Binding note: Heavy marbled paper.Ms. codex.Title from fol. 2b.Physical description: 15 lines per page in two columns; written in naskhi script in black on white paper. Rubrication, catchwords, a few marginal notes. Vocalized. Fol. 2b-3a framed in gold with simple gold ʻunwan. Remainder of text framed in red. Fol. 1 blank.Origin: Copied in 1225 AH (1826 AD) by Ḥāfiẓ ʻAbd al-Raḥīm (fol. 20b).
Abstract: Collection consisting of two unbound codices and a leaf on disparate topics.Binding note: Loose in folder.Contents: 1. leaves 1b-57a: Turkish songs. Arranged by makam. Turkish in Arabic script.Contents: 2. leaves 58b-71b: Commonplace book of Persian and Arabic poetry and extracts from religious works. Excised from a larger manuscript.Contents: 3. leaf 72: Anecdote narrated by al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-ʻArūḍī, tutor of al-Amīr Abū Kālanjār ibn al-Marzubān ibn al-Amīr ʻIzz al-Dawlah. Arabic.Ms. codices.Title supplied by cataloger.Physical description: Entire collection is stained and ragged; in fair condition.Codex 1: 215 x 143 mm. 20-21 lines per page, in 1-3 columns; written in small, casual naskh in black on glazed, laid European paper. Rubrication in red, green and blue.Codex 2: 194 x 120 mm. Varying lines per page; written in miniscule nastaʻliq in black on glazed, laid European paper. Rubrication.Leaf: 161 x 124 mm. 12 lines per page; written in large, casual naskh in black on tan glazed, laid Arabic paper. Some vocalization.
The volume comprises two manuscripts. The first (ff. 3-112) was the notebook of the Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ādharī, who copied into it thirteen alchmical texts between 919 AH/AD 1513 and 925 AH/AD 1519, first at Fez and then Damascus (see colophons on ff. 11r, 14r, 57r and 66r). The second (ff. 113r-159v) was copied in the 18th century, beginning with ff. 113r-158r copied in 1177 AH/AD 1764 by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣūlī in Algiers (see colophon on f. 158v).The volume contains 16 alchemical texts:Anonymous,
Risālah nāfi‘ah fī ghāyat al-naf‘ wa-l-nafāsah lam yu‘raf muṣannifuhā(رسالة نافعة في غاية النفع والنفاسة لم يعرف مصنّفها) (ff. 3r-11r);Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī (خالد بن يزيد الأموي),
Risālah li-Abī Hishām al-Amīr Khālid(رسالة لأبي هشام الأمير خالد ) (ff. 11v-14r);al-Ṣafadī, Khalīl ibn Aybak (الصفدي، خليل بن أيبك), Extract from
Kitāb al-Ghayth al-musjam fī sharḥ Lāmīyat al-ʿAjam(كتاب الغيث المسجم في شرح لامية العجم) (f. 14r);al-Ṭuġrāʾī, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (الطغرائي، الحسين بن علي),
Kitāb tarākīb al-anwār(كتاب تراكيب الأنوار) (ff. 14v-57r);Democritus (ذومقراطيس), Untitled alchemical treatise (ff. 57v-66r);Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (جابر بن حيان),
Ayn fuṣūl az ba‘z̤ kutub ustaẕ Jābir(اين فصول از بعض كتب أستاذ كبير جابر ) (ff.66v-67v);al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar (الرازي، فخر الدين محمد بن عمر), Selections from
Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ(كتاب الملخص) concerning physics (ff. 67v-76b);al-Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā (الرازي، أبو بكر محمد بن زكريا), Selections from al-Rāzī’s
al-Kutub al-Ithná ‘asharah(الكتب الإثنى عشرة) (ff. 77r-91v);Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī (ابن وحشية، أحمد بن علي), Extracts from
Kitāb fī Maʿrifat al-ḥajar(كتاب في معرفة الحجر) (ff. 91b-96b);Anonymous, Excerpts from a commentary on the poem of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Tammām al-ʿIrāqī (عبد العزيز ابن تمام العراقي) (ff. 96v-98r);Anonymous, Excerpts from a commentary on the alchemical poem
Shudhūr al-dhahab(شذور الذهب) (ff. 98r- 110v);al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Bukhārī al-Naqshabandī (السيد الشريف البخاري النقشبندي), Excerpts from the
Risālah fī al-Ṣināʿah al-falsafīyah(رسالة في الصناعة الفلسفية) (ff. 111r-112r);Anonymous, Cancelled page of Persian alchemical poetry (f. 112v);al-Maṣmūdī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (المصمودي، محمد بن أحمد),
