Portions of 2 medical works (al-Ḥāwī and al-Fākhir) by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā al-Rāzī. — Before 1659 CE/ 1069 AH.

Title

Portions of 2 medical works (al-Ḥāwī and al-Fākhir) by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā al-Rāzī. — Before 1659 CE/ 1069 AH.

Shelfmark

MS. Arab. b. 10

Language

Arabic

Contents

Form

codex

Support

The smooth, glossy brown paper has a thickness of 0.10−0.13 mm and an opaqueness factor of 7 to 8. It is slightly fibrous with the quires of ten leaves sometimes having the curved laid lines running vertically and sometimes horizontally; on some leaves there are traces of single chain lines.

Physical extent

2 vols. 718 ff. Item 1: 539 leaves (folios 1b−18b, 19b−127b, 128b−251b, 252b−341b, 427b−483a, 484a−552a, 553b−588a, 638, 640a−649b, 665a−671b, 681a−683b, 696a−699b, 707a−711a, 712a−718b). Item 2: 178 leaves (folios 342b−426b, 589b−637b, 639, 650a−664b, 672a−680b, 684a−695b, and 700a−706b).

Hands

Script: Written in a medium-small and professional Naskh, though in some sections the script is inconsistent and rather casual (as, for example, on folios 324−5). There appear to be at least three copyists involved; folios 491–2 and 527–8 illustrate the change in script within one section. The text is written in black ink with larger black headings or with red headings; there are also red text-stops and red and black overlinings. Gaps for headings have been left unfilled on a number of folios.

Acquisition

Bought from T. Bahrami, July 1948.

Provenance

An owner’s note dated 1069/1658−9 occurs on the first folio. An oval owner’s stamp, dated 1254/1838−9, with Persian notes, occurs on folios 1b, 2a, 63a, 101b, 128a, and 308b. At the bottom of folio 1a, there is a circular stamp dated 1070 (1659−60) which is repeated twice, once with an an additional note, and a later Indian stamp dated 1327 (1909). A leaf from a small manuscript has also been pasted onto folio 1a, and on this leaf there is recorded a transfer by legal sale from Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Baghdādīto one ʿAlī ibn Khāṭir ibn ʿAlī ibn Sayf al-Dīn al-Sahājī al-Taghlibī which took place in Rabīʿ II 1033 (26 Jan.−12 Feb. 1624); it is stated in the note of transfer that it took place around the time of the conquest of Baghdad in 1033/1623 by the ‘Pride of the Sultans of the World and the Alexander of the Age’ Shāh ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad Ṣafavid ’. It seems unlikely, however, that this transfer of ownership applies to the present volume.

Subject

Medicine, Arab