
Language: ara
Number of pages: 432
Subjects: Early works to 1800; History; Arabic Manuscripts; Forgery of manuscripts; Specimens
Other titles: Dīwān Miṣr; Libro del consiglio di Egitto.
Description: A forgery by Giuseppe Vella of what purport to be documents exchanged between several Norman rulers of Sicily and Fatimid caliphs of Egypt. The text is written in a mixture of Arabic and what is probably Maltese. Vella translated this work into Italian and published it in 1793 under the title Libro del consiglio di Egitto.

The manuscript purports to be a copy made 467 H of the correspondence exchanged between several Norman rulers of Sicily and a Fatimid caliph of Egypt.
Notes: Original leaves are 210 mm mounted in sheets 280 mm.

Title from title page and introduction (p. 2).

Layout: 30 long lines.

Script: Written in a maghribi in reddish ink; pointed.

Decoration: Title page decoration of a larger rectangle with knotwork frame divided by another knotwork line with the basmallah above the line and the title in a circular medallion centered in the lower square (p. 1).

Origin: Composed and published in 1793, in Palermo, Italy.

Shelfmark: MS Or 388 - FOLIO.

Digital version available with no restrictions Unrestricted online access

Electronic reproduction. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Libraries, 2020. Digitized as part of the Muslim World Manuscripts Project, 2018-2021, funded by CLIR.

Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials. Version 1. December 2002. Digital version conforms to: http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

Arabic.

Sold by Probsthain & Co.; listed as number 1345 in Probsthain's Oriental Catalogue no. 20, part II (1910) (note laid in).

Leather flap style binding with metal clasp; gold tooling on boards and flap; Kitāb Dīwān Miṣr (title) in gold on outer fore-edge flap; yellow, red, and black decorated endpapers; speckled edges.

Gottheil, Richard. "Two forged antiques." Journal of the American Oriental Society, v. 33 (1913)

Hager, Joseph. Nachricht von einer merkwürdigen literarischen Betrügerey : Auf einer Reise nach Sizilien im Jahre 1794. Leipzig, 1799.

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