PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Qom, Kitābkhānah-yi ʿumūmī-yi Ḥadrat-i Āyat Allāh al-ʿuẓmā Marʿashī Najafī, 11579

[Colour scans of the body text, without covers or binding.]

Collection of four works and several shorter extracts: Arabic and Persian. Date:

ff. 49v–59v copied in 1029/1619-20 (48r); ff. 63v–75r completed in Rabīʿ al-awwal 1027/February-March 1618 (according to the colophon, 75r) or at the end of Rajab 1029/end of June 1620 (statement in Persian, 63r); remainder of the manuscript undated.

Or.:

unknown (possibly Iran or Turkey); several unknown scribes.

Prov.:

an oval seal by Yaḥyā Ṭabāṭabāʾī, dated 1290/1873-4 (1r, 63r); an oval seal by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad Taqī (1r, 91v); a square seal by [Muṣṭa?]fā b. ʿAlī Naqī (84r). Donated to the Marʿashī library in 1353/1974 (dated waqf stamp, 1r, 3r, 5r, 87r).

Cod.:

paper, 91 ff. (foliated with Hindu-Arabic numerals; ‘48’ on f. 47bis crossed out; catchwords). One black nastaʿlīq (1v–24r) and several black naskh hands, often with nastaʿlīq influence. Hand copying the main Ptolemaic work (49r–59v): pure naskh; non-initial kāf written as lām with a kāf on top; alif often ending in a curl in lām-alif ligatures; verbum numbers in red, either written out, in Hindu-Arabic numerals, or in a mix of the two; partially dotted ductus with occasional diacritics. The same hand may have copied ff. 48r–49r (including the shorter Ptolemaic work and the main Ptolemaic work’s title page) and 60r–62r in a much quicker naskh with nastaʿlīq influence. Codex in good condition; moisture stains never hindering the reading; some smudges; outer margin of f. 8, lower outer angle of ff. 47bis and 73 and various areas of f. 90 pasted; ink corroding the paper on ff. 88r–90v. Dimensions: 19×13 cm, written area on ff. 49v–59v: 13×7 cm (Marʿashī-Ḥusaynī); 18–19 lines per page.

Cont.:

astrology, astral magic, logic and kalām. — Index: Ḥusām al-Dīn Ḥasan al-Kātī, Sharḥ Matn al-Īsāghūjī fī l-manṭiq (1v–24r); Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād (25v–47v, end missing); Ptolemaica (49v–59v); a Persian text on fardārāt (60v–62r); Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitāb fī Asrār al-nujūm (63r–75r); extracts from Ghāyat al-ḥakīm, IV.2 including celestial letters (75v–77r); a table with the longitudes of 16 fixed stars (77v); a Persian text on fixed stars (79r–80r); a Persian text on the lunar mansions (80v–82r); astral magic in Persian (82v–84r); astral magic in Persian, from Hermes (85r–85v); Arabic poetry (88r–90v). Dozens of shorter extracts in Persian and Arabic throughout the manuscript, including Ptolemaica (48v) and two notes in Persian mentioning the Almagest and verbum 51 of the Thamara respectively (60r). Blank: none.

Bibl.:

Maḥmūd Marʿashī and Aḥmad Ḥusaynī, Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Kitābkhāna-yi buzurg-i Ḥadrat-i Āyatallāh al-ʿUẓmā Marʿashī Najafī, vol. XXXI, Qom, 2001 (1380 H.S.), pp. 290–293.

48v

\48v\ 〈…〉 [blank] قال بطلميوس علم النجوم منك ومنها ومراده منك ومنها أنّ لتقدمة المعرفة ما بالنجوم طريقين أحدهما استعراض الكواكب والأشخاص المتأثّرة بها والآثار الواقعة لها والوقوف على ما حصّله المتقدّمون من الأدلّة عليها واستخلصوه من التجارب فيها وإضافة ما لحقه المتأمّل في زمانه إليه وهذا معنى قوله منها والطريق الأخرى هو ما يقع في القوّة الفكريّة عند تأمّل هذه الأحوال من تقدمة المعرفة بالأشياء الكائنة فإنّ جماعة من الناس يخبرون بذلك من غير دليل يحدّه على محرّك ولا متحرّك ولا حركة وإنّما هو شيء ينعث (كذا) في روعهم وقد رأيت جماعة منهم في أجناس متبائنة.

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, Kitāb al-Thamara (B.1.1), extract from the version with 102 verba. — Title: none. — Index: first part of the Thamara’s verbum 1 (48v); first part of Abū Jaʿfar’s commentary on it (48v). — No colophon; no marginalia, except an instruction for rubricating a reserved space with the words al-kalima al-ūlā.