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Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Or. 556

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]

Collection of six works: Arabic. Date:

treatise 3 completed on 13 Jumādā l-thāniya 980/21 October 1572 (colophon, 39v); other treatises undated.

Or.:

unknown, possibly partially from Egypt based on the dated ownership statement and the fāʾida on f. 24r; treatise 3 copied by Sālim al-Azharī (colophon, 39v).

Prov.:

a note of ownership, stating that the first part of the manuscript was bought by Shimʿūn al-mutakātib b. Jirjīs al-Ṣāliḥ b. li-Sayyid b. Bū l-Ḥasan on the sūq of Cairo on 25 Ayyār 1598 Alexander/25 May 1287, said to correspond to 11 Rabīʿ al-ākhir 686 (1r). A partially illegible statement of ownership by a certain … b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl … (1r); the name ʿal-Manṣūrīʾ, possibly indicating ownership (1r). From the legacy of the German-born Dutch diplomat in Ottoman Istanbul Levinus Warner (d. 1665) to Leiden University (2r, glued-in printed slip of paper); a heavily damaged black wax seal, very likely of Warner (1r). Library stamp ‘ACAD.LVGD’ (79v). Old shelfmark: ‘N. 556’ (79v), ‘Ar. 556’ (Witkam). A separate modern sheet of paper, containing a transcription of parts of ff. 41v–42r in the hand of a western scholar, possibly Eilhard Wiedemann (cf. his translation in Oskar Schirmer, ‘Studien zur Astronomie der Araber’, Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-Medizinischen Sozietät zu Erlangen 58 (1926), pp. 33–88, here pp. 80–85).

Cod.: four different types of paper (brownish, 1r–29v; yellowish-white 30–39v; greyish 40r–67v; whitish, 68r–79v), I+79 ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals; first ten folios of the Ptolemaic work additionally numbered with Hindu-Arabic numerals starting from ‘1’; a single possible quire mark ‘thānī’ on f. 70r; catchwords only in treatise 3 and on f. 60v). This is a composite manuscript consisting of four separate original parts. Five different hands. First hand (1r–29v): a clearly readable large naskh; 15 lines per page. Second hand (30v–39v): a neat naskh; 35 lines per page. Third hand (40v–67v, including the Ptolemaic work): a neat naskh; mostly dotted ductus, no vowel marks or hamzas, rare shaddas, occasional distinctive ligature of alif and lām; diagram lines and letters in black; abjad and Hindu-Arabic numerals in the main text overlined; 21 lines per page. Fourth hand (68v–79v): a sloppy naskh; 31 or 32 lines per page within a red rule-border. Codex in good condition; lower two thirds of f. 23 cut off; frequent stains and smudges in the first part, not affecting the readability; few pages reinforced with small slips of paper in the margins (e.g., 7r, 24v, 28r); ink corrosion in the third part, including the Ptolemaic work, and repaired holes on f. 40 hindering the readability. Dimensions: not provided. Heavily rubbed cover of blackish coloured leather, decorated with borders, a blind tooled mandorla on the upper cover, a smaller one on the lower cover, and a lobed circular motif on the flap; doublures of marbled paper. Type II binding.

Cont.: astronomy, mathematics. — Index: 1) Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn (c. 580/1184), Risāla fī l-Barkar al-tāmm wa-kayfiyyat al-takhṭīṭ bi-hi (1v-23r, with title page on f. 1r; dedicated to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Abū l-Muẓaffar Yūsuf b. Ayyūb, first Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, r. 1174–1193); 1a) a fāʾida giving the Coptic dates corresponding to Syrian month beginnings (24r, possibly in the hand of the owner Shimʿūn al-mutakātib); 2) Abū l-Ṣalt Umayya al-Andalusī (d. 529/1134), Risāla fī l-ʿAmal bi-l-asṭurlāb (24v–29v, end missing); 3) Muḥyī l-Dīn al-Maghribī, Kitāb al-Ukar li-Thāʾudūsiyūs (30v-39v); 4) Ptolemaica (40r–63v); 5) Abū l-Ṣalt Umayya al-Andalusī, treatise on the meanings of the word nuqṭa (64r–67v); 6) ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Nasawī, al-Muqniʿ fī l-ḥisāb al-hindī (68v–79v). Blank: 23v, 30r, 68r.

