ABSTRACT
Brockelmann cites the work as gayat al-malub fi fann al-angam wa-'l-urub, but despite the accessibility of the manuscript its existence failed to be noted either by Brockelmann or, in the first version of his invaluable bibliographical survey of Arabic musicological literature, by Farmer. A later citation of the work occurs in a bio-bibliographical survey by al-Rajab, but instead of referring to the British Library manuscript it cites a copy stated to be held in the Swiss National Library. The general state of the manuscript is fairly good, although there are occasional stain marks, more visible towards the end, probably caused by humidity, and, rather more seriously, areas on one or two folios where the ink has faded badly, rendering the text almost illegible in places. It is primarily in the number system that we encounter divergences from Classical Arabic attributable to the interference of colloquial forms.
