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)