Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā

…more important and well-organized encyclopaedia, Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā (“The Dawn for the Blind”), that covered geography, political history, natural history, zoology, mineralogy, cosmography, and time measurement. Al-Ibshīhī (1388–c. 1446) compiled a very individual encyclopaedia, the Mustaṭraf fī kull fann mustaẓraf (“A Quest for Attainment in Each Fine Art”), that covered the…

…work by al-Qalqashandī, the 15th-century Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā (“The Dawn of the Blind”), approaches Ibn Qutaybah’s in its compendiousness, but its practical bent makes it a kind of comprehensive summary of the secretarial manual genre.