Bibl.: Franz Woepcke, ‘Memoire sur la propagation des chiffres indiens’, Journal asiatique Sixième serie 1 (1863), pp. 27–79, 234–294, and 442–529, here pp. 490–500, on treatise‍ 6; Pieter de Jong and Michael Jan de Goeje, Catalogus Codicum Orientalium. Bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno Batavae, vol. III, Leiden: Brill, 1865, pp. 48–49 (no. dcccclxxxv), 67–69 (no. mxxi), 70 (no. mxxiv), 89–93 (no. mlx, with the Arabic text of the introduction), 97 (no. mlxxii), and 99 (no. mlxxvi); Petrus Voorhoeve, Handlist of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and Other Collections in the Netherlands, Leiden: Universiteitsbibliotheek, 1957, pp. 140, 240, 291, 293, 385, and 432; Abolghasem Ghorbani, Nasavī nāmeh, Tehran: Iranian Culture Foundation, 1972 (1351 H.S.), pp. 121–145, appendix to Part 3 (facsimile of treatise 6); Jan Just Witkam, Inventory of the Oriental Manuscripts of the Library of the University of Leiden, vol. I: Manuscripts Or. 1 – Or. 1000, Leiden: Ter Lugt Press, 2007, p. 238.

40v–⁠63v	\40v\ {...} الفعّال لما يريد خالق الأفلاك الدائرة والنجوم السائرة العالم بسرائر الأمور وما يخفي الصدور وصلواته على النبيّ محمّد وآله وعترته قال الأستاذ الأجلّ السيّد المختصّ علي بن أحمد النسويّ رحمة الله عليه إنّ الفلاسفة قد اتّفقوا عمومًا وأصحاب الرياضيّ منهم خصوصًا على أنّ الغرض الأقصى من العلوم الرياضيّة هو معرفة العلم بما في كتاب التعاليم لبطلميوس المعروف بالمجسطي \63v\ — ومن بعد أن وفينا بما وعدنا في صدر المقالة من الفصول نختم الفصل الثالث بهذا الموضع والمقالة بهذا الفصل والحمد للّه أوّلًا وآخرًا وظاهرًا وباطنًا والصلوة على نبيّه محمّد المصطفى وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين. = Abū l-Ḥasan al-Nasawī, al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (C.1.12) . — Title: al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (41r:10). — Alternative title: Kitāb al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (40r). — Index: title page (in a different hand), 40r; preface, 40v–41r; faṣl 1, 41r–52v; faṣl 2, 52v–58r; faṣl 3, 58r–63v. — No scribal colophon. Corrections in the hand of the scribe sometimes indicated by siglum ṣḥ. Few marginal corrections and annotations in at least three different hands (e.g., 41r, 46r, 55r).

40v–⁠63v

\40v\ {...} الفعّال لما يريد خالق الأفلاك الدائرة والنجوم السائرة العالم بسرائر الأمور وما يخفي الصدور وصلواته على النبيّ محمّد وآله وعترته قال الأستاذ الأجلّ السيّد المختصّ علي بن أحمد النسويّ رحمة الله عليه إنّ الفلاسفة قد اتّفقوا عمومًا وأصحاب الرياضيّ منهم خصوصًا على أنّ الغرض الأقصى من العلوم الرياضيّة هو معرفة العلم بما في كتاب التعاليم لبطلميوس المعروف بالمجسطي \63v\ — ومن بعد أن وفينا بما وعدنا في صدر المقالة من الفصول نختم الفصل الثالث بهذا الموضع والمقالة بهذا الفصل والحمد للّه أوّلًا وآخرًا وظاهرًا وباطنًا والصلوة على نبيّه محمّد المصطفى وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين.

= Abū l-Ḥasan al-Nasawī, al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (C.1.12)

. — Title: al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (41r:10). — Alternative title: Kitāb al-Ishbāʿ fī sharḥ al-shakl al-qaṭṭāʿ (40r). — Index: title page (in a different hand), 40r; preface, 40v–41r; faṣl 1, 41r–52v; faṣl 2, 52v–58r; faṣl 3, 58r–63v. — No scribal colophon. Corrections in the hand of the scribe sometimes indicated by siglum ṣḥ. Few marginal corrections and annotations in at least three different hands (e.g., 41r, 46r, 55r).