Arabic MS 738 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Arabic Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The text of the Hundred Astronomical Sentences by Ptolemy, translated by Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ṭūsī (d.1274).

1a-89a

Title: Thamarat fī aḥkām al-nujūm

Title: ثمرة في احكام النجوم

Title: Fruit concerning the Laws of the Stars

Author: Ptolemy, active 2nd century (بطلموس)

Translator: Ṭūsī, Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, 1201-1274 (نصير الدين محمد ين الحسن الطوسي)

Language(s): Arabic

Possibly the piece that Ḥaj. Khal. (ii, 496) describes as having been called in Greek Andromeda, a word to which he attributes the meaning of a hundred sayings and to which he gives the Arabic title: ثمرة في احكام النجوم.

The hundred sayings are in Arabic, and in Persian translation. The word preceding the Arabic text is kalimah and that which introduces the Persian translation is tarjamah; but this so-called translation is a paraphrase and explanation, a regular tafsīr and attributed in a note found in the manuscript to Naṣīr al-Dīn Muhammad bin al-Ḥasan al-Ṭusī (نصير الدين محمد ين الحسن الطوسي) (by Ḥaj. Khal. [ii, 496]).

No regular heading or exordium; no colophon.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Paper

Extent: 89 folios (ii+89+ii)

Dimensions (leaf): 180 × 110 mm.

Dimensions (written): 120 × 70 mm.

Foliation: Modern foliation in Western Arabic numerals in pencil.

Collation

Catchword on each verso.

Condition

Worm damage, usage stains, earier repairs.

Layout

Uniform layout. Only Persian enumaration of sayings are rubricated.

Hand(s)

Indian Talʿīq script of around 1760 CE.

Additions:

Note on flyleaf 1a: كتاب ثمرة بطلموس; likely in the hand of Hamilton's assitant Muhīn Dās.

Inscriptions on folio 89b (to be deciphered).

Binding

Half-bound with brown leather spine and corners.

History

Origin: It was produced in the Second half of the 18th century CE in ; India.

Provenance and Acquisition

Formerly in the collection of Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) Crawford, Alexander Crawford Lindsay, 1812-1880.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) Rylands, Enriqueta, 1843–1908 in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913) Crawford, James Ludovic Lindsay, Earl of, 1847–1913 .

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to John Rylands Library.

Record Sources

Description based on A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1934), 366., revised and expanded by Zsófia Buda.

Availability

The item is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Using Special Collections at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library.

For further information on the availability of the item, please contact the Special Collections Reader Services.

Bibliography

A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1934), no. 366 [738].

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Subjects

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