Falaquera, Nathan ben Joel, 13th cent Nathan ben Joel Falaquera ’s learned Hebrew compendium of medicine ‘Balm for the Body’. A theoretical treatise in the tradition of the great Arabic compendia, Falaquera’s compendium was divided into four parts (theoretical medicine; practical medicine; diseases; drugs) and prefaced with a philosophical discussion on the importance of the study of medicine. Its intention was to acquaint Jewish physicians with the knowledge of medicine available in the Arabic-speaking world (both Islamic and Classical sources). It appears to have been a popular work in the 14th and 15th centuries, with more than a dozen manuscripts from this period extant. This copy, in an Ashkenazi hand on 15th-century Italian paper, is missing substantial sections, however, and seems not to have been finished, breaking off midway through a page (mid-word, in fact) on f. 145r. It is, however, a particularly fine and large manuscript, in two columns with wide margins, with skilfully executed headings in red, green, blue and brown ink, foliage and scrollwork around chapter and section headings, as well as small pen illustrations (including pierced hearts, faces, poppies, bells) frequently brightening up the section numbers. The manuscript’s first three folios are missing, so it begins with the end of the table of contents (col. 1 on f. 4r) and continues with Nathan’s introduction and the first section on theoretical medicine (4r-46v); this section closes on f. 46v with ובכאן נשלם החלק הראשון ועתה אתחיל החלק השני; the section on practical medicine follows (46v-145r) before breaking off. The title of the work is written in a later square hand at the top of f. 4r, ספר צרי הגוף. Further marginal notes, corrections and additions in various hands can be found at f. 5r and rarely throughout the text, e.g., 65r. Where illuminated headings have been cut out of the manuscript, some traces remain, e.g., f. 12r. Many smaller illuminated headings have survived, e.g., f. 21r. Descenders on the lowest line of each column are often adorned with tiny illustrations, usually faces, e.g., 34r, 35r and 40v. Section numbers are similarly treated, e.g., 57v, 58r and 112r. The censor's signature occurs at the end of the text on f. 145r, ‘Gio[vanni] dominico carretto 1610’.Condition: Affected by damp and ink corrosion, many initial pages torn or excised.Layout: 42-48 lines in two columns
A late African copy of the Dalāʼil al-khayrāt, a 'manual' composed of blessings and prayers for everyday life and in particular for the pilgramige to Mecca. Partly composed of selections from the Qur`an and sayings of the prophet, the original work is attributed to the Sufi Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 1465 CE), who lived in in Marrocco . This text has been copied by hand throughout the Islamic world from North West Africa to South East Asia until the last century, with many copies containing illuminations and illustrations. The present manuscript is an example of an originally unbound copy, held together by a string, which is attached to the cardboard cover, probably self made or comissioned by the last owner of the book. The text is clear and in the right order. Not containing illustration, it is an evidently used copy, bearing witness of a tradition of manuscript production common to its region of descent.Layout: 106 59Script: African script in brown ink; vocalization in red ink
This Aljamiado manuscript contains a compendium of Islamic law written by Baray de Reminjo with the help of a young scholar known as Mancebo de Arévalo. The treatise was composed in Spain in the third decade of the XVI century. A Latin note at the top of the first page states that the manuscript was given as a gift from Engelbertus van Engelen to Henry Sike in 1703.Layout: 23 lines to the page
The only known copy of a brief treatise on Naqshbandi practices and rituals by Tāj al-Dīn ibn Zakariyya Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī, of the Indian branch of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, who died in Mecca in AH 1050/AD 1640. Not available in a printed edition. According to Trimingham (1971, pp. 93-94) Tāj al-Dīn ‘had an interesting career and eventually found a niche in Mecca away from the rivalries which ensued after the death of Muḥammad Bāqī bi’llāh. From this vantage point he had much to do with commending the Naqshbandī Way to Arabs. He translated books like Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt and ‛Alī al-Kāshifī’s Rashaḥāt ‛Ain al-Ḥayāt into Arabic. Al-Muḥibbī devotes a long article to him in his Khulāṣat al-Athar’. See Muḥibbī, M., Khulāṣat al-athar fī a‛yān al-qarn al-ḥādī‛ashar (Cairo, 1384), i, 464-70. It is perhaps better to describe Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Naqshbandī (AD 1318-1389) as the ‘crystallizer’ of the Naqshbandī ṭarīqa, which bears his name, rather than its ‘founder’. It is certain that the Naqshbandī tradition itself does not regard him as a founder nor as the initiator of the silsila as it is clearly noted in this text for example.Condition: Some water and damp staining, text not affected, overall in good condition.Layout: 19 lines to the page, except for f.1r with 16 lines and f.12r with 22 linesScript: Black riqa‛ scriptAdditions: Folio 1r: Inscription in black reads Cambridge classmark of the manuscript: ‘Add. Ms. 1073’. Some other inscriptions in black: text and numbers. Inscription in pencil on top right corner reads: ‘176 pennies’ (this was most probably the manuscript’s price at some point). Another inscription in pencil in the middle of the page reads: ‘From Flugel Cat. 1244, 10/4 ‘72’. It is possible that there was a sale of Flugel’s library in 1872 following his death in 1870. 10/4 would be the price: 10 shillings and four pence. Cambridge University stamp at the bottom indicating date of acquisition: ‘20 July 78’. Folio 1v: Title in red script reads: hādhā risāla Tāj al-Dīn al-Rūmī quddisa sirruhu. Followed by the basmala in black and the introduction. Marginal annotations in black presenting two couplets of poetry preceded by: kunt ḥaḍart mawlāna quddisa sirrahu al-a‛lā. Folio 2r: Author’s name given on line 4 as Tāj al-Dīn ibn Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī. The text reads: hādhihi al-ṭarīqa al-‛aliyya al-Naqshbandiyya akhadhaha ‛abd al-faqīr al-kāmil fī al-nuqṣān wa-’l-‛ājiz fī al-maghfira al-raḥmān Tāj al-Dīn ibn Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī min al-khawāja Muḥammad al-Baqī [AD 1563-1603] wa-huwa akhadhahā ‛an mawlāna khawāja Kay (sic.) [Aḥmad] al-Amkankī (pronounced most probably as Amkanjī) wa-huwa ‛an [missing a link here being Darwīsh Muḥammad] al-walī al-khawāja Muḥammad al-Zāhid wa-huwa ‛an al-Ghawth al-‛a‛ẓamal-khawāja ‛Ubayd Allāh al-Aḥrār ibn Maḥmūd al-Shāshī (i.e. from Tashkent) ‘Ḥaḍrat Ishān’ [AD 1404-1490] quddisa sirrahu wa-huwa ‛an al-shaykh al-shuyukh mawlāna Ya‛qūb Jarkhī (pronounced most probably as Charkhī) [d. 851/1447] wa-huwa ‛an ḥadrat al-khawāja al-kabīr khawāja Muḥammad Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Naqshbandī wa-huwa ‛an al-Sayyid [Amīr] al-Kulālī al-Bukhārī wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja Muḥammad Bāba al-Sammāsī wa huwa ‛an haḍrat al-‛Azīzān khawāja ‛Alī al-Dāmitī (sic.) (most probably al-Rāmitīnī) wa huwa al-mashhūr bi-‛Azīzān wa huwa ‛an khawāja Maḥmūd Injīr (or Anjīr) al-Faghnawī wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja ‛Arif al-Riwkarawī (pronounced most probably as Riwgarawī) wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja ‛Abd al-Khāliq al-Ghujdāwanī [missing a link here being Abū al-‛Abbās Khiḍr] wa huwa ‛an al-Shaykh Ibn Ya‛qūb ibn Ayyūb Yūsūf al-Hamadānī (in Shadows of the Prophet: Martial Arts and Sufi Mysticism by D. S. Farrer the name is Abū Ya‛qū Yūsūf al-Hamadānī p.273) wa huwa ‛an ‛Alī (possibly Abū ‛Ali Aḥmad (or Faḍl) b. Muḥammad) al-Farmadī Tūsī wa huwa ‛an al-shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Kharaqānī … the silsila continues further on the following two pages to include the spiritual teachers such as Abū Yazīd al-Bistāmī, Ja‛far al-Ṣādiq, al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, Salmān al-Fārsī, Abū Bakr al-Siddīq and last but not least the Prophet himself. Further marginal annotations on folios 8v, 9r, 9v, 10v and 11v. Folio 12v: Continuation to the closing remarks in the margin within an upside down triangle outlined in red stating the name of scribe as Sayyid Darwīsh Sayyid Darwīsh . Date of completion inscribed in black: 1203.Binding: Ottoman marbled boards with brown leather spine
