The article is dedicated to the study and description of
oriental manuscripts. This study contains facts from the life of a
famous pre-Islamic poet, ash-Shanfara, and discusses the features of his work, Lamiya. The focus is on the copies of this work, as well as
copies of comments on it from the fund of the Institute of Oriental
Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Oriental
Department of Gorky Library, St. Petersburg State University. The
textological and codicological analysis of manuscripts allows to date
them, identify their scribes and owners, and study the features of
the text. The article contains fragments in Arabic, accompanied by
translations and comments. A handwritten book is an interesting
and multifaceted phenomenon of both material and spiritual culture.
Analysis of the text allows to understand the life of the society of the
period in which the work was created.