18 rare pieces on display outside their corridors for the first time

Treasures of the Mohammed bin Rashid Library adorn Abu Dhabi Book Center

• The library's collections are of interest to visitors to the exhibition. Cinematographer: Najeeb Mohammed

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Mohammed Bin Rashid Library has 18 rare pieces of ammunition and special collections on display at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library as part of its participation in the 32nd edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, marking the first time that these collections have been displayed outside the library halls.

Jamal Al Shehhi, a member of the Board of Directors of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library Foundation, explained to Emirates Today that the displayed collections were carefully selected to explain the history of writing in the Middle East and the world, and reflect the features of this exceptional session of the exhibition, in conjunction with his celebration of the achievements of the 14th-century Arab thinker Ibn Khaldun, the founder of sociology, as the "central figure" of this session, the Mohammed bin Rashid Library displays the first edition of Ibn Khaldun's Introduction, the Paris edition dating back to 1858, and its publication. French orientalist Etienne Marc Catermeier.

Among the most prominent rare collections on display in the pavilion of the Mohammed bin Rashid Library are a rare and illustrated Latin translation of Ibn Sina's "Canon of Medicine 1562", which is considered the most famous medical book in the world, in addition to a large part of the Holy Qur'an dating back to the Mamluk era, and part of "Sahih al-Bukhari", by Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail al-Bukhari, one of the most authentic and reliable books of hadith, written in the Mamluk era in Egypt, eighth century AH / 14th century AD.

From the world of fantasy, the first edition of the first novel in the popular Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published in London in 1997, is presented by Jay. K. Rowling. One Thousand and One Nights (1839-1842), a rare and complete Arabic edition of the Thousand and One Nights stories, was published in Calcutta by Sir William Macington. Miguel de Cervantes' most famous novel, Don Quixote, dated Madrid in 1780, is the famous Ibarra edition with beautiful drawings, executed by the most famous Spanish artists of the time. and the first edition of Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse, Philadelphia, 1931.

Among the timeless literary works, the pavilion displays the first edition of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, which offers a combination of novelistic and poetic creativity and historical narrative simultaneously, and an oversized lithograph decorated with beautiful drawings of Shahnameh (Book of Kings), by Abu al-Qasim al-Firdawsi (1874), considered the greatest Persian literary epic. The first Arabic edition of the biography of Tamerlane, the Turkish-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire, is the book "The Wonders of Al-Maqdour fi Akhbar Timur" by Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Arabshah in 1636. The first edition of Zhou Hiling's commentaries on the poems of Du Fu, considered China's greatest poet, is entitled "An Anthology of Du Gongpu's Poems," dates back to Song Ling, Qing period, the ninth year of Emperor Kangxi (1670). And an issue of a monthly magazine from the Arab diaspora published in America, Detroit, 1950.

The pavilion also houses the Atlas of World Cities 1593-1594, by Brown and Hoggenberg, a unique gem in city mapping with his paintings showing wide panoramic views of cities from across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and a guide to the most prominent landmarks of Edo (Tokyo), 1834-1836, which highlights Japan's most prominent landmarks, and Arab Monuments in Cordoba, Seville and Granada, Paris, 1836-1839, by Giro de Pranghi, a magnificent hand-colored print on antiquities. Arabic in Spain. In addition to the first edition of one of the most beautiful colourful books on India, Robert Melville Grendlay's Indian Landscapes, Fashion and Architecture (London) 1826-1830, and the first edition of Johann Baer's Atlas of Auranometrics, 1603, the Bayer Atlas is the first work to cover the entire planetarium.

Ammunition

The Mohammed bin Rashid Library's participation in Abu Dhabi Book Fair, which will run until January 28 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, comes within the framework of its constant keenness to follow up on the latest developments and publications in all fields and disciplines, in addition to introducing the public and visitors to the treasures of knowledge in the ammunition exhibition, and its rare pieces, manuscripts and atlases, embodying the finest international works over the centuries.

Jamal Al Shehhi: "The collections have been carefully selected to explain the history of writing in the Middle East and the world, and reflect the features of this exceptional edition of the exhibition."