The Manuscript Copies of Abu Hatim al-Razi's Kitab al-Zina at The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Book Chapter in "Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond"
“The lexicographic encyclopaedia Kitāb al-Zīna is probably the most well known and also the largest extant work by the Ismaili dāʿī Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/934–935). We know of three surviving copies which were written around the 5th–7th/11th–13th centuries. However, despite their importance as some of the oldest Ismaili text witnesses in existence, all are fragmentary and at least two of them, kept in Baghdad and Sanaa, have not been easily accessible to Western scholars over the last years. Seven more recent and largely undamaged manuscript copies exist in the Ismaili Special Collections Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. We know of 15 codices worldwide but since many contain only either the first or second half of the book, not counting fragments, a total number is difficult to give. This chapter will briefly introduce the content and structure of the Kitāb al-Zīna and present the text witnesses known today, focusing especially on the manuscript copies preserved at the IIS in London. In his complete edition of the book, published in 2015, Saʿīd al-Ghānimī has implied that the London copies form ‘siblings’ (akhawāt) of witnesses, united by the same variant readings. This assumption will be discussed after describing and comparing the manuscripts from the IIS in terms of their codicological characteristics.” (Cornelius Berthold)
Author: Cornelius Berthold
Link to Full Chapter: Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond