Astrological prognostications regarding the winds and waves of health, possible diseases and the availability of food in particular combinations of stars and planets.Condition: Torn, tiny holesLayout: 15 lines
F. 2v: legal document through which Ḥasan, known as Abū ʿAlī b. Ḵalaf, the Jew of Tyre, renounces to all his monetary claims towards Isḥaq b. Sahl b. Bišr b. Nāḥūm and Abū Naṣr. Dated 6th century AH (= 12th century CE). F. 1r: Arabic document of lease. F. 1v-2r and marginalia: medical text dealing with parts of the human body.Condition: Torn, holes, faded, rubbedLayout: 10-22 lines + marginalia
Bifolium f. 1: beginning of the ophthalmological treatise Taḏkirat al-kaḥḥalīn by ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā with table of contents on f. 1r. F. 1v: colophon. Separate leaf: record of an ordinance dated Ṣafar 537 AH (= September 1142 CE) from Al-Ẓāfir to instruct Al-Hāfiẓ’s book warehouse to issue ‘the epistle of the elder ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā’ (i.e. the ophthalmological treatise Taḏkirat al-kaḥḥalīn) to the amir Faḵr al-Dīn Abū Manṣūr ʿIzz al-ʿArab b. Muḥammad.Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 9-14 lines (f. 2v is blank)
Astrological-medical work, discussing the effects of the signs of the zodiac on the human body.Condition: torn, holes, stained, stained, rubbed, fadedLayout: 16 lines
Short letter to Abū l-Riḍāʾ in which the writer explains his health problems and asks for medical advice.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 15 lines (recto); 8 lines (verso)
Recto: piyyuṭ in Hebrew and Aramaic. Verso: medical prescription in Arabic referring to goat’s spleen.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 14 lines (recto); 8 lines (verso)
Recto: Targum Jonathan of Habakkuk 3:1. Verso: medical recipe for a potion.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, faded, stainedLayout: 7 lines (recto); 14 lines (verso)
Recto: probably drafts of letters, one is a letter to Abū l-ʿAzz (?). Verso: medical recipe in Arabic for the treatment of fever.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, fadedLayout: 16-17 lines in 2 columns + marginalia (recto); 8 lines (verso)
Astrological prognostications concerning illnesses, health and happy events.Condition: Torn, holes, badly rubbed and fadedLayout: 4-9 lines in 2 columns
Recipe instructions, mentioning stones and metals such as beryl, borax and diamond, and three pounds of mercury.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 14 lines (recto); 3 lines (verso)
Letter, mentioning illnesses of the eye, the Qadi and the overseers of the doctors.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 5 lines (recto); 3 lines (verso)
Note from a patient to his doctor Abū l-Ḥasan, asking for more medication to be sent with the boy. Signed by Solomon.Condition: tornLayout: 3 lines (recto); 1 line (verso)
Petition from the Jewish community of Egypt to a Mamluk Sultan, requesting the removal from office of the head of the Jewish community whose administration and leadership the Jews deemed oppressive and even threatening to their security as a minority.Condition: slightly torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 34 lines + marginalia (recto); 21 lines + marginalia (verso)
Letter of Abū l-Maḥāsin b. ʿAlī the trader, introduced by citations from Proverbs 3:4, Psalms 37:11 and 119:165. Mentions consingments of medical commodities such as betel palm (fawfal), amomum (qāqulla) and quince (safarjal), a doctor’s visit and names such as Naḥūm the perfumer and Abū Manṣūr Ibn al-Ṣāʾiḡ (goldsmith), cousin of the writer.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 53 lines + marginalia (recto); 6 lines (verso)
Contents:(1) Anonymous treatise on ophthalmology (ff. 1r-59v);(2) Ṣubunrī (صبنري),
Kitāb al-raḥmah fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikmah(كتاب الرحمة في الطب والحكمة, ff. 60v-74v);(3) Manual of therapeutics (ff. 75v-308r).The colophon at the end of the third text, claims that the manuscript from which the text was copied was completed on Tuesday 21 Ṣafar 1114/18 July 1702 (f. 307v, lines 2-9). The present manuscript must therefore have been copied after this date.Codex; ff. i+308+iMaterial: Eastern laid paperDimensions: 220 x 125 mm leaf [135 x 75 mm written]Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink visible on some folios (not on ff. 56r-76r; begins again from 1 at f. 76v; errors in foliation and corrections from f. 104r to end of volume), British Museum foliation in pencilRuling:
