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(a.), an Arabic term attested at a very early stage, in the ancient inscriptions of Arabia, with the meaning of message or of mission (G. Lankester Harding, An index and concordance of pre-Islamic names and inscriptions, Toronto 1971, 277). In fact, risāla has many meanings; it has signified message, missive, letter, epistle and monograph; from the 5th/11th century onwards it could also be a synonym of maḳāma (see below, section on Risāla and maḳāma). The synonyms recorded are kitāb [ q.v.], k̲h̲iṭāb (for Ps.-Ibn al-Mudabbir in the 3rd/9th century, risāla and k̲h̲iṭāb were synonyms, Ṣafw…

(a.), a term denoting a handbook or an abridged manual, usually condensed from a longer work. Approximately equivalent terms are ik̲h̲tiṣār , talk̲h̲īṣ (very common), tahd̲h̲īb , muhad̲h̲d̲h̲ab ; also muntak̲h̲ab , ik̲h̲tiyār , muk̲h̲tār (selections that convey the main ideas), and finally wad̲j̲īz and mūd̲j̲az (use of the last two terms is rather restricted, ¶ and authors who use them insist on stylistic concision, see Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, Istanbul 1943, ii, 1898-1901, and D̲h̲ayl , Istanbul 1947, ii, 604-702; GAL, index; al-Tahānawī, Kas̲h̲s̲h̲āf . i,…