Ha-Maʾor ha-Gadol, a super-commentary on Abraham ibn Ezra Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr, 1092-1167 on the Pentateuch, by Shem Ṭov b. Judah ibn Mayor שם טוב בן יהודה ן מאיור of Briviesca in Spain. The work was composed in 5144 A. M. (1384 CE), when the author was 24, see f. 2v, where he states ואף כי איש כמוני בן ארבע ועשרים. This copy was produced by the scribe Yoḥanan b. Abraham ibn ʿAziz Yoḥanan b. Abraham ibn ʿAziz in Salonika in 1557, f. 240r; MS Oxford, Bodleian 228 is another copy of the same work by the same scribe. There are catchwords on every verso and the titles at the beginning of each paraša are written in larger letters, decorated with supralinear dots. There are some diagrams within the body of the text, e.g. ff. 77v and 80v. Some of the margins are defaced by scribbled calculations, e.g. f. 1r, children’s alphabetic and other writing exercises, e.g. f. 1v-2r or f. 77r, and more than a few manicules, e.g. ff. 117v–118r. A later hand has added the name of the corresponding paraša to the top margin of every recto. Other owners have left their marks, including some notes in Ladino on ff. 138r-139r, which perhaps relate to items for a dowry. An identification of the work and its author, signed by M. Steinschneider and dated 1867, is pasted into the front fly-leaf. Solomon Schiller-Szinessy explained the importance of this work (of which only two copies were known to him) as resting on two essential features: (a) it is mainly concerned with explaining the grammatical content of Abraham ibn Ezra’s commentary, and thus as a grammatical supercommentary it is unique, and (b) it contains ‘an inexhaustible source of biography and bibliography’ based in large part on oral traditions known to the author, which are not found elsewhere. He also lauded the copyist in hyperbolic terms: ‘[of] the copyist of this MS. it is impossible to speak in too high terms. His intelligence is only equalled by his conscientiousness; and even editors of our own time could only rival but never exceed him’!Condition: Slightly wormed and affected by damp.Layout: 26-27 lines
Illuminated Hebrew Bible (Pentateuch and Hagiographa) with full Tiberian vocalisation and cantillation (gaʿya is rare; rafe occurs over quiescent he and alef), masora parva and magna (often in the form of micrographic geometric designs, flora and even fauna). The stars of David (which occur occasionally at the end of books, for instance, at the end of Leviticus, f. 89v), seder and paraša markers in the Pentateuch are all gilded or rubricated. Other rubrics (e.g. the rubric noting the middle of a biblical book) are also treated decoratively (e.g., the micrographic lion at the end of the book of Daniel, f. 315v). The word in the text to which masoretic notes refer is marked with two tiny supralinear dots, side by side. Omissions from the text are given by the naqdan (presumably) in the margin, using larger letters than the masora and marking them with a supralinear dot, for example לשרת at Exodus 39:26, f. 66v. Crude taggim (‘crowns’) have been added to a number of letters in Genesis 1, including בראשית. These are probably not the work of the original scribe or naqdan. The pentateuchal text and non-poetic hagiographa are written throughout in 2 columns, with the exception of the poetical parts of the Torah, which are written either text over space (The Song of the Sea, Exodus 15:1-18, ff. 47r-v) or space over space (The Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:1-43, ff. 143v-144v). Schiller-Szinessy (vol. i p. 24) writes: ‘The text is a model of beauty and correctness and in strict accordance with the מסרת.’Condition: Stained and some leaves are damaged on the outer or lower margins; some repairsLayout: 26 lines in 2 columns; pricked in the inner margins, and probably originally in the outer margins too.
