The volume consists of 85 leaves, but folios 2, 12, 27–34, 68-9, 76–9 and 83–5 are interleaving folios or endpapers, all of which are blank except for folios 2a and 34ab, which has some pencilled English notes. Folio 82b is blank. There are seven items in the volume most of them magical treatises, and one(ff. 3r-24v) medical compendium attributed to Hippocrates. On folio 1a there are talismanic designs in red ink with accompanying poetry and on folio 1b a chapter (bāb) giving a magical procedure is written in a different hand in black ink. Folio 25a has a geomantic taskīn drawn on the bottom half, while at the top a different hand has entered diagonally a legal note concerning the validity of waqf al-ʿaqār (the endowment of real estate) according to the Ḥanafī school. Folio 34b has a pencilled English translation of the beginning of the fourth item; the latter is illustrated with magic squares, magical alphabets, and a 5 × 5 square with symbols for God superimposed over a small human figure (folio 43b); there is also a full-page human figure labelled with magical inscriptions on folio 67b; al-Būnī (d. c. 622/1225) is mentioned on folio 51a as a source. Item five in the volume (folios 70a–74a) is also in part taken from al-Būnī’s Shams al-Maʿārif . — 19th cent.?
MS. Arab. e. 110
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Description
From Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World
This is an extract only. For more information, see the catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World.
Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World contains descriptions of Islamicate manuscripts held in 23 UK libraries, including the Bodleian Libraries and some Oxford college libraries. Learn more.
Title
The volume consists of 85 leaves, but folios 2, 12, 27–34, 68-9, 76–9 and 83–5 are interleaving folios or endpapers, all of which are blank except for folios 2a and 34ab, which has some pencilled English notes. Folio 82b is blank. There are seven items in the volume most of them magical treatises, and one(ff. 3r-24v) medical compendium attributed to Hippocrates. On folio 1a there are talismanic designs in red ink with accompanying poetry and on folio 1b a chapter (bāb) giving a magical procedure is written in a different hand in black ink. Folio 25a has a geomantic taskīn drawn on the bottom half, while at the top a different hand has entered diagonally a legal note concerning the validity of waqf al-ʿaqār (the endowment of real estate) according to the Ḥanafī school. Folio 34b has a pencilled English translation of the beginning of the fourth item; the latter is illustrated with magic squares, magical alphabets, and a 5 × 5 square with symbols for God superimposed over a small human figure (folio 43b); there is also a full-page human figure labelled with magical inscriptions on folio 67b; al-Būnī (d. c. 622/1225) is mentioned on folio 51a as a source. Item five in the volume (folios 70a–74a) is also in part taken from al-Būnī’s Shams al-Maʿārif . — 19th cent.?
Shelfmark
MS. Arab. e. 110
Date
19th cent.?
Language
Arabic
Contents
Form
codex
Physical extent
85 ff.
Acquisition
The volume was purchased from R. Campbell Thompson, 20 November 1920 .
Provenance
The volume belonged to R. Campbell Thompson. Reginald Campbell Thompson (d. 1941) was a noted Assyriologist and Fellow of Merton College who from 1907 onwards travelled frequently to Mesopotamia for excavations. His academic interests included ancient materials on omens and incantations, and it may be that the pencilled English translations and other pencilled notes in the manuscript are those of Thompson’s.
Subject
Magic, Islam
View full record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World
