Marghiti, Mohamad ibn Said al-. Al-Mutalaa' Ala Masayil al-Moknaa'.

€ 18,000.00

A classic interpretation of and commentary on a celebrated poem on horology and astronomy by Abu Mukraa al-Batiwi (13th-14th c. CE). The manuscript is divided into three parts: the second contains al-Batiwi's text, while the third (Al Muknaa Fikhtissar Ilm Abi Mokraa') is al-Marghiti's verse commentary thereon. The first part (Al-Mutalaa' Ala Masayil al-Moknaa') forms an introduction to the whole, in which al-Marghiti explains his intentions as a scientist and scholar-poet.

Hailing from a small village in Souss Morocco, Mohamad ibn Said al-Marghiti (1598/99-1678/89 CE) spent most of his life in Marrakesh, where he cultivated an eclectic body of knowledge ranging from astrology, horology, and medicine to Sufism, Fikh, and Arabic grammar. His encyclopedic lectures were extremely popular in his Zawiya (Sufi school) as well as at the El Mouassine Mosque, where he served as Imam, thus greatly contributing to the revival of the scientifc and Sufi movement in Marrakesh during the last days of the Saadi Sultanate (1510-1659 CE), generally considered a period of scientific stagnation.

This work is still taught to this day at Moroccan high schools. The present example forms a wonderfully decorated witness to al-Marghiti's superior understanding of horology and astronomy and his spirit for facilitating the pursuit of knowledge for those who seek it.