Fihrist

(Persian, “index”), a type of biobibliography in Arabic and Persian philology. The term originated with a work, completed in 988, by Ibn al-Nadim, a book merchant of Baghdad. Ibn al-Nadim’s fihrist was divided into ten chapters, a format adopted in future similar works, and to this day remains an important source for the history of medieval Arabic literature. As a scholarly work, the fihrist includes material on philosophy, philology, theology, law, alchemy, history, and genealogy, in addition to traditional accounts, legends, and poetic models. The Arabic version of the fihrist—the fahrasa—is a type of biography, comprising lists or catalogs of works, such as the Fahrasa of Abu Bakr ibn Khayr (12th century). Later examples of the fihrist include A Catalog of Errors in the Titles of Books and the Names of Branches of Learning, an Arabic work by the 17th-century Turkish scholar Câtib Çelebi (Haji Khalifa), which provides a bibliographical analysis of 1,450 books.