PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Sprenger 1838

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]
Collection of a main work and two short appendices: Arabic.  Date:

undated, before 1 February 1848 (Ir); c. 1215/1800 (Ahlwardt).

Or.:

Persian; unknown scribe. The colophon (152r) states that the base manuscript was finished in Marāgha on Wednesday, 22 Ramaḍān 〈663〉/8 July 1265 (i.e., while al-Ṭūsī was there) and that it was copied for the preacher Maḥmūd al-Khaṭīb (incorrectly understood by Ahlwardt to be the scribe). The wording is almost identical to the colophon of MS Cairo, Dār al-kutub, hayʾa 17, suggesting that both manuscripts were ultimately based on the same copy.

Prov.:

ex-libris ‘Ex Biblioth. Regia Berolinensi.’ in red (IIr).

Cod.: yellow paper, II+158+IIa ff. (foliated with black Hindu-Arabic numerals in pen, centered above the text body on rectos, up to f. 153r; this foliation is continued at the top left of rectos with Hindu-Arabic numerals in pencil, while the earlier foliation starts anew with ‘1’ on f. 153v and ‘2’ on f. 154r; additional foliation with Arabic-European numerals in pencil at the top left of scattered rectos, running entirely parallel to the main foliation; catchwords in black or red). A single neat, formal, and fully dotted nastaʿlīq hand in black; no shaddas, substantial hamzas except on initial alifs, no vowels. The size of the hand and boldness of the stroke varies along the text. Book and chapter headings in the same main hand and size in red; chapter headings introduced by abjad numerals in bold black overlined in red; sections indicated with red overlines and sometimes introduced by formulaic qāla or aqūlu in red or in black overwritten in red. Undotted abjad numerals mostly in black and less often in red; Hindu-Arabic numerals in red. Substantial diagrams with lines mostly in red and geometrical points in black, although there are few diagrams in black with points in red; diagram labels in black and red; some unfinished diagrams (23v–24r) and few spaces for diagrams left blank (particularly on ff. 13r–29r); some diagrams in the margins and some pasted diagrams (e.g., on ff. 14r, 14v, 16r, 16v, 22v, 41r, 122v, and 124r). Substantial tables with lines in red, headings in red and black, and abjad notation in red and black; one table left blank (17v). Codex in very good condition; no moisture stains, occasionally worm-eaten, two major inkblots (20r, 119r), few smudges, some wear on the covers. Dimensions: 30×17½ cm, written area: 19×10 cm; 23 lines per page. Rebound; purple cloth cover on pasteboard; wooden-like marbled pasteboard on top of the cloth cover except spine and corners. Type III binding.

Cont.: astronomy. — Index: two astronomical diagrams, one pasted, with Persian text and a reference to al-Birjandī (IIr); Ptolemaica (1v–152r); Ptolemaica (153v–156r); Ptolemaica (156r–158r). Blank: Iv, IIv–1r, 152v–153r, 158v–IIav.

Bibl.: Wilhelm Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, vol. V, Berlin: Asher, 1893, pp. 143–144 (no. 5655) and p. 161 (no. 5680); Paul Kunitzsch, Claudius Ptolemäus. Der Sternkatalog des Almagest. Die arabisch-mittelalterliche Tradition, 3 vols, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1986–1991, vol. III, pp. 9–10; 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, pp. 259–260 (no. 15) and 312. — Qalamos: https://www.qalamos.net/receive/DE1Book_manuscript_00014160.

1v–⁠152r

\1v\ أحمد الله مبداء كلّ مبداء وغاية كلّ غاية ومفيض كلّ خير ووليّ كلّ هداية. وأرجو حسن توفيقه في كلّ بداية ونهاية — \151v\ فلنختم الكتاب. وأقول: وإذ وقفني الله تعالى أيضا لإتمام ما قصدته وإنحاء ما وعدته، فلأقطع الكلام حامدًا له على الآية ومصليا على جميع أوليائه، خصوصا على خاتم أنبيائه، والبردة من آله وأحبابه. ووقع الفراغ من نسخة في خامس شوال سنة أربع وأربعون وستمائة. تمت.

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

. — Title: Aṣl al-Majisṭī (IIr). — Index: preface, 1v–2r; Book I, 2r–19r; II, 19r–33v; III, 33v–43v; IV, 43v–57r; V, 57r–72r; VI, 72r–85r; VII, 85r–97v; VIII, 97v–111v; IX, 111v–125v; X, 125v–129v; XI, 129v–138r; XII, 138r–143r; XIII, 143v–152r. — Dated authorial colophon (152r); instead of a scribal colophon, the colophon by the scribe of the base manuscript is provided (152r). This manuscript includes many of the glosses attributed to al-Ṭūsī himself, in the hand of the scribe. Marginal collations indicated with siglum ‘12’ in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the scribe’s hand, probably copied from the base manuscript; minor marginal corrections indicated by siglum ; all marginalia in the scribe’s hand.

153v–⁠156r

\153v\ نريد أن نثبت اختلافات وقوع الخطوط في الأشكال التي يعرف منها أوضاع مراكز أفلاك عطارد في مسيراتها — \153v\ ويكون الأشكال بحسب مسير المركز الحركة الوسطى مبتديا من الأوج إلى التوالي هكذا. [diagrams] \155r\ [tables]

156r–⁠158r

\156r\ [title] ليكن ابجد الحامل على مركز ز وقطر اب وح عليه نقطة خارجة عن المركز وجحد، دحه زاويتان عليها فإن كانتا متساويتين كانت قوس ده الأوحيّة — \158r\ فقد تبيّن بالاستقراء ولم يلج لي طريق برهانيّ بعد إلى ذلك. والله الموفق. تم تم تم.

= Muqaddima nāfiʿa fī maʿrifat al-ikhtilāfāt (C.1.18b)

. — Title: Muqaddima nāfiʿa fī maʿrifat al-ikhtilāfāt allatī yaḥduthu bi-sabab al-khurūj ʿan al-markaz. — No glosses.