Composite volume containing two manuscripts on drugs.Contents:(1) Isfarāyīnī, Muḥammad (إسفراييني، محمد),
Taqwīm al-adwīyah(تقويم العدوية; ff. 1r-135v);(2) Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ṣadr al-Dīn ‘Alī (تقي الدين محمد ابن صدر الدين علي), Treatise on drugs (ff. 136r-237v).Codex; ff. i+237+iMaterial: 1r-135v: Eastern laid paper; 136r-237v: Western laid paperDimensions: 275 x 155 mm leaf [1r-135v: 170 x 85 mm written (untabulated folios), 136r-237v: 165 x 90 mm written]Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencilRuling: 1r-135v: no ruling visible, 14 lines per page, vertical spacing 9 lines per 10 cm; 136r-237v (untabulated folios):
Misṭarah, 19 lines per page, vertical spacing 12 lines per 10 cmScript: 1r-135v:
Nasta‘līq; the scribe is Ibn ‘Abd Allāh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shīrāzī (ابن عبد الله أبو الحسن الشيرازي, see colophon, f. 134r, lines 8-9); 136r-237v:
Nasta‘līqInk: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in redDecoration: 1r-135v: illuminated opening (ff. 3v-4r) with head piece in blue and gold with floral and foliate design in red, yellow, green and white, floral and foliate pattern in gold, blue green and red in margins and between lines of text; subsequent folia framed in blue and gold; 136r-237v: all folia framed in blue, red, and goldBinding: British Museum red buckram binding; leather covers of previous binding of red leather with multicoloured medallion and pendants pasted to inside current right and left boardsCondition: Minor tidemarks to lower edge corners towards front and back of volume; lower edge corners of ff. 134 and 135 mutilated and repairedMarginalia: Very fewSeals: 3r, 40r, 134r, 135r
Commentary by Abū al-Qāsim ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻAlī Ibn Abī Ṣādiq al-Nīsābūrī (أبو القاسم عبد الرحمن بن علي ابن أبي صادق النيسابوري, d. ca 1068) on the Aphorisms (كتاب الفصول) of Hippocrates (أبقراط, d. ca 370 BC). The commentary is based on Galen of Pergamon's (جالينوس, d. ca 216) commentary on the Aphorisms.The copy was completed on the morning of Tuesday 3 Ramaḍān 1094/26 August 1683, the 28th year of the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (reg. 1658-1707), in the
takīyahof Shah Sayyid Aḥmad at Burhanpur by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir Qurashī (شيخ عبد القادر قرشي, see colophon, f. 177r, lines 6-8, transcribed below).The text is followed by a brief note by a later hand and an incomplete horoscope diagram (f. 177v).Begins (f. 2v, lines 1-4):... قال عبد الرحمن بن عليبن أبي صادق رحمة (!) بعد حمد الله تعا[لى] بجميع محامده والصلوة علىرسوله محمد وآله إن العناية تبعث الخلق على اقتناء باب من أبواب العلوممن أشرف الفضائل الإنسانية سيما ما كان الناس كافةً ...Ends (f. 177r, lines 2-5):... وأما الفصول المدالة والتي قد اعتد ذكرهابآخره من الكتاب فركنا ذكرها شفقة على فواتالزمان بما لا يجدي نفعًا والله تعالى والسالمة وهوحسبنا ونعم الوكيلColophon (f. 177r, lines 6-13):تمت بالخير بوقت ضحى روز سه شنبه بتأريخ سيوم ماهرمضان المبارك في تكيه ميان شاه سيد أحمد قدس سرهسنة 28 جلوس سنة 1094 هجري كاتب فقير شيخ عبد القادرقرشي ساكن برهانپور هركس كه بدركاه توآيد به تيازمحروم زدركاه توكي كردربازاي آله من وآله همه كرم تست عذرخواه همقطره [آ]ز آب رحمت توبه است شستن نامه سياه هموالسلام والإكرامFf. 2v-177r
Persian translation of a treatise on geometry, the
Ashkāl al-ta’sīs(أشكال التأسيس) by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ashraf al-Ḥusaynī al-Samarqandī (شمس الدين محمد بن أشرف الحسيني السمرقندي, d. 1302; see f. 118v, line 7). The translation was made by Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qiwām al-Qāḍī al-Wālishtānī known as Maḥmūd al-Harawī al-Hay’awī (محمود بن محمد بن محمد بن قوام القاضي الوالشتاني known as محمود الهروي الهيئوي, fl. c. 1435; see ff. 118r, lines 16-17), and dedicated to Jamāl al-Dīn Sulṭān Ḥusayn (جمال الدين سلطان حسين; see f. 119r, lines 4-6).All thirty-five propositions of the
Ashkāl al-ta’sīsare commented upon, but the copy is defective at the end, finishing abruptly in proposition thirty-five.The text is followed by notes in Arabic on geometrical terminology (f. 134r) and a bio-bibliographical note in Arabic on al-Sharīf ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī (d. 1413; f. 135r).Begins (f. 117v, line 2):حمد بی حد وثنأ بی منتها وسپاس بى قياس كه قدم شهوار ...Ends (f. 133v, lines 16-17):سطح ح ط متساوي سطح ح ع است چنانچه در لد گذشت وسطح ح عمثل سطح ح ر است چه متمان (؟) متساويا ٮٮد (؟) سطح ح ط متساوي سطح حر باشد (؟) سطحFf. 117v-133v
Treatise on the hydraulic and pneumatic machinery of water-clocks with thirteen diagrams, attributed to Archimedes (Ἀρχιμήδης; أرشميدس; fl. 3rd century BC). The title is given wrongly as كتاب أرشميدش في عمل السكامات (
