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Aligarh, Maulana Azad Library, Shifta 191/Arabic 155⁢⁢

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and spine.]

A main work and a short treatise: Arabic. Date:

12 Rabīʿ al-thānī of an illegible year (181v).

Or.:

copied by Ṭāhir Khān (181v); Ptolemaic work copied from an exemplar dated to the middle of Jumādā l-ūlā 665/February 1267 and copied from an autograph (colophon and marginal note in the hand of the scribe, 179v).

Prov.:

an ownership statement by Amānat ʿAlī Khuwar Jawī (?) dated 1248/1832-3 (1r, Qaisar Amrohvi). A short excerpt about the definition of astronomy, partially visible, and accompanied by a signature (1r). An erased round seal accompanied by an ownership statement of … ʿAlī (?) (1r); another mostly illegible statement (1r). The manuscript previously was part of the library of the Urdu poet Nawwāb Muṣṭafā Khān Shīfta (1806–1869) (Qaisar Amrohvi, p. 7). Oval stamps of the ‘Lytton Library M. A. O. College, Aligarh’, the former name of the library (1r, 181v); modern stamps ‘University Library Aligarh Shaifta Collection’ (front flyleaf, 1r, 99v, 181v).

Cod.: paper, 181 ff. (unfoliated; Qaisar Amrohvi estimated the number of folios at 145; catchwords). A neat black naskh hand; almost fully dotted ductus, some vowel marks, hamzas or shaddas. Book headings mostly rubricated, heading of Book II missing; section beginnings overlined in red and introduced by red abjad numerals with red overlines; some use of red overlines as textual dividers, qāla rubricated. Abjad numerals and Persian forms of Hindu-Arabic numerals mainly overlined. Diagrams mostly with red lines and geometrical points mostly lacking. Tables with red lines; a blank space reserved for a missing table (158v), some empty tabular frames (e.g., 40r, 75r–v, 148r–v), and an incomplete table (158r). Codex in bad condition; some dark brown stains (e.g., 7r–11r, 16r–18r); heavy damage by insects throughout the codex, affecting the readability; all folios entirely or partially restored with very thin ‘Japanese paper’, some margins and folds reinforced by different kinds of paper; several folios lost. Dimensions: 23×18 cm, written area: 14×8 cm; 23 lines per page.

Cont.: astronomy, geography. — Index: Ptolemaica (1v–92v, 94r–179v); an inserted folio of an unknown Persian work (93r–v, by a nastaʿlīq hand); anonymous, Maʿrifat aṭwal (sic) al-buldān min al-masāfāt (179v–181v, starting immediately after the colophon of the Taḥrīr). Blank: none.

Bibl.: Maḥmūd Ḥasan Qaisar Amrohvi, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Maulana Azad Library. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (Shīfta Collection), Aligarh: Maulana Azad Library, 1982, p. 27 (no. 69); LAMTMª José Parra, ‘A List of Arabic Manuscripts of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī’, Suhayl 16–17 (2018–2019), pp. 251–322, p. 257 (no. 8).

1v–⁠92v, 94r–⁠179v	\1v\ أحمد اللّه مبدأ كلّ مبدأ وغاية كلّ غاية ومفيض كلّ {خير} وليّ كلّ هداية وأرجوا حسن توفيقه في كلّ بداية {...} — \179v\ فلنختم الكتاب وأقول و{...}ـوقفني (كذا) اللّه تعالى أيضًا لإتمام ما قصدته وإيجاز ما {...}عدته فلأقطع الكلا{م} حامدًا {...} على الآية (كذا) ومصلّيًا على جميع أوليائه خصوصًا على خاتم أنبيائه والبررة من آله وأحبّائه. = Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.18) . — Title: Majisṭī (1r). — Index: preface, 1v (incomplete); Book I, 2r–24r (incomplete and in disorder); II, 24r–40r; III, 40v–54r; IV, 54r–70r; V, 70r–89r (incomplete); VI, 89r–103r (incomplete); VII, 103r–113v; VIII, 113v–124r; IX, 124r–144v; X, 144v–150r; XI, 150r–159r; XII, 159r–167v; XIII, 167v–179v. — Dated colophon of the exemplar. Some marginal corrections and annotations in the hand of the scribe, including some of the glosses attributed to al-Ṭūsī himself, sometimes difficult to read due to damage and restorations.

1v–⁠92v, 94r–⁠179v

\1v\ أحمد اللّه مبدأ كلّ مبدأ وغاية كلّ غاية ومفيض كلّ {خير} وليّ كلّ هداية وأرجوا حسن توفيقه في كلّ بداية {...} — \179v\ فلنختم الكتاب وأقول و{...}ـوقفني (كذا) اللّه تعالى أيضًا لإتمام ما قصدته وإيجاز ما {...}عدته فلأقطع الكلا{م} حامدًا {...} على الآية (كذا) ومصلّيًا على جميع أوليائه خصوصًا على خاتم أنبيائه والبررة من آله وأحبّائه.

= Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.18)

. — Title: Majisṭī (1r). — Index: preface, 1v (incomplete); Book I, 2r–24r (incomplete and in disorder); II, 24r–40r; III, 40v–54r; IV, 54r–70r; V, 70r–89r (incomplete); VI, 89r–103r (incomplete); VII, 103r–113v; VIII, 113v–124r; IX, 124r–144v; X, 144v–150r; XI, 150r–159r; XII, 159r–167v; XIII, 167v–179v. — Dated colophon of the exemplar. Some marginal corrections and annotations in the hand of the scribe, including some of the glosses attributed to al-Ṭūsī himself, sometimes difficult to read due to damage and restorations.