The script, ornamentation and binding of the volume indicate that it is part of a set comprising also manuscripts IO Islamic 923, IO Islamic 924 and IO Islamic 1249, all of which were transcribed in 1198/1784, probably for their owner Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal from 1772 to 1785. A collation note at the end of the first text (f. 7v) is dated 14 Shawwāl 1198/31 August 1784.A table of contents in Persian is given f. 1r.A date lable attached to the inside of the back cover (left board) shows that the manuscript was borrowed for two months in 1908 from the India Office Library by Eilhard Wiedemann (d. 1928), professor of physics at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen. In 1911-12, Weidemann published a German translation of item 7 in this manuscript ('Die Schrift über den Qarasṭūn', in
Bibliotheca Mathematica, 12, pp. 21-39).Contents:(1) Anonymous treatise on the linear astrolabe (أسطرلاب خطّي) (ff. 2v-7v);(2) Ibn al-Haytham (ابن الهيثم),
Maqālah fī ṣūrat al-kusūf(مقالة في صورة الكسوف; ff. 8v-34r);(3) Anonymous,
al-Muʿādalāt(المعادلات; ff. 35v-180r);(4) al-Kūhī, Wayjan ibn Rustum (الكوهي، ويجن بن رستم),
Risālah fī ʿamal ḍilʿ al-musabba‘ al-mutasāwī al-aḍlā‘ fī al-dā‘irah(رسالة في عمل ضلع المسبع المتساوي الأضلاع في الدائرة; ff. 182v-189r);(5) al-Kūhī, Wayjan ibn Rustum (الكوهي، ويجن بن رستم),
Ṭarīq fī istikhrāj khaṭṭayn bayna khaṭṭaynwa-tatawālá ‘alá nisbah(طريق في استخراج خطّين بين خطّين وتتوالى على نسبة; ff. 189v-191r);(6) Ibn Sinān, Ibrāhīm (ابن سنان ، إبراهيم),
Kitāb fī misāḥat qaṭʿ al-makhrūṭ al-mukāfī(كتاب في مساحة قطع المخروط المكافي; ff. 191v-197r);(7) Thābit ibn Qurrah (ثابت بن قرّة),
Kitāb fī al-qarasṭūn(كتاب في القرسطون; ff. 198v-207r).Codex; ff. i+208+iMaterial: Eastern laid paperDimensions: 230 x 130 mm leaf [150 x 80 mm written]Foliation: India Office Library foliation stamped in black inkRuling:
Misṭarah; 12 lines per page; vertical spacing 8 lines per 10 cmScript:
Nasta‘līqInk: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings and diagrams in redDecoration: Every opening and every page has a border in gold, black and red ink; the first opening (ff. 2v-3r) is extensively illuminated in gold, red, green and blueBinding: Hybrid binding with European and Islamic-style features; leather doublureCondition: Excellent condition; book block re-sewn, boards reattached and spine replacedMarginalia: Very few and all appear to be by copyistSeals: ff.1r and 208v
Folio 12v contains six lines of unpointed Arabic text entitled
'On ascertaining the distance between countries (في معرفة قدر المسافة بين البلدين)', and a diagram showing the orbit of the moon around the earth.Folio 13r contains a short and mostly unpointed Persian text attributed to Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274), and a diagram.Ff. 12v-13r
Two excerpts from texts on astronomy with comments. The first (ff. 83v-84v) is from a commentary on Ptolemy's (بطلميوس, Claudius Ptolemaeus; c 90-c 168)
Almagest(كتاب المجسطي), and relates to the question of the use of the term 'widest (أوسع)' in relation to figures of circles; it contains one diagram. The second (ff. 84v-85r) is a comment on a work by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Khafrī al-Kāshī (شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد الخفري الكاشي; d. after 1525).Ff. 83v-85r