Working notes of an alchemist, who signs himself as the compiler and composer of the manuscript (f. 127v). Lacking at least one leaf at the beginning, if not more (early pagination begins at 2, f. 1r), with repairs on extant first and last leaves. Includes a commentary on an unknown text and references to the concept of balance found in the work of 8th-century alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and to Pythagoras. Many marginal notes.
From an Arabic alchemical text of an operative nature. The purpose of the recipes is unclear due to lacunae. Ingredients include iron, sandarac, musk, (human) urine and cow’s urine. An iron pot and mortar are mentioned as apparatus.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbed, faded, stainedLayout: 20 lines (recto); 18 lines (verso)
P1: f. 1r: description of a dream dated 525 AH (= 1130 CE); f. 1v: alchemical recipe called ‘the operation of mixture’; f. 2r: invocation to God. P2: f. 1r: alchemical recipe (continues from P1 f. 1v); f. 1v: calendar in which the Hebrew months of Sivan and Tammuz are mentioned; f. 2v: invocation to God and separate letters. P3: leaf 1: magical words and description of their use, with a mention of the city of Damascus; calendar mentioning Jewish festivals (Passover, Ḥanukka). P4: f. 1r: sequence of letters arranged according to the abrade; f. 1v: on the substitution of letters in words according to the Kabbalah; P4 leaf 2: calendar with mention of Hebrew festivals (continues from P3, leaf 1). P5: f. 1r: very damaged, only a few letters legible; f. 1v: list of some of the months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2r: description of movements of the sun (first 8 lines) and list of some months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2v: badly rubbed. P6: f. 1r: description of celestial phenomena; ff. 1v, leaf 2: on the reckoning of the days of the festival with mention of the leap year. P7: ff. 1r-2v: mention of a musical instrument in Arabic and Hebrew; f. 2r: mention of Rabban Gamaliel and reckoning for the rising of the New Moon. P8: unidentified Hebrew text. P9 recto: alchemical recipe involving the use of vitriol; verso: Arabic (separate letters and words and unidentified partial text).Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 0-16 lines
Hebrew instructions for producing silver and gold, followed by Hebrew writing exercises and an unidentified Arabic text.Condition: holesLayout: 20 lines per page (recto) 22 lines (verso)
Alchemical or medical recipe containing both organic and metal substances, followed by a short history of the Umayyid caliphate in Damascus. Both texts are written in the same hand. On recto there are also 2 lines from the end of an Arabic legal document.Condition: Slightly tornLayout: 31 lines
Recto: two alchemical recipes. The first recipe (ll. 1-8) is aimed at producing ‘the work’ (אלצנעה), a word commonly used for indicating the production of gold, silver or the elixir that would turn base metals into precious ones. Ingredients mentioned are: sublimated arsenic, vinegar, sulphur, dissolved salt, sublimated mercury. The second recipe is composed of two parts. The first part (ll. 8-14) describes a preparation requiring silver, salt, water, mercury, and sal ammoniac that is aimed at obtaining a clear plate of metal. The second part (ll. 14-end) requires the use of quicksilver, horse manure, sal ammoniac, the Khurasani (?) and young boys’ urine. The end of the recipe is lost. Verso: part of a widely-spaced letter sent to a nagid in Fusṭāṭ.Condition: Torn, fadedLayout: 36 lines (recto); 16 lines (verso)
Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldContents note: Vol. 1 only.Record origin: "Manuscript description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team."
Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldHand: In the hand of Beaudin, later French vice-consul at Damascus.Record origin: "Manuscript description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team."
Unbound.According to the colophon, copy completed in the hand of Aḥmad ibn al-Shaykh ʻAlī al-Shāfiʻī al-Qādirī on 23 Muḥarram 1091 AH [February 24, 1680 AD].Ownership statement by Ṣāliḥ ibn al-Sayyid Ibrāhīm ibn al-Munayyir, Jumādá al-Ukrá 1218 AH [September 1803 AD]. Another ownership statement was deleted.The book was apparently bound with Muqaddimah fī al-shudūd al-ḥarīr [MS Arab 7019] and Kitāb fī al-taṣawwuf (f. 1r).MS Arab SM7141. Houghton Library, Harvard University.In Arabic.Electronic reproduction. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard College Library Digital Imaging Group, 2008. (Open Collections Program at Harvard University. Islamic Heritage Project).