Islamic Arabic 560 (Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham)

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Mingana

Contents

2 works by 2 authors on the subject of Astronomical instruments

1. ff. 1-30
Author: Khujandi, Abu Mahmud, active 10th century
Title: Kitāb ṣanʿat al-āla al-shāmila

Fol. 1 is a wholly extraneous leaf of much later date. The MS proper begins with fol. 2.

The work seems to be complete down to the 6th bāb of the first faṣl of the 4th maqāla. The remainder is missing, except that fol. 30 contains a fragment of text around the 2nd bāb of the first faṣl of the 5th (and last) maqāla.

Incipit: اتمام ... لجميع البلدان استنباط هبة الله بن الحسين الاسطرلابي البغدادي قال رحمه الله نحمد الله الحنان

Language(s): Arabic
Filiation: See also MS. Huntington 566, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

References

Printed catalogue no. 1902
GAL Suppl. I 390. (The title fī ʿamal al-āla al-ʿamma given in GAL is a pure invention on the part of Brockelmann.
2. ff. 31-35
Author: Badīʻ al-Asṭurlābī, Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn, -1139 or 1140
Title: Itmām mā fī kitāb al-āla al-shāmila min al-nuqṣān (lil-tihādihā) li-jamīʿ al-buldān

See Yāqūt, Irshād 7,241: '[Badīʻ al-Asṭurlābī] made good a deficiancy in the shāmila instrument which [Khujandi] had invented. The latter had constructed the instrument for one latitude, and proved that it was not possible to make it serve more than one latitude. [Badīʻ al-Asṭurlābī], however, pondered over it and discovered a method of constructing it to serve for various latitudes.' The present text is evidently Badīʻ al-Asṭurlābī's theoretical demonstration of the deficiency of Khujandi's work.

Language(s): Arabic

References

Printed catalogue no. 1902

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 35 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 21.9 × 15.3 cm.
Dimensions (written):
Foliation:
Foliation:

Condition

In very poor condition, faded and tattered.

Layout

Hand(s)

Written in Naskhī of probably the 13th century

Decoration

History

Origin: Undated, probably 13th century CE

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on H. L. Gottschalk et al.: Islamic Arabic Manuscripts. Catalogue of the Mingana Collection of Manuscripts. Vol. IV. Revised edition edited by Derek Hopwood. Birmingham: Selly Oak Colleges, 1985.

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Cadbury Research Library

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