PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Damascus, Maktabat al-Asad al-waṭaniyya, 9354

[Black-and-white microfilm scans of the textblock.]
Single main work with marginal additions: Arabic.  Date:

main work completed in the evening of Friday, 15 Jumādā l-ūlā 641/30 October 1243 (181r–v).

Or.:

unknown; unknown scribe.

Prov.:

a statement by Aḥmad b. Naghma (Niʿma?) b. Muzābī (?) dated 904/1498-9. An anonymous statement dated 〈10?〉34/1624-5 (181v). A statement by Muḥammad al-Amīn known as Ibn al-Kharāṭ al-Shāfī l-Ḥanafī, dated to the end of Jumādā l-thāniya 1137/mid March 1725 (all on f. Ir). A word in what could be garbled Greek (87v, top margin); an undecipherable ownership statement (181v). Indication ‘176 folios’ in Arabic (181v). Two different stamps of the Ẓāhiriyya Library (Ir, 1r, 5v). Old shelfmark: ‘Ẓāhiriyya ʿāmm 9354’ (Ir, 1r).

Cod.: paper, I+181 ff. (foliated with Hindu-Arabic numerals; an earlier foliation with Hindu-Arabic numerals, starting at ‘10’ and mostly trimmed; inserted blank sheets of paper between ff. 10–11, 16–17, 137–138, and 143–144; no catchwords or quire numbers). A single black naskh hand for the main text; mostly dotted ductus with abundant diacritics. Black and red for oversized titles and formulaic expressions; chapter numbering in abjad numerals in the margin. Neat tables with abjad numerals. Hand copying the Ptolemaic work and further glosses (8r, 8v, 12r, 18r, 85r, 135v, 177r): quick black naskh with many ligatures, occasional vowels; some sketchy drawings. Codex in good condition; moisture stains, binding often loose, reinforced with paper slips; f. 1 partially destroyed and pasted, margins of further folios occasionally pasted. Dimensions: 23.5×16 cm; 17 lines per page.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: Ibn Hibintā, Kitāb al-Mughnī fī aḥkām al-nujūm, first part (1r–181v); Ptolemaica (f. 177r, margin). Blank: Iv, inserted sheets.

Bibl.: Ibrāhīm Khūrī, Fihris makhṭūṭāt Dār al-kutub al-Ẓāhiriyya: ʿIlm al-hayʾa wa-mulḥaqātu-hu, Damascus: Majmaʿ al-Lugha al-ʿArabiyya bi-Dimashq, 1969, pp. 293–294; Ibn Hibintā, Kitāb al-Mughnī (facsimile ed.Fuat Sezgin, in collaboration with Mazen Amawi, Aladdin Jokhosha and Eckhard Neubauer, The Complete Book of Astrology. Al-Mughnī fī aḥkām al-nujūm by Ibn Hibintā. First Part: Reproduced from MS ʿāmm 9354, Ẓāhirīya Library, Damascus, Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987, with the Ptolemaic work on p. 357).

177r (margin)

\177r\ أقول والله أعلم إنّ بطليموس الحكيم ذكر أنّ الكواكب ذوات الأذناب تسعة — فإذا {ظهر في} المشرق منكوس فأنّ{ه دلّ على} قحط بابل.

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, Maqāla fī Dhawāt al-dhawāʾib (B.3.1)

. — Title: none. — No colophon. Text partially trimmed. Sketches of the shapes of nine comets within the text.