Fifth, enlarged edition of the groundbreaking introduction to the Arabic language by Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), the first professor of Arabic at Leiden University. He printed and published the first edition himself in 1620, one of the earliest major works using the Arabic types cut for his new oriental printing office by Arent Corsz. Hoogenacker in 1615. The Elzevirs acquired Erpeniuss materials and many of his workmen after his premature death from the plague and printed and published the second edition in 1628. Vitrays third edition (Paris, 1638) is based on the second. These were all in 8vo format with about 250 pages. Albert Schultens (1686-1750), appointed professor of oriental languages at Leiden in 1732, prepared a greatly enlarged 4th edition in 1733, now in 4to format and more than three times as long. The additions included his own Clavis dialectorum, discussing the relations between Hebrew and Arabic words, and the Nawabig ul-kalim, a collection of proverbs compiled by the linguist Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamabshari (1075-1144 CE; AH 467-538) in what became Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The present 5th edition expands it still further, especially the indexes (the Arabic index filling 142 pages).
With a contemporary bibliographical note on a front free endleaf and a manuscript owners name "Fuchs" on the paste-down. With some slight browning and brown stains throughout due to the paper. Binding rubbed, extremities bumped, head and foot of spine damaged and hinges cracked. Schnurrer 108; Smitskamp, Philologia orientalis 76 (cf. 73); STCN 238984311 (6 copies).