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Tehran, private library of Aṣghar Mahdawī, 486

[Black-and-white photographs of the textblock.]

Collection of two main works and several fragments: Arabic and Persian. Date:

first main work finished on Friday, 2 Jumādā l-ūlā 1027/‌27 April 1618 (175v–176r); second main work finished in Jumādā l-thāniya 1031/‌April-May 1622 (192r).

Or.:

probably Isfahan (the scholar issuing the audition certificate on f. 176v is attested in Isfahan in the year the present manuscript was copied; cf. a statement in Tehran, Malik, 3389, p. 393); copied by Muḥammad Ḥusayn, also called Ghulām b. Shams al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Ifīnī al-Qāʾinī (176r, 192r). The scribal colophon mentions that al-Ifīnī added glosses extracted from ʿAlī b. Riḍwān’s Tafsīr (C.2.3) and from Kūshyār b. Labbān’s Kitāb al-Madkhal fī ṣināʿat aḥkām al-nujūm (these are spread throughout the margins of the first main work). The scribe states that he read al-Arbaʿ maqālāt, from the beginning to the end, to his teacher Abū Jaʿfar Kāfī b. Muḥtashim al-Qāʾinī (175v–176r), the author of a commentary on al-Khāzimī’s summary of the Almagest (C.1.13) entitled Tafsīr Mukhtaṣar Majisṭī (C.1.1620). This is confirmed by an audition certificate in the handwriting of Abū Jaʿfar al-Qāʾinī on f. 176v (for al-Qāʾinī’s hand, see also Mashhad, Holy Shrine, 7345). Abū Jaʿfar al-Qāʾinī furthermore states that the scribe also read to him Kitāb Uṣūl al-handasa, Kitāb al-Tadhkira fī ʿilm al-hayʾa, Kitāb Zīj al-Gūrgānī (i.e., the Zīj of Ulugh Beg), as well as Kitāb al-Madkhal by Kushyār, and that he granted the scribe permission to teach all these books (‘ajaztu la-hu mudārisat hādhihi l-kutub kulli-hā’).

Prov.:

an ownership statement by the scribe together with two oval seals (1r) and a mention of his ownership on the title page for the Thamara (179r). An unidentified small oval seal (62v, 64v, 66r). MS Tehran, Great Encyclopaedia, 125, finished on 25 Dhū l-ḥijja 1038/15 August 1629, was copied from the present manuscript, as is evident by the scribal colophon, which was by accident copied from the template and then crossed out.

Cod.: paper, 193 ff. (unfoliated; catchwords in the hand of the scribe). A clear black naskh hand. Almost fully dotted ductus; occasional vowels, some hamzas and shaddas, mostly added at a later stage (e.g., 4v). A single table without frame (42r). Dimensions not provided; 14 lines per page. Codex in very good condition, only very few stains in the margins. Pages trimmed for a new binding (marginal note on f. 180v cut off). Traces of an envelope-flap on the doublure of the back cover; probably type II binding.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: Ptolemaica (1r–176r), including Ptolemaica (30r–30v) and Ptolemaica (47r); an unidentified excerpt on the classification of the signs of the zodiac (47v); audition certificate by Abū Jaʿfar Kāfī b. Muḥtashim al-Qāʾinī (176v); Kūshyār b. Labbān, Chapter III.20 of Kitāb al-Madkhal fī ṣināʿat aḥkām al-nujūm (178r–178v); Ptolemaica (179r–192r); unknown, Dar Dānestan-i akhlāq-i mawlūd az ṭaliʿ-i mawlūd-ash (192v–193v). Blank: 88r, 177r–v.

Bibl.: NashriyyaNashriyya-yi Kitābkhana-yi Markaz-i Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 14 vols, Tehran: Kitābkhana-yi Markaz-i Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1961–1977, vol. II, pp. 119, 136 and 146; GAS VIIFuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Vol. VII: Astrologie – Meteorologie und Verwandtes bis ca. 430 H., Leiden: Brill, 1979, pp. 43 and 45; FankhāMuṣṭafā Dirāyatī, Fihristgān-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Īrān (Fankhā), 45 vols, Tehran: Library, Museum and Documentation Center of The Islamic Consultative Assembly, 2011–13 1390, vol. II, p. 863 (no. 1) and vol. IX, p. 723 (no. 4).