Kitāb Arshimīdash fī ‘amal al-sakāmāt; f. 2v, line 1); the final word should read البنكامات (
al-binkāmāt, 'water-clocks'). The treatise is a compilation material from Greek, Byzantine, Persian and Arabic sources, and some sections may in fact be derived from Archimedes.Begins (f. 2v, lines 3-6):إذا أردت ذلك فاعمد إلى نحاس فاتخذ منه خزانةللماء (!) يكون ارتفاعها ثلثة أشبار في شبرين وليكنمدورة مستويه مهتدمة جيدة اللحام وليكن لهاقوائم ...Ends (f. 21r, lines 7-11):... فنركب القمع في طرف الأنبوب من خارج ونصبالماء حتى يبلغ المقدار الذي يراد منها الذي وصفناه فيماتقدم من عملها إن شاء الله وقد يستخرج من هذه الآلة آلاتكبيرة فافهم ما وصفناه ولا قوة إلا بالله ثم ما أردنا منذلك وبالله التوفيق ...The text is accomapied by thirteen diagrams with captions in Persian.Diagrams:Top section of water-clock, showing a man's head whose eyes change colour on the hour a bird's head that drops balls onto a cymbal, and the mechanisms that drive these devices (f. 2r);Pipes, float and float chamber (f. 5r);Pipe out of which water enters the sump (f. 5v);Semi-circular plate indicating the twelve signs of the zodiac, and pipe with division marker and tap (f. 6v);A device found in a previous diagram (f. 8v);Drum container, water container, and water-sump container of a water-clock (f. 9r)Top section of a water-clock, showing a woman's head flanked by columns marked to indicated the 24 hours of the day (f. 11r);Automata of an executioner and fettered prisioners (f. 12v);Automaton of an executioner on horseback (f. 14v);Statues of men that rise and fall on rods to indicate the hours of the day inscribed on columns, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 16r);Mechanical snakes that emerge from holes at the foot of a mountain on the hour and the mechanism that drives them (f. 17r);A tree containing birds which emit cries on the hour when the snakes on folio 17r emerge from their holes, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 19r);Flautist automaton (f. 20v).Ff. 2r-21r
A collection of short extracts of poetry and prose in Perisan and Arabic on various topics related to the natural sciences. The extracts are attributed to such authorities and works as Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Alī Yazdī (شرف الدين علي يزدي, d. 1454; f. 5r), the
Optica(كتاب المناظر) of Euclid of Alexandria (Εὐκλείδης; أقليدس; fl. 300 BC; f. 6r, top); the
Majma‘ al-bayān(مجمع البيان) of Abū ‘Alī Faḍl ibn Ḥasan al-Ṭabarsī (أبو علي فضل بن حسن الطبرسي, d. 1153; f. 6r, lower left).The text is arranged in irregular columns and blocks on the pages, written horizontally, vertically and diagonally.Begins (f. 4v, right column, lines 1-2):سمن برى كه سيم حرف تام او عدويتكه مال آن عدد اور است اول وثانىEnds (f. 6r, left column, 10-12):فهو قوله التعالى ولا الليل سابق النهارأي قد سبقه النهار قالهالطبرسي في مجمعه 5Ff. 4v-6r
Folio 12v contains six lines of unpointed Arabic text entitled
'On ascertaining the distance between countries (في معرفة قدر المسافة بين البلدين)', and a diagram showing the orbit of the moon around the earth.Folio 13r contains a short and mostly unpointed Persian text attributed to Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274), and a diagram.Ff. 12v-13r
Notable contents include:Commentary on Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274) edition of Euclid's (Εὐκλείδης; أقليدس; fl. 300 BC)
Elements(الأصول) (ff. 86v-88r);Text by Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274) (ff.88v-89v);Commentary on Ptolemy's (بطلميوس, Claudius Ptolemaeus; c 90-c 168)
Almagest(كتاب المجسطي) (f. 90r);A text on determining the
qiblah(في معرفة سمت القبلة) by Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (أبو الريحان محمد بن أحمد البيروني, ca 973-1048) (ff. 91v-92r);A text on determining the
qiblah(في معرفة سمت القبلة) by Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274) (f. 92v);A text on catoptrics, with elaborate diagrams (ff. 94r-95r);Commentry on Euclid (Εὐκλείδης; أقليدس; fl. 300 BC) (ff. 95v-96r);Figure comprising all the figures in Euclid's (Εὐκλείδης; أقليدس; fl. 300 BC)
Elements(الأصول), Book One (ff. 97v-98r);Extract from Qāḍīzāde al-Rūmī's (قاضي زاده الرومي; d. after 1440) commentary on Maḥmūd al-Jaghmīnī's (محمود الجغميني; fl. first half of 13th century)
al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī ‘ilm al-hay’ah al-basīṭah(98v-99r);Extract from al-Qūshjī (القوشجي; d. 1474) (1092v-103r);Extract from Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī's (كمال الدين حسن الفارسي; d. 1319)
Tanqīḥ manāẓir Ibn al-Haytham(تنقيح مناظر ابن الهيثم; ff114v-115).Ff. 86v-117r