Academic edition of an important military writer from Muslim Spain

Andalus, Abu-l-Hassan Ali ibn Abd-ar-Rahman al-Farazi al- (Ibn Hudayl) / Mercier, Louis (transl. and ed.). L’Ornement des âmes et la devise des habitants d’el Andalus.

€ 2.500,00

A French translation and commentary of a work by the medieval Andalusian military writer Ibn Hudayl (b. ca. 1329 CE), complete with an accompanying volume of a lithograph facsimile of the original Arabic. The manuscript is titled in Arabic "Kitab tuhfat al-anfus wa'si'ar sukkan al-Andalus" ("Gift of the spirit or souls of the Andalusians"). Its French translation includes an extensive commentary on Islam, the concept of Holy War as it can be applied to jihad, and the relation of different aspects of Islam to militarism.

The French orientalist Louis Mercier (1879-1945) was the translator and commentator behind this important edition, known for his study of Arab culture and his translations of Arabic literature and histories. In his translation work, Mercier provided French readers with access to a much wider range of essential texts of Muslim literature and thought than had been previously available. With Mercier's visiting card laid in.