1r–⁠176r	\1v\ كتاب الأربع مقالات في الأحكام لبطليموس إصلاح حنين بن إسحق جمل ما في المقالة الأولى من هذا الكتاب في القضاء من النجوم على الحوادث. [toc] — \175r\ فإذا قد أتينا على القول في أمر المواليد على طريقة الجملة فأرى أنّه من الواجب أن أختم \175v\ هذا الكتاب في هذا الموضع. = Ptolemy, Kitāb Arbaʿ maqālāt (tr. Ibrāhīm b. al-Ṣalt/Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq/Thābit b. Qurra) (A.2.2) . — Title: Kitāb al-Arbaʿ maqālāt wa-qad yusammā Kitāb al-Murabbaʿ li-Baṭlamyūs al-Qalūdhī fī aḥkām al-nujūm (1r). — Index: table of contents for Book I, 1v–2v; Book I, 2v–29v, 31r–46v and 48r–49r; table of contents for Book II, 49v–50r; Book II, 50r–87v; table of contents for Book III, 88v–89r; Book III, 89r–143r; table of contents for Book IV, 143v; Book IV, 143v–175v. — Several glosses by Thābit b. Qurra in the margins of Books I and II. Undated scribal colophons for Books I and II, comprehensive dated scribal colophon including a reading and an audition certificate for Book IV (175v–176v). Extensive marginal annotations in the scribe’s hand, quoting ʿAlī b. Riḍwān’s Tafsīr (C.2.3) and Kūshyār’s Kitāb al-Madkhal.
30r–⁠v	\30r\ قال بطليموس وقد استعمل بعض الناس ترتيب البروج المذكرة والمؤنّث الطالع قال المفسّر بطليموس يعرفنا بهذا القول أنّ القياس الذي قاد الناس إلى معرفة البيوت الاثني عشر هو بعينه القياس الذي قادهم إلى البروج الانثي عشر — \30v\ توافق أصوله واستعمل منها ما كان فوق الأرض لأنّه اظهر قوّة من التي تحتها. = ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān, Tafsīr al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ (C.2.3) . Extract from Chapter I.13, thematically correctly inserted in the main text of the Tetrabiblos in the scribe’s hand, in nastaʿlīq. Some interlinear corrections and additions.
47r	\47r\ قال المفسّر بطليموس يذكرنا في هذا الموضع أحوال الكواكب بعضها عند بعض ويقول إنّ الكواكب يفرح ويقوي إذا شاركه الذي بينه وبين الكوكب الأخر — \47r\ فإن كان كوكب ذاهب إلى الاتّصال بكوكب وذلك الكوكب يزيده أيضا أن يتّصل بكوكب آخر أثقل منه فقبل أن يبلغ درجة الخفيف إليه يتّصل الأوسط بالأخير ويقطع نور الأوسط عن الخفيف فعلى هذا القياس يعرف أحوال الكواكب بعضها عند بعض. = ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān, Tafsīr al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ (C.2.3) . Extract from Chapter I.23, thematically correctly inserted in the main text of the Tetrabiblos.
179r–⁠192v	\179v\ كتاب الثمرة لبطلميوس الحكيم تمام الكتب الأربعة التي ألّفها في الأحكام لسورس تلميذه قال قد قدّمنا لك يا سورس كتبًا فيما يؤثّر الكواكب في عالم التركيب — \192r\ وان لم يكن سائرًا فان الخارجيّ من حضرة الإقليم. = Pseudo-Ptolemy, Kitāb al-Thamara (B.1.1) , version with 102 verba. — Title: al-Kitāb al-Mawsūm bi-l-Thamara (title page, 179r). — Additional titles: Kitāb al-Thamara li-Baṭlamyūs al-ḥakīm tamām al-kutub al-arbaʿa allatī allafa-hā fī l-aḥkam li-Sūrus talmīdhi-hi (title, 179v); Kitāb al-Thamara al-musammā bi-rūmiyya ā-n-ṭ-r-w-m-ṭ-ā wa-maʿnā-hu al-miʾat kalima (colophon, 192r). — Index: author’s introduction, 179v; 102 verba numbered in western abjad notation, 179v–192r. — Colophon with Greek title; dated scribal colophon. Verbum 97 before verba 95–96 (here: 98–99), as in al-Ṭūsī’s commentary (C.3.4). Numerous glosses in Persian, mostly drawn from Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s commentary, in a nastaʿlīq hand (probably the scribe’s). Very few corrections in the hand of the scribe.