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Patna, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, HL 3390

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]

Incomplete single work: Arabic Date:

completed on Sunday, 8 Muḥarram 604/5 August 1207) (colophon, 167v).

Or.:

unknown; copied by ʿAbdallāh b. al-Ḥusayn al-Birjandī (167v) from a manuscript in the hand of al-Bīrūnī (69v, ‘qūbila bi-l-aṣl alladhī kāna bi-khaṭṭ al-ustādh Abī Rayḥān’).The copyist collated the text with the exemplar, as shown by five collation notes in his hand on ff. 69v, 89v, 99v, and 109v, presumably at the end of the respective quires, and next to the colophon on f. 167v (‘qūbila bi-l-aṣl alladhī nuqila min-hu’, with the name missing due to a torn corner). In addition, he once quotes a word from ‘another manuscript’ (141r).

Prov.:

a Persian note, dated Saturday, 12 Shaʿbān 1021/6 October 1612, indicating the title of the work as Majisṭī (1v). A modern Arabic note by Shifāʾ al-Mulk Ḥakīm Sayyid Muẓāhir Aḥmad Allāh, dated 25 Muḥarram 1366/19 December 1946, giving information on the title and the author of the work and summarizing the information from the colophon and collation statements (1r); this is followed by a copy in Shifāʾ al-Mulk’s hand of the note concerning the ‘three well-known versions of the Almagest’ also found in Jaipur, Palace Museum, 20, f. 1r, and in the margin of several early manuscripts of al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.18), e.g., MS Tehran, Malik, 3390, p. 2); a handwritten statement of donorship to the library by Shifāʾ al-Mulk accompanied by his stamp (1r); his signature (167v, trimmed due to the restoration of the margin). Some unidentified, corrupted, and faded notes in Arabic (2r). Two different types of library stamps with ‘progress number’ ‘6460’ or ‘6740’ or handlist number ‘3390’ (Ir, Iv, 1r, 116v, 151v, 167v); a square stamp ‘Khuda Bakhsh P. Library Patna’ (?) with the shelfmark, the presumable date of accession ‘7.9.1955’, and a handwritten note ‘Evaluation Rg. No. 8805’ (Ir); an oval stamp ‘Patna Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library’ (149v, 167v).

Cod.: paper, I+167 ff. (foliated on each recto with Hindu-Arabic numerals written in pen just above the text body or within the body somewhere near its left edge depending on where there is empty space, occasionally twice; this foliation was duplicated at the top left of the restored margin, mostly cut off from the scans; an earlier foliation in pen is only visible at the top left of two rectos (75r: ‘108’, 91r: ‘125’) and suggests that a total of 33 or 34 folios was lost; catchwords in a later hand generally present up to f. 68v, thereafter omitted or not maintained in the restoration of the margins). A single clear naskh hand in black, partially dotted. Book and chapter numbers rubricated, chapter titles in black or red. Several pages preceding figures or tables filled by writing the final lines in a centered column with large left and right indentation (e.g., 12r, 83v, 84v, and on f. 34v almost over the entire page). Some spaces reserved for rubrications (e.g., 39r), mistakes crossed out (e.g., 12v, 30v, 148r) or corrected by overwriting (e.g., 28r, 35r). Numerous diagrams with red lines and black letters. Tables with lines in red, headings and abjad numbers in black or red. Codex in bad condition; significant damage due to ink corrosion; moisture stains and minor damage caused by insects, in some cases affecting the readability of the text; most of the holes in the main text were repaired with very thin ‘Japanese paper’ and the margins of every single folio were restored, generally maintaining marginal notes and the catchwords (up to fol. 68v). Dimensions: 31×23 cm, written area: 23×16.5 cm; 25 lines per page. Simple modern cardboard covers with reddish quarter leather binding.

Cont.: astronomy. — Index: Ptolemaica (1v–167v). Blank: 2r, 26v, 27r, 70r, and 105r.

Bibl.: S. A. Shīr, Fihrist-i makhṭūṭāt-i ʿarabī-yi Khudā Bakhsh Oriyanṭal Pablik Lāʾibrīrī, Paṭna, musammā bi-Miftāḥ al-kunūz, vol. III, Patna: Khuda Bakhsh Library, 1965, p. 185; Benno van Dalen, Pouyan Rezvani, Nadine Löhr and Maurizio Boehm, ‘A Hitherto Unknown Arabic Manuscript of Thābit b. Qurra’s Version of the Almagest’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 144 (2024), pp. 627–632. This manuscript is not included in the thirty volumes of the Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Bankipore/Patna, of which vols XI and XXII deal specifically with scientific manuscripts.

2v–⁠167v	= Ptolemy, al-Majisṭī (tr. Thābit b. Qurra) (A.1.3) . Title: Kitāb al-Majisṭī (1r, 2v, 133r). — Additional titles: Majisṭī (1v); Kitāb Baṭlamyūs al-mansūb ilā al-taʿālīm (157v). — Index: Book I, 2r‒9v, 17r–26r (end of chapter I.11, including the table of declinations, and beginning of chapter I.12 missing); Book II, 27v‒41v, 10r–16v (small parts of chapters II.10 and II.11 missing); Book III, entirely missing; Book IV, 42r‒69v (starts in chapter IV.2);Book V, 70v‒104v; Book VI, 105v‒133r; Book VII, 133v‒157r; Book VIII, 157v‒167v. — Dated scribal colophon (167v); five notes of collation (see above). The titles of Books I, V, and VI mention ‘Kitāb al-Majisṭī iṣlāḥ Thābit b. Qurrā al-Ḥarrānī’, ‘the correction (or: improvement) of Thābit b. Qurra’. Several marginal annotations (e.g., 43v, 44r, 112r), on one occasion with explicit reference to al-Bīrūnī (75r, ‘wujida dhālika bi-khaṭṭ shaykh al-imām Abī l-Rayḥān’). Several dozens of marginal corrections in the scribe’s hand indicated by ṣḥ; a variety of reference marks including crosses, dotted V signs, and Hindu-Arabic numerals (see esp. ff. 43v–44v).

2v–⁠167v

= Ptolemy, al-Majisṭī (tr. Thābit b. Qurra) (A.1.3)

. Title: Kitāb al-Majisṭī (1r, 2v, 133r). — Additional titles: Majisṭī (1v); Kitāb Baṭlamyūs al-mansūb ilā al-taʿālīm (157v). — Index: Book I, 2r‒9v, 17r–26r (end of chapter I.11, including the table of declinations, and beginning of chapter I.12 missing); Book II, 27v‒41v, 10r–16v (small parts of chapters II.10 and II.11 missing); Book III, entirely missing; Book IV, 42r‒69v (starts in chapter IV.2);Book V, 70v‒104v; Book VI, 105v‒133r; Book VII, 133v‒157r; Book VIII, 157v‒167v. — Dated scribal colophon (167v); five notes of collation (see above). The titles of Books I, V, and VI mention ‘Kitāb al-Majisṭī iṣlāḥ Thābit b. Qurrā al-Ḥarrānī’, ‘the correction (or: improvement) of Thābit b. Qurra’. Several marginal annotations (e.g., 43v, 44r, 112r), on one occasion with explicit reference to al-Bīrūnī (75r, ‘wujida dhālika bi-khaṭṭ shaykh al-imām Abī l-Rayḥān’). Several dozens of marginal corrections in the scribe’s hand indicated by ṣḥ; a variety of reference marks including crosses, dotted V signs, and Hindu-Arabic numerals (see esp. ff. 43v–44v).