Kitāb al-Wāfī fī al-Tadbīr al-kāfī(كتاب الوافي في التدبير الكافي) (ff. 113r-158r);Anonymous, Fragment of a treatise on practical chemistry (f. 159r);Anonymous, Instructions for producing perfumes (f. 159v).Codex; ff. 159+iMaterial: PaperDimensions: 215 x 150 mm leaf [168 x 112 mm written]Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Arabic foliation in the purple crayon typical of Lebanese bookdealers of the 19th centuryRuling:
Misṭarah; 19 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm (ff. 113r-158v: 29 lines per page; vertical spacing 17 lines per 10 cm)Script:
Naskhwith
nasta‘līqtendencies and some titles in
thuluth(ff. 113r-158v:
naskh)Scribes: Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ādharī (ff. 3r-112v) and Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣilī (ff. 113r-158v)Ink: Black ink, with rubricated, yellow and green headings and overlinings in red (ff. 113r-158v: black)Binding: British Museum bindingCondition: Some worm damage, foxing, and tears towards the fore edge. Folios 19, 21 and 24 have been replaced.Marginalia: Extensive marginal corrections, conjectures, glosses in Arabic and Persian and other evidence of collation and textual study (ff. 113r-158v: very few)
Versified treatise on common Arabic grammar and Arabic and Persian vocabulary in 30 poems. Titles are in Arabic; verses are in Ottoman Turkish with the vocabulary words in Persian and Arabic.
On writing (inshāʼ). It begins with an Arabic-Ottoman glossary of terms used in writing official and unofficial letters (f. 1v-3r), followed by a tutorial on writing letters. The following types of letter are included: from inferiors to superiors (f. 10v-14r), letters home (f. 14v-17r), from a child to his grandfather (f. 17v-19v), from a father to a son (f. 20r-22r), from a son to his mother (f. 22v-24v), from a mother to her child (f. 25r-26v), petition addressing the Sultan (f. 27r-28r), an emancipation certificate (f. 28v-30v), and newspaper writing (f. 31r-34v); a short lesson on basic arithmetic follows (f. 34v-35r). Two inserts laid in: a telegraph receipt, and a sheet in nastaʻliq shikastah about accounting in Persian.
On writing (inshāʼ). An Arabic-Ottoman glossary of terms used in writing official and unofficial letters, followed by short lessons on composing different types of letters; a short arithmetic lesson and a list of the month names in Arabic conclude the work
Small collection of poetry written on a long, narrow notebook bound along the top (safīnah style) chiefly in Ottoman Turkish with some Arabic and Persian; a number of pages are blank.
A page of anonymous alchemical poetry in Ottoman Turkish, which has been struck through and cancelled. Its catchword does not match the first word of the following folio.Begins (f. 112v, lines 2-3):گل ای نجم سعادت آفتابی ° اِشِت گل كيبی بو نازک جوابیندندر سيم وزريا علم كميا ° قوپر هر قطردن صبريله درياEnds (fol. 112v, lines 21-22):كه تربيّت اولب عرض مطهّر ° كه اولرسيم دمنده گاه اولر زراگرحل اوله پر مئله ظاهر ° درون جانده گورينه جواهرf. 112vMaterial: PaperDimensions: 215 x 150 mm leaf [168 x 112 mm written]Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Arabic foliation in the purple crayon typical of Lebanese bookdealers of the 19th centuryRuling:
Misṭarah; 19 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm (ff. 113r-158v: 29 lines per page; vertical spacing 17 lines per 10 cm)Script:
Naskhwith
nasta‘līqtendencies and some titles in
thuluth(ff. 113r-158v:
naskh)Scribes: Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ādharī (ff. 3r-112v) and Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣilī (ff. 113r-158v)Ink: Black ink, with rubricated, yellow and green headings and overlinings in red (ff. 113r-158v: black)Binding: British Museum bindingCondition: Some worm damage, foxing, and tears towards the fore edge. Folios 19, 21 and 24 have been replaced.Marginalia: Extensive marginal corrections, conjectures, glosses in Arabic and Persian and other evidence of collation and textual study (ff. 113r-158v: very few)