al-Mustatraf fi kull fann mustazraf

Al-Mustatraf fi kull fann mustazraf ("The choice of every elegant art") is an encyclopaedia of literature and lore by al-Abshihi, arranged by its author in eighty-four chapters, the first on the pillars of Islam and the last on the merit of invoking blessings on the Prophet. ^{2 3} The title page of the BULAC lithograph attributes it to "Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Abshihi". ⁴

Al-Abshihi says he had seen people of ambition collect much in the way of manners, admonitions and wise sayings, and expand on histories, rare tales, reports, stories and witticisms, mentioning among them al-Zamakhshari in Rabi' al-Abrar and Ibn Abd Rabbih in al-'Iqd. ¹ He then says he sought God's guidance and compiled a book containing hadith, proverbs, poems, stories, rare tales, curiosities and heart-softening reports, "by reading which hearts are gladdened". ¹ He arranged it in eighty-four chapters, giving them an introduction and sections so that a reader could go to each chapter separately. ²

The book's list of chapters at the start of the copy includes: ^{2 5 6 3}

• Religion and learning: the pillars of Islam in five sections; intellect and intelligence; the Qur'an and its merit; knowledge and manners and the merit of scholar and student; proverbs; clarity, eloquence and fluent speech. ²
• Rule and politics: kingship, the sultan and obedience to those in authority; the duties of the sultan's companions; viziers; chamberlains and governorship; judgeship, judges and taking bribes; justice and kindness; oppression and its ill omen; the conditions set for officials and the rules for protected non-Muslims. ^{7 2 5}
• Character and social life: doing favours and relieving the distressed; good and bad traits; good company, affection, brotherhood and visiting; compassion, mercy, intercession and reconciliation; modesty and humility; self-admiration and pride; boasting and rank; honour and leadership; generosity; food and the etiquette of hospitality; keeping promises; keeping secrets; treachery, betrayal and theft. ^{7 8 5}
• The righteous and the wicked: goodness and righteousness, with the Companions and saints; the virtues of the righteous and the wonders of the saints; the wicked and the shameful deeds they commit. ⁵
• War and praise: courage, wars and the merit of jihad; the names of brave men and heroes; praise, eulogy and thanks for favours; truthfulness and lying. ^{8 5}
• The Arabs and wonders: reports and customs of the Arabs; soothsaying, physiognomy, augury and divination by signs; animals, birds and creeping things; the wonders of creatures, lands and cities; minerals and stones. ⁶
• Music and mirth: voices, melodies and singing, and people's disagreement over it between those who reject it and those who approve; reports of singers; joking, what is said against it and in permission of it; rare tales and stories. ^{6 3}
• The close: supplication and its etiquette; repentance and its conditions; illness, medicine and visiting the sick; death and the states of the grave; patience and condolence; this world and renouncing it; and finally blessings on the Prophet. ³

The first chapter, on the pillars of Islam, opens with a section on sincerity towards God and His praise, setting out the creed that God is beyond resemblance to bodies. ³

At the end of the BULAC copy a colophon says the printing was done in Cairo at the expense of "Ali Agha al-Turjuman", and its year reads probably as "seventy-five and two hundred after the thousand", the units word being damaged in the machine reading. ⁹

• The machine reading of this copy reverses the letters of each line; it was read by reversing the lines, so some chapter titles are given by their sense.
• The museum already has earlier progress on volume 1 of another copy (the chapter on misers), in docs/delegation/library/mustatraf.md.
• The order of the middle chapters is disturbed in the machine reading, so they are grouped here by subject, not by number.