Misṭarah; 15 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cmScript:
NaskhInk: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in redDecoration: NoneBinding: British Museum bindingCondition: Defective at beginning, ff. 1-2 mutilated and repaired with no loss of text, tidemarks at head especially towards front of volumeMarginalia: Few by more than one hand overall, but see especially ff. 57r-59vSeals: F. 1r
Recto: letter from Meʾir Ibn al-Hamdānī to Maimonides, asking him to accept his son as his assistant for the study of medicine. He stresses that he dared to apply to him only because he had heard that Maimonides’ nephew, who had worked under him thus far, now practiced elsewhere. He promises to pay Maimonides a higher honorarium than the former apprentice. Verso: recipe to treat hallucination.Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 43 lines (recto); 8 lines (verso)
Psalms 149:1-150:4 with Hebrew writing-exercises, jottings in Judaeo-Arabic, and two lines of a medical recipe in Arabic.Condition: slightly torn, holes, stainedLayout: 10 lines (recto); 8 lines (verso)
Recto: fragment of a legal document mentioning (...) ha-Kohen ha-Zaqen and excommunication, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Manasseh. Verso: medical text with recipes to improve vision and treat sciatica and painful joints, act as a purgative and protect against the cold, humidity and spleen pain. Mentions musk, orange, colocynth, Galen’s seed and different quantities of weights.Condition: torn, holes, slightly rubbedLayout: 12 lines (recto); 18 lines (verso)
'Contents: Sefer ha-memiyut ṿeha-aṿirim (translation from the Arabic of Hippocrates\'s treatise "Peri aerōnhydatōntopōn"="De aereaquislocis" with Galen\'s commentary) (ff. 1-18). Sefer roʿa mezeg mitḥalef (translation from the Latin of Galen\'s treatise "Peri anomalous dyskrasias"="De inaequali intemperie") (ff. 19-35). Ha-seder ha-ḳaṭan (Hebrew translation of a work by Avicenna) (ff. 36-48). Hebrew translation from the Latin of a medical treatise by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī (Rhazes) (ff. 49r-81r). Hanhagat ha-na Rāzīarim ha-ḳaṭanim (ff. 81v-90r). Solomon ben Joseph Ibn Ayyub\'s Sefer haṭeḥorim (ff. 90v-116). The manuscript also contains two Judaeo-Italian texts: a medical work by Gentilis Fulginas (da Foligno) (f. 28v); a poem (f. 32).'
Recto: a letter mentioning Abū Surūr and Abū Jacob. Verso: list of medical simples, including saffron, sugar, aloe, camphor, honey, and alum.Condition: Torn, tiny holesLayout: 16 lines (recto); 2 lines (verso)
Medical recipes (including one attributed to אלאורינץ הרופא), and magical recipes to know if a woman has sinned, against sleeplessness, against a flow of blood, to cause sleeplessness and to catch thieves.Condition: holesLayout: 17-19 lines
Recto: letter of congratulations for the New Year and Day of Atonement to Elʿazar ha-Sar. Verso: medical prescription for the treatment of a cough, mentioning substances such as gum tragacanth, gum arabic, corn starch and cucumber seeds.Condition: holes, rubbedLayout: 14 lines (recto); 13 lines (verso)
Recto: collection of verses from piyyuṭim with acrostics of the names Judah, Isaac and Abraham. Verso: Arabic medical prescription mentioning figs, vinegar, sal ammoniac, and oxymel; on the margin of verso, lines of a Hebrew liturgical poemCondition: Torn, holes, slightly rubbedLayout: 15 lines
Recto: genealogical list with family names, such as the house of the Kohen b. Ḡazaliyya (?), whose father was called Natan and had two sons Šemarya and Samuel, who in their turn had two sons, respectively called Aaron and Natan ha-Kohen etc. Verso: portion of a medical treatise that mention surgical instruments and includes the beginning of a chapter three.Condition: A few tiny holes, stainedLayout: 9 lines (recto); 12 lines (verso)
End of a medical treatise regarding different kinds of food and drinks, their tastes and their influences on the body depending on the time and the amount. Studying this book is said to free one from the long-windedness of ‘quacksalvers’. According to the colophon (P2 f. 1v), the copy was prepared in Alexandria and the scribe wrote it for himself. The name of the scribe is deleted and the name of a new owner, Abraham b. Saʿadya, is added below the colophon.Condition: Holes, rubbedLayout: 8–15 lines
Leaf from an astrological treatise describing the different reciprocal positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and constellations, and their effects on bodies and their health.Condition: Slightly rubbedLayout: 25-27 lines