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Escorial, Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo, ár. 916

[Colour scanned images of the textblock of the Ptolemaic work, black-and-white scans of the remainder.]

Collection: Arabic. Date:

second work completed in late Rabīʿ al-thānī 998/early March 1590 (181v).

Or.:

unknown, probably Morocco; three different unknown scribes. On ff. 92v–93r more than a page was left empty for the missing last part of Book III.2 and beginning of Book III.3. Since a similar empty space is found in MS Istanbul, Selim Ağa, 727, which is likewise of Maghribian origin, we may assume that one of these two manuscripts was copied from the other or that they have a common ancestor.

Prov.:

a statement of ownership indicating that the manuscript was part of the books of the servant of God Zaydān (Zīdān) Amīr al-Muʾminīn, and a side note indicating that the book belonged to Amīr al-Muʾminīn b. Amīr al-Muʾminīn b. Amīr al-Muʾminīn b. Amīr al-Muʾminīn (1r); thus, the manuscript was part of the library of Muley Zīdān (d. 1037/1627), which was captured in 1612 and which enlarged the holdings of the Escorial. Old shelfmarks: ‘VH39’, ‘39’, ‘num. 15’ (1r).

Cod.: paper, II+265 ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals, skipping ‘5’ and ‘12’; no catchwords). Three maghribī hands. The first one (1v–129v, the Ptolemaic work) is a small hand with fully dotted ductus, fully vocalized headings and occasional vowels, hamzas, and shaddas in the body text; book and chapter headings in red; the words qāla Baṭlamyūs frequently in bold red and the words qāla l-mufassir frequently in bold blue, although occasionally these are also found in bold black. The second and slightly bigger hand (130v–181v) has a fully dotted ductus, frequent vowels, hamzas and shaddas; words introducing new sections in bold. The third and biggest hand (182v–267v) has a fully dotted ductus, frequent vowels, and occasional hamzas and shaddas; headings and words introducing new sections in bold naskh or thuluth. Minor tables and horoscopes. Codex in excellent condition; some mold stains. Dimensions: 285×205 mm; 32 (1v–129v), 26 (130v–181v), and 25 (182v–267v) lines per page.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: table of contents (1r); Ptolemaica (1v–129v); Ibn Qunfudh al-Qusanṭīnī, Sharḥ Urjūza Ibn Abī Rijāl (130v–181v); Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Haydūr, Kitāb al-Iʿtibārāt al-naẓariyya fī l-aḥkām al-nujūmiyya (182v–185r); Sayyid b. ʿAlī, Kitāb fī l-Qawāṭiʿ (185v–187v); Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Baqqār, Kitāb al-Amṭār wa-l-asʿār (187v–236v); Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Baqqār, Kitāb al-Adwār fī taysīr al-anwār (237v–264v); Ibn Farmīja, Ḥuṣūl al-maqāṣid wa-l-āmāl min al-ṭuraf wa-l-fawāʾid allātī tuʿlam min-hā madad al-wulāt wa-l-ʿumāl (264v–267v). Blank: 72v–73r, 93r, 130r, 182r, 237r.

Bibl.: Miguel Casiri, Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis sive Librorum omnium Mss. quos Arabicè ab auctoribus magnam partem Arabo-Hispanis compositos Bibliotheca Coenobii Escurialensis complectitur, recensio & explanatio, 2 vols, Madrid: Antonius Perez de Soto, 1760–1770, vol. I, p. 350 (no. cmxi); Hartwig Derenbourg and H.-P.-J. Renaud, Les manuscrits arabes de l’Escurial. Tome II. — fascicule 3: Sciences exactes et sciences occultes, Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1941, pp. 14–17.

1v–⁠129v	\1v\ [book title] قال أبو الحسن علي بن رضوان بن علي الطبيب: قصدنا إلى شرح أقاويل بطلميوس في صناعة القضاء بالنجوم على الحوادث — \129v\ فهذا أشياء قد شرحتها لك فانعم الله النظر فيها وتأملها والله يهدي من يشاء إلى صراط مستقيم. = ʿAlī b. Riḍwān, Tafsīr al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ (C.2.3) . — Title: Sharḥ ʿAlī b. Riḍwān li-Kitāb al-arbaʿ li-Baṭlamyūs (1r). — Additional titles: Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Riḍwān b. ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar al-Ṭabīb li-Kitāb al-Arbaʿ maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs (129v); Hasan Ali ben reduan giahfar opus quatripartitum de Astrologia Judiciaria (1r). — Index: Book I.1 (=I), 1v–17v; I.2 (=II), 17v–31r; I.3 (=III), 31r–42r; II.1 (=IV), 42r–52v; II.2 (=V), 52v–64r; II.3 (=VI), 64r–72r; III.1 (=VII), 72v–83r; III.2 (=VIII), 83r–92v (incomplete); III.3 (=IX), 93v–104v (incomplete); IV.1 (=X), 104v–114v; IV.2 (=XI), 114v–124r; IV.3 (=XII), 124r–129v. — The end of Book III.2 and the beginning of Book III.3 are missing. Undated scribal colophon. Minor marginal corrections by the scribe. No collations or glosses.

1v–⁠129v

\1v\ [book title] قال أبو الحسن علي بن رضوان بن علي الطبيب: قصدنا إلى شرح أقاويل بطلميوس في صناعة القضاء بالنجوم على الحوادث — \129v\ فهذا أشياء قد شرحتها لك فانعم الله النظر فيها وتأملها والله يهدي من يشاء إلى صراط مستقيم.

= ʿAlī b. Riḍwān, Tafsīr al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ (C.2.3)

. — Title: Sharḥ ʿAlī b. Riḍwān li-Kitāb al-arbaʿ li-Baṭlamyūs (1r). — Additional titles: Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Riḍwān b. ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar al-Ṭabīb li-Kitāb al-Arbaʿ maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs (129v); Hasan Ali ben reduan giahfar opus quatripartitum de Astrologia Judiciaria (1r). — Index: Book I.1 (=I), 1v–17v; I.2 (=II), 17v–31r; I.3 (=III), 31r–42r; II.1 (=IV), 42r–52v; II.2 (=V