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London, British Library, Or. 11190

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]

Three chapters of a single work: Arabic. Date:

Dhū l-qaʿda 485/December 1092 (colophon, 205r). This is one of the earliest surviving copies of (part of) Ibn Sīnā’s Kitāb al-Shifāʾ.

Or.:

unknown; unknown copyist.

Prov.:

A statement of ownership by ʿIffit Iffindī dated 1166/1752-3 (1r); a seal of ownership by the same ʿIffit Iffindī dated 1170/1756-7 (1r; Mühür veritabanı, no. 551). Two very common seals of ownership by the Ottoman bibliophile, collector and poet Ḥājj Muṣṭafā Ṣidqī (d. 1183/1769), one dated 1179/1765-6, the other displaying a Quranic phrase (1r; Mühür veritabanı, nos 24 and 30; see also DerocheFrançois Déroche, Islamic Codicology. An Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Scripts, London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2005, p. 341, Fig. 133). A subtraction in red, computing the age of the codex in 1182/1768-9 (205r). A statement of ownership by a certain ʿUthmān … ʿAbdallāh dated 〈1〉183/1769-1770 (Ir). A statement of ownership by the physician Muṣṭafā Masʿūd dated 〈1〉214/1799-1800 (Ir). Three partially faded and illegible statements, probably featuring the following names: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Tamīmī, ʿAlī b. Faḍl Allāh, and ʿAbdallāh Čelebī (all 1r). An erased seal (205r) and at least two illegible statements (1r). This manuscript was bought from Oskar Rescher (d. 1972) on 12 April 1930 (note on the first back flyleaf). Stamps of the British Museum (1v, 205v).

Cod.: paper, I+205+I^a ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals in pencil in the upper left corner of rectos; no catchwords). A single black naskh hand. Almost fully dotted ductus, frequent vowel marks and shaddas, but no hamzas. Some lines partially or fully crossed out (e.g., 105v, 126r, 136r). Headings of books in black (sometimes faded, probably due to sulfurization) and bold thuluth; headings of Books XI and XII/XIII missing. Diagram lines in red with letters in black; some diagrams partially drawn over the text (e.g., 55v, 64r–v, 66r). Abjad numerals overlined. Codex in very good condition; slight moisture damage and wormholes in the margins; occasional damage of the paper surface, affecting the readability (e.g., ff. 1 and 141); some restorations with pieces of paper (e.g., 1r). Darkish red leather covers of the British Museum. Dimensions: 15×21 cm; 18–20 lines per page. Type III binding, previously type II (traces of the flap on f. Ir).

Cont.: astronomy, arithmetic, music. — Index: Ibn Sīnā, Kitāb al-Shifāʾ, al-Riyāḍiyyāt (1v–205r, without al-Handasa), including Ptolemaica (1v–142r). Blank: 99r, 142v, 205v.

Bibl.: Yaḥyā Mahdawī, Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi muṣannafāt-i Ibn-i Sīnā, Tehran: Dānishgāh-yi Tihrān, 1954, p. 172 (incorrectly referred to as MS 1190); Amos Bertolacci, ‘Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (Book of the Cure/Healing). The Manuscripts Preserved in Turkey and Their Significance’, Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 57 (2017–2018) [special issue The Reception of Classical Arabic Philosophy in the Ottoman Empire. Proceedings of the Workshop Held by the International Associated Laboratory “Philosophie dans l’aire ottomane,” 2-4 November 2014], pp. 265–304, here pp. 303–304. British Library Archive and Manuscripts: http://searcharchives.bl.uk/permalink/f/79qrt5/IAMS032-003947346 (temporarily unavailable).

