lbn an-nadim the fihrist a 10th century ad survey of islamic
DESCRIPTION
The author of al-Fihrist (The Catalog) was Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Ishaq, but as a rule he is called al-Nadim because he had the distinction of being a nadim or court companion. As the surname of his father was Abu Yaqub, he evidently had an elder brother named Yaqub and probably had other brothers and sisters as well.The year of his birth is unknown but it cannot have been much after 935 AD and more likely was somewhat earlier. The author's father was called a warrq, which in his case evidently meant that he was a book dealer. As he seems to have been prosperous, it is likely that he presided over a large bookstore, which was almost certainly at Baghdad. It's easy to imagine how he commissioned his sons to buy manuscripts from other dealers and had his own scribes make copies of manuscripts for his customers.TRANSCRIPT
