Page 40 - Arabian Studies (I)

26 Arabian Studies I

materials he found in the Khatt or handwriting of his father
recorded by his father on the authority of his own father, on the
authority of his (Dawud’s) grandfather. The extent of the agricul­
tural tradition in the Rasulid house is apparent — our author’s
grandfather, al-Mu’aiyad Dawiid b. Yusuf (696 II./1297 A.D.—
721 H./1321 A.D.), is said to have abbreviated an agricultural
encyclopaedia,3 and Dawud’s grandfather, al-Malik al-Muzaffar
Yusuf b. ‘Umar, ascended the throne in 647 H./l250 A.D. Our
author also frequently quotes Milk al-maldhah which, he states, was
written by ‘my grandfather (Jadd) al-Malik al-Ashraf.4 The Milk
al-maldhah is extant, though so far in a single defective copy only,s
but no copy of al-Ishdrah is yet reported. It is possible that a few
pages in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana6 might come from al-Ishdrah, for
the section on millet (dhurah) has sentences nearly identical with the
Baghyah, as might also the section entitled Marifat al-matalim,
though the latter might be from a missing section of Milh al-maldhah,
or both might be the notes of an earlier Rasulid monarch.
Of the Bughyah itself two copies have been at my disposal. The
first, a copy made available to me in Tarim by the kindness of the
historian Saiyid Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Shatirl, I transcribed in
1953-4; it is dated Muharram 9, i 197 H./15 Dec., 1782 A.D. The
second7 was shown me by the late Fu’ad Saiyid on my return via
Cairo from Hadramawt: he provided me with a microfilm - it is
undated. It is said that another copy exists in the Yemen but it has
not been available to Yemeni scholars or to me. Since I commenced
my edition of the text, Ibn Bassal’s K. al-Filahahs has been published
in Tetuan, and Professor Ihsan ‘Abbas has drawn my attention to a
published edition of another Spanish treatise, al-Falah fi 'l-fildhah of
Abu ’1-Khair9 of Seville, both of which are utilised by our author
though he only once cites Abu ’1-Khair by name.

Establishing and Interpretation of the Text
It might be thought a simple matter to establish a text of the
Bughyah from the MS. and printed sources cited above, to which
must be added the abbreviated version shown me by QadT Isma‘11,
but the contrary is the case. Our author does not quote verbatim
from either his Yemenite or Spanish sources, but abbreviates or
paraphrases. I incline to think he had the fuller version of Ibn Bassal
at his disposal, and while the latter author is a useful aid, the
Bughyah is quite often more correct than the printed text of Ibn
Bassal, which is poorly edited. My objective has been to attempt to
preserve the text as nearly as al-Malik al-Afdal presented it, including