1v–⁠142r Images	\1v\ وقد حان لنا أن نورد جوامع كتاب بطلميوس الكبير المعمول في المجسطي وعلم الهيئة وأن نحتذي في ذلك حذو كلامه من غير أن نسلك طريقة غير طريقته من الطرق التي ظهرت للمحدثين إلّا في أشياء يسيرة فإنّ الاستقصاء في ذلك ممّا يورد في اللواحق وأن نقرب المعاني إلى الإفهام غاية ما نقدر عليه وأن نترك الحسبانات التي في الأشكال \142r\ — وكرة تميل قطر هذه على ما تقتضيه حركة أحد القطرين وكرة تميل نقطتي هذه المميلة إلى ما يقتضيه (كذا) حركة القطر الثاني من الالتواء والانحراف. أنّ الرصد الحديث أخرج مقادير الخطوط الواصلة ونسب أقطار أفلاك التداوير مخالفة بشيء يسير لما أوجبه بطليموس (كذا) لكنّا وراء أن يتحقّق ذلك برصد نحاوله نرجو أن نبلغ في استقصائه ما لم يبلغ قبلنا بعون اللّه وحسن توفيقه. = Ibn Sīnā, Talkhīṣ al-Majisṭī (C.1.8) , with the appendix. — Title: Kitāb Sharḥ … wa-l-Majisṭī wa-l-Mūsīqā (1r). — Index: author’s preface, 1v; Book I, 1v–15v (small part of the beginning missing); II, 15v–29r; III, 29v–44r; IV, 44v–58v; V, 58v–78v; VI, 78v–93v; VII/VIII, 94r–98v; IX/X/XI, 99v–120r; XII/XIII, 120v–139v; Appendix, 140r–142r. — Scribal colophons, mostly undated. Books IX/X/XI finished on 10 Dhū l-qaʿda 485/12 December 1092 (120r), appendix finished on 15 Dhū l-qaʿda 485/17 December 1092 (142r). Corrections in the hand of the scribe sometimes indicated by siglum ṣḥ. Few marginal annotations (e.g., 2v, 50v, 60v). A collation statement presumably by Ibn Sīnā himself, dated 3 Rajab 422/2 July 1031, preceded by a note in black nastaʿlīq indicating that the statement was copied from another manuscript (205r). The collation statement without the introductory note is also attested in MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Damat İbrahim Paša 822 (on the statement and its authenticity, see Bertolacci).

1v–⁠142r

Images

\1v\ وقد حان لنا أن نورد جوامع كتاب بطلميوس الكبير المعمول في المجسطي وعلم الهيئة وأن نحتذي في ذلك حذو كلامه من غير أن نسلك طريقة غير طريقته من الطرق التي ظهرت للمحدثين إلّا في أشياء يسيرة فإنّ الاستقصاء في ذلك ممّا يورد في اللواحق وأن نقرب المعاني إلى الإفهام غاية ما نقدر عليه وأن نترك الحسبانات التي في الأشكال \142r\ — وكرة تميل قطر هذه على ما تقتضيه حركة أحد القطرين وكرة تميل نقطتي هذه المميلة إلى ما يقتضيه (كذا) حركة القطر الثاني من الالتواء والانحراف. أنّ الرصد الحديث أخرج مقادير الخطوط الواصلة ونسب أقطار أفلاك التداوير مخالفة بشيء يسير لما أوجبه بطليموس (كذا) لكنّا وراء أن يتحقّق ذلك برصد نحاوله نرجو أن نبلغ في استقصائه ما لم يبلغ قبلنا بعون اللّه وحسن توفيقه.

= Ibn Sīnā, Talkhīṣ al-Majisṭī (C.1.8)

, with the appendix. — Title: Kitāb Sharḥ … wa-l-Majisṭī wa-l-Mūsīqā (1r). — Index: author’s preface, 1v; Book I, 1v–15v (small part of the beginning missing); II, 15v–29r; III, 29v–44r; IV, 44v–58v; V, 58v–78v; VI, 78v–93v; VII/VIII, 94r–98v; IX/X/XI, 99v–120r; XII/XIII, 120v–139v; Appendix, 140r–142r. — Scribal colophons, mostly undated. Books IX/X/XI finished on 10 Dhū l-qaʿda 485/12 December 1092 (120r), appendix finished on 15 Dhū l-qaʿda 485/17 December 1092 (142r). Corrections in the hand of the scribe sometimes indicated by siglum ṣḥ. Few marginal annotations (e.g., 2v, 50v, 60v). A collation statement presumably by Ibn Sīnā himself, dated 3 Rajab 422/2 July 1031, preceded by a note in black nastaʿlīq indicating that the statement was copied from another manuscript (205r). The collation statement without the introductory note is also attested in MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Damat İbrahim Paša 822 (on the statement and its authenticity, see Bertolacci).