SHAMS AL-DIN ABI ‘ABD ALLAH MUHAMMAD AL-DIHNI, KITAB AL-MU’NI FI'L-DU’AF WA BA’D AL-THIQAT, COPIED BY ‘ALI IBN MUHAMMAD B. DAWUD B. KHIDIR, YEMEN, RASULID, DATED 817 AH/1414 AD

Christie's London, 24 November 1987, lot 74.

N. Safwat, A Collector’s Eye. Islamic calligraphy in Qur’ans and other manuscripts, London 2010, no.53, pp.214-5.

This volume is a list of some false and some reliable reports of sayings attributed to the prophet. It was originally part of a large volume, as indicated by the numerals on the upper external corner of the pages, and was detached and bound singularly in a later date. The ownership annotation to the upper right corner of f.1a can be compared to another almost identical one on the Kitab al-aghani ('Book of Songs'), now in the Millet Yazma Eser Kutuphanesi, Istanbul (Roxburgh 2005, p.97) and on a manuscript now in the British Library (OR.1347) and two lots offered in these rooms, 25 October 2017, lots 24 and 26.

A paragraph in the colophon states that the manuscript was copied for Jamal al-Din Muhammed b. Ridi al-Din b. Abi Bakr b. Muhammed b. Salih, known as Ibn al-Khayyat, who was probably the Hafiz and Mufti of Yemen who died in 1435-36 AD.