MS. Pococke 294 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

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Oriental Manuscripts Pococke Collection

Contents

Summary of Contents: The volume contains 199 folios, with 3 preliminary leaves and 4 blank back leaves, all of later paper, as is folio 1 which is blank except for the aphorism: هذا كتاب لويباع بوزنه دهباً لكان البايع المغبون Even if this volume were sold for its weight in gold, the seller would have been cheated A small piece of paper removed at the time of rebinding is pasted onto folio 1, bearing a Latin note to the effect that it contains the commentary by Ibn al-Nafis (Ibn Naphîs Al Korashi) on the Hippocratic treatise on aphorisms.
Author: Ibn al-Nafīs, ʻAlī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm, 1210 or 11-1288 ابن النفيس، علي بن أبي الحزم، ت. 687 هـ Ibn al-Nafīs, ʻAlāʼ al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm al-Qurashī (d. 687/1288)
Title: Sharḥ al-Fuṣūl li-Ibqurāṭ
Title: شرح الفصول لإبقراط
Title: Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates

It is an incomplete copy containing only the first three maqālahs and about two-thirds of the fourth. It is stated in the colophon to be the first part (juzʼ ) only, suggesting that the copy originally comprised two fascicles. The second maqālah begins on folio 64a, the third on folio 119b (though it is mislabelled al-sābiʻah, ‘the seventh’), and the fourth on folio 168a. The Hippocratic text is usually introduced by qāla Ibqurāṭ and the commentary by al-sharḥ, written in red ink.

Incipit: بسم الله … قال الشيخ الامام العالم العلامة وحيد دهره و فريد عصره على بن أبى الحزم [غير معجمة] القرشى المعروف بابن النفيس لكل زمان مقال والفاضل جالينوس قد شرح كتاب الفصول لامام هذه الصناعه ابقراط شرحاً كشف اسراره وأفاض علي ملتمسي هذا الفن انواره لكنه اعتمد على فطانه مشتغلي أهل زمانه في مواضع ظاهره فقصد فيها الاختصار وخصوصاً بيان ترتيب كل فصل في موضعه ومناسبته لما يحتف به فطن بعض من جآ بعده وعسر عليه فهمه ان ذلك لعدمه الترتيب حتى بالغ فى التحذلق قادجا فيه فقال انه عديم الضبط كثير الخبط فاحببت ان اكتب في ذلك من المباحث ما اظهر به محاسنه واثير دفاينه وأنا أسال الله المعونه على ذلك والتمس من الاصدقاء الذين من أهل المعرفة ان لا يبادروا فيما خالفت فيه المشهور بالنقص والابطال دون المراجعة والتأمل الخالي عن سوء الظن بالزمان واهله فالاعتبار بما قال لا بمن قال وقد جرت عادة الشراح ان يفتتحوا كُتب الشروح بتطويلات في مدح تلك الصناعة ومدح الكتاب الذي يشرح وقد رايت ان لا اضيع الزمان فيها. المقالة الاولي من كتاب الفصول لابقراط قال ابقراط العمر قصير والصناعة طويلة والوقت ضيق والتجربه خطر … الشرح العمر هو مدة بقاء النفس متصرفة في البدن وهو مدة الحياة والصناعة مَلَكَةٌ نفسانية يقتدر بها على استعمال
Explicit: قال ابقراط مَن اعترته حُمَّي فأعوجت معها رقبته وعسر عليه الإزتارد [؟] حتى لا يقدر أن يزدرد الا بكدّ من غير ان يظهر به انتفاخ فذلك من علامات الموت الشرح لما اشتمل الفصل المتقدم على ذكر أحد أنواع الإختناق [؟] ((الردي)) الدال على الموت ذكر في هذا نوعاً اخر من تلك الانواع وهذا الإعوجاج[غير معجمة] قد يكون لاجل افراط اليبس المجفف … قال جالينوس ان عادة ابقراط اذا قال مثل هذا اراد به الحمى الشديده واما اذا اراد مطلق الحمى قال من كانت به حمى او ما يشبه ذلك قوله وليس في حلقه انتفاخ أي ورم لان ذلك ان كان عن اليبوسه فظاهر وان كان عن ورم فيكون كانه يقول وليس فى حلقه انتفاخ يظهر للحس
Colophon: تم الجز الاول من شرح فصول ابقراط شرح الفقير الى الله علي زاني [= بن أبي] الحزم [غير معجمة] القرشي المتطبب يتلوه في الذي يليه قال ابقراط العرق يحمد في المحموم اذا ابتدا في اليوم الثالث او في اليوم الخامس ... أو في السابع ... وبالله التوفيق والمعونه

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a product of the seventh/thirteenth century. If the reading of the oldest owner’s note is correct, then the copy was made within the lifetime of the commentator, for the note appears to be dated 657 (1258−9) and signed by one ʿAlī ibn Abī Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-ḥakīm al-Nābulusī. The general area of Nablus, where the owner was a physician, seems consistent with the likely place of production. The manuscript was certainly produced well before 880/1475−6, when a second owner’s note was entered.

Language(s): Arabic

References

NCAM-1, Entry No.6 A.
GAL I 493
[UAM. 544]

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 198 ff. (folios 2b-199b)
Dimensions (leaf): 26.4 × 18.1 cm.
Dimensions (written): 20.0 × 11.5 cm.

Condition

The paper is water-stained and has some foxing towards the end; it is also soiled through thumbing (with fingerprints visible on folios 30b, 48a, 52a, and 147a). Folio 2 is guarded and the edges of folios 2 and 199 have been repaired.

Layout

13 lines per page. The text area has been frame-ruled.

Hand(s)

The text is written in a widely spaced, large, elegant, Naskh with occasional vocalization. The initial kāf is frequently missing the top stroke. The final letters of words at the end of a line are often written in the margin at a considerable distance from the ruled text area. The letters ḥāʼ and ʻayn have minuscule letters beneath, possibly added later, and the letter sīn occasionally has a háček. The text is written in black ink with headings in red.

Additions:
  • Marginalia The copy has been collated. At the bottom of folio 199b, alongside the colophon, in a hand slightly later than the copyist’s (using a brown ink) someone has written that it was collated from the beginning up to that point. Quires of ten leaves are numbered with Coptic numerals as well as Arabic numerals.
  • Paper The smooth, semi-glossy beige paper has a thickness of 0.12–0.16 mm and an opaqueness factor of 5 to 6. It has horizontal laid lines and chain lines in groups of 3s.

Binding

The volume is bound in a nineteenth-century European library binding of tan leather over pasteboards; the covers have two blind-tooled simple frames. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers. The traces of an envelope flap from an earlier binding are visible on folio 1a.

History

Origin: Nablus; Probably 13th Century CE

Provenance and Acquisition

There are four notes on folio 2a. The oldest in appearance, written in faded brown ink, names the owner as ʻAlī ibn Abī Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-ḥakīm al-Nābulusī (the last word has been reinked) and appears to be dated 657 (1258−9). Beneath that note, a somewhat later hand has written that it came into the possession of Nūr al-Dīn ibn ʻAlī al-ḥakīm and his brother ʻAbd al-Razzāq in the year 880 (1475−6); this same information, without the date, is repeated in a second note by a different hand. There are two additional undated notes, one of them rather illegible, though written with a calligraphic flourish, and the other defaced.

The collections of Edward Pococke, d. 1691.

Purchased by the Bodleian Library in 1692.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on Emilie Savage-Smith; A New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Volume I: Medicine, Oxford: OUP, 2011

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures contact Bodleian Admissions).

Funding of Cataloguing

JISC

Subjects

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