An illustrated copy of Iṣṭafan ibn Bāsil's Arabic translation of Books III-V of Dioscorides' Materia Medica. — Multiple dates; Copied in al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmīyah, Baghdad?

Title

An illustrated copy of Iṣṭafan ibn Bāsil's Arabic translation of Books III-V of Dioscorides' Materia Medica. — Multiple dates; Copied in al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmīyah, Baghdad?

Shelfmark

MS. Arab. d. 138

Place of origin

Copied in al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmīyah, Baghdad?

Date

17th July 1240.

Language

Arabic

Contents

Form

codex

Support

The smooth, semi-glossy yellow-beige paper has a thickness of 0.15–0.22 mm and an opaqueness factor of 4 to 5. It is slightly fibrous, with horizontal sagging laid lines (sometimes indistinct) but no chain lines.

Physical extent

211 ff.

Hands

Script: The text is written in a medium-large professional and consistent Naskh with occasional vocalization, with dark-brown ink and headings in red. The letters ḥāʾ and ʿayn frequently have minuscule letters underneath. Háčeks occur frequently over the letter rāʾ and occasionally over sīn; the letter ﻫ, when an attached pronoun, frequently has a minuscule letter over it. Scribe: al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Nashawī .

Acquisition

The volume entered the collections of the Bodleian Library on 26th August 1926 as a bequest of Sir William Osler (d. 1919).

Provenance

On folio 1a there are one obliterated owner’s stamp and two owners' notes, now illegible or obliterated except for the date on one of Rabīʿ I 867 (Nov.−Dec. 1462).

Sir William Osler , whose ex libris occurs on folio 1, purchased the manuscript in 1912 through the agency of J. H. Bill, British Consul in Shiraz.

Subject

Materia Medica

Medicine--Early works to 1800