This volume is
A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume I, General(Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division: August 1916). It is an introductory volume containing matter of a general nature giving an account of conditions in Mesopotamia. The volume includes a note on official use, title page and ''Note''. There is a page of ''Contents'' and includes the following chapters and sections:Chapter 1: Boundaries and Physical Features;Chapter 2: Climate;Chapter 3: Minerals;Chapter 4: Fauna and Flora;Chapter 5: Hygiene;Chapter 6: History;Chapter 7: Inhabitants;Chapter 8: Religions;Chapter 9: Administration;Chapter 10: Irrigation of Irak Iraq;Chapter 11: Agriculture;Chapter 12: Commerce and Industry;Chapter 13: Currency, Weights and Measures;Chapter 14: Communication and Transport;Transliteration of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Names;Vocabularies;Index.There is a List of Maps which includes:Map 1: Administrative Divisions and Chief Towns;Map 2: Racial Divisions;Map 3: Area Available for Irrigation.1 volume (186 folios)The volume is arranged according to numbered chapters. There is a page of contents and an alphabetically arranged index at the end of the volume. A list of maps appears following the table of contents.Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
The second of two oblong duodecimo volumes containing abbreviated notes recorded by Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, during the course of a journey through Syria, Turkey and Iraq, from Damascus to Aleppo via Baghdad. The volume covers the period 19 April to 23 May 1911, covering the journey from the vicinity of Dara, in Turkey, to Bell’s arrival in Aleppo. The notes record: places passed or visited; times of arrival and departure; temperature and atmospheric pressure readings; some description of the topographic character of the places passed through; and copies of Greek, Syriac, and Nabatean tomb inscriptions.The volume also includes:drawings depicting two anthropomorphic figures, possibly of stone carvings from a tomb at Kermati [Kayabali], above a drawing of three arches. All three drawings have dimensions indicated (ff 3v-4)Folios 25-37 are blank.1 volume (37 folios)Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with i, and terminates at the inside back cover with 38; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Concise handbook of medicine by Abū al-Ḥasan Sa‘īd ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (أبو الحسن سعيد بن هبة الله بن الحسين; d. 1101), personal physician to the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadī (المقتدي, reg. 1056-1094) to whom this work is dedicated (f. 3v, line 9). The title of the text is often abbreviated to
Kitāb al-mughnī fī al-ṭibb(كتاب المغني في الطب).The text is arranged by illness, and each one is assigned to a table. Each table takes up a page, and all pages of the text except for ff. 4r, 3v and 105r contain tables. The tables are divided into four cells containing information about (1) the illness (مرض); (2) its cause (سبب); (3) its symptoms (عرض); and (4) the regimen (تدبير) recommended for its cure, often including a prescription (صفة).The copy was completed at Baghdad by Mattá ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ‘Abd Allāh (متى بن هبة الله بن عبد الله) on Wednesday 19 Jumādá II 567/16 February 1172. The scribe also gives the date 24 Tammūz 1503 of the Seleucid Era, but there is a discrepancy since this equates to 12 Rajab 588/Friday 24 July 1192, while the AH transcription date of 19 Jumādá II 567 equates to 27 Shubāṭ 1483 of the Seleucid era. The scribe produced his copy from a copy produced by a student of the author, and he collated his copy with the author's own draft copy (see colophon, f. 105r, lines 14-19, transcribed below).A table of contents and other medical notes by a later hand are found on ff. 1r-2v.F. 106r contains a computus table for reackoning the date of Easter using the Rūmī or Syro-Macedonian calendar of the Seleucid Era. An accompanying Arabic note written vertically on f. 105v describes the use of the table and is signed by Ilīyā the Metropolitan of Bājarmī (إليا مطران باجرمي), Bājarmī being the Arabic rendering of the Syriac Beth Garmai (ܒܝܬ ܓܪ̈ܡܝ), an ecclesiastical province in the Kirkuk region of Iraq. This Arabic note states that the table begins with Easter 1490 of the Seleucid era (574 AH/AD 1179), so the note can be dated to shortly before this time. At the head of f. 105v, above the Arabic text, is a table in Syriac relating to the calculation of Christian feast days. The heading of the first column mentions Easter, while Christmas, Epiphany and Good Friday are mentioned in the line of Syriac text beneath the table.Ff. 106v-108v contain various medical notes, many by the same later hand that wrote the table of contents and medical notes on ff. 1r-2v. On f. 106v there is a prayer for the physician Abū al-Khayr ibn ‘Īsá (أبو الخير بن عيسى المتطبب), perhaps the father of personal physician to the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir (reg. 575-622/1180-1225; see Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah [ed. Müller], vol. 1, p. 301 and Ullmann, 1970, p. 166).Staining visible on ff. 21v and 22r gives evidence that the manuscript was previously bound in a binding with a flap.Begins (f. 3v, lines 2-4):قال الشيخ الجليل أبو الحسن سعيد بن هبة الله بن الحسن الطبيبالفيلسوف [...]ـه اللسان وثبت برهانه في الجنانالحمد لمدبر الأزمان الذي أوجـ[... ...]ـل الإنسان على جميـ[... ...]ـلة وجعل علمـ[...]Ends (f. 105r, lines 13-14):... وعالج المريض بعلاج المبرسمين وبهذا العلاج يعالج من سقى الجـ[... ...]ـذستر. وعلاج من سقى البنج القيءوشرب طبيخ التين. والله النافع بمشيئته وقدرته.Colophon (f. 105r, lines 14-20):ثم الكتاب ولله الحمد على نعمه ونُسخ من نسخةبخظ تلميذ المصنف والمقابلة بدستور الأصلكتبه متى بن هبة الله بن عبد الله حامدًا لله تعالىوفرغ من نسخه يوم الأربعاء تاسع عشرين من جمادى الآخرةبمدينة السلم سنة سبع وستين وخمسمائة وأيضًا في تموز رابع عشرين يومًا مضت منهسنة ألف وخمسمائة وثلث للإسكندر ملك اليونانيون (!)والسلمCodex; ff. ii+108+iiMaterial: Eastern laid paperDimensions: 250 x 190 mm leaf [205 x 145 mm text frame]Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink, India Office Library foliation stamped in black inkRuling:
Misṭarah; lines per page and vertical spacing various due to tabulationScript:
Naskh; the scribe is Mattá ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ‘Abd Allāh (متى بن هبة الله بن عبد الله, see colophon, f. 105r, line 16)Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and some punctuation and text frames in redDecoration: All folios framed in redBinding: India Office half-leather binding; evidence of previous binding with a flap (see ff. 21v and 22r)Condition: Tidemarks especially towards gutter and tail, some text lost and sometimes replaced by later hand, iron-gall ink corrosion to ff. 105 and 106; ff. 3 and 4 mutilated; tears to margins of other folios with historic repairsMarginalia: Many short annotations by various handsSeals: f. 2r