Siddur or prayer-book according to the Ashkenazi rite, containing prayers for weekdays, Sabbaths, High Holy days and Pilgrim Festivals. The manuscript is missing pages at the beginning and end, and is probably one volume of an original pair. There are frequent, quite crude, repairs to the vellum. Various later Ashkenazi hands have annotated the margins. Many passages have been blacked out, apparently in deference to Christian susceptibilities (e.g. f. 26r and f. 141v). The scribe and vocaliser are identified by a marginal note (הסופר והנקדן) alongside the names Abraham and Isaac (decorated with crowns) at the end of the Grace after meals (f. 47r).Condition: Some staining and holes, with crude repairs; margins slightly cropped.Layout: 22 lines
Manuscript of Niẓāmī's Khamsah containing his five major poems: Makhzan al-Asrār, Khusraw va Shīrīn, Laylà va Majnūn, Haft Paykar, and Iskandarʹnāmah. The manuscript is lavishly illuminated with thirty illustrations painted in Indian style, and has fully decorated headpieces marking the beginning of each poem. The manuscript is undated, but it was probably copied in the 11th century A.H. / 17th century C.E.Layout: 17 lines, 4 columns to the pageScript: Clear Indian Taʿlīq
Contains the only extant copy of al-Māturīdī's Kitāb al-tawḥīd. This treatise discusses the opinions of different religious groups -both Muslim and non-Muslim- on a variety of theological issues, with especial attention to the polemics concerning the attributes of God.Layout: 21 lines to the page
This beautifully-illuminated work is a medical tract, in five parts, dealing mainly with medicine and pharmacology, but with excurses on astronomy (astrology) and divination. The handwriting is Italian, of the 15th century. Joseph b. Isaac is the first author cited (on f. 2r) and a later note on the fly-leaf attributes the whole work to him. It appears to be a composite work, however, put together from a variety of sources but on the same general subject. A single scribe produced the manuscript, by the name of Solomon (many times throughout the manuscript, when the letters שלמה appear close together at the start of lines, they are marked with rows of dots), although other hands have left annotations in the margin and additions in the text. There are frequent illuminated headings, borders and miniatures (the latter on ff. 2r, 7v, 37v, 104r, 211r, 223r and 234r). Dr Solomon Schiller-Szinessy, in his description of this manuscript, concludes: 'Not forgetting that the MS. has plenty of superstitious reminiscences in it, it is on the whole very valuable & well worth the perusal of a professional man'.Condition: Slightly creased and lightly stained in places; some margins cropped, with loss of headings. Some leaves missing.Layout: 2 columns; 35 lines; ruled.
The text of the Mishnah describes the first written account of the early Jewish oral tradition and the earliest significant work of Rabbinic Judaism. It dates from the period of the second century BCE at a time when persecution of the Jewish populations gave rise to the fear that the details of the oral traditions dating from the first five centuries BCE might be lost. As a written authority it is second only to the Bible text and can be used as a source of authority for making judgements. The Mishnah is divided into six orders (Shisha Sedarim) and over the next six centuries, along with further commentaries, came to form the Talmud. The major part of the text of the Mishnah is written in Hebrew and reflects the debates which took place in the first and second centuries CE by a group of Rabbinic thinkers known as the Tannaim. It teaches by drawing on examples of specific judgements along with debates by notable Rabbis, and discusses problems from all areas of human existence. This is one of only three complete manuscripts of the Mishnah, and considered to be 'an outstanding witness of the western type of Mishnaic Hebrew'. Of the manuscript, Schiller-Szinessy (vol. ii p. 9) writes: ‘Although this copy can lay claim neither to a very great age, nor to absolute correctness, we cannot hesitate to pronounce it to be a MS. beyond all price.’ Edited by W. H. Lowe, ‘The Mishnah on which the Palestinian Talmud Rests’ (Cambridge, 1883) – although that title can be considered inaccurate given more recent research on the manuscript.Condition: Slightly affected by damp; some repairs; margins croppedLayout: 30 lines
The Nash Papyrus is a second-century BCE fragment containing the text of the Ten Commandments followed by the Šemaʿ. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was the oldest known manuscript containing a text from the Hebrew Bible. The manuscript was originally identified as a lectionary used in liturgical contexts, due to the juxtaposition of the Decalogue (probably reflecting a mixed tradition, a composite of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) with the Šemaʿ prayer (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), and it has been suggested that it is, in fact, from a phylactery (tefillin, used in daily prayer). Purchased from an Egyptian dealer in antiquities in 1902 by Nash, W. L. (Walter Llewellyn) Dr Walter Llewellyn Nash and presented to the Library in 1903, the fragment was said to have come from the Fayyum. This item was included in the Library’s 600th anniversary exhibition Lines of Thought: Discoveries that changed the world .Condition: Holes; torn; barely legible. Four separate pieces fixed together.Layout: 24 lines, with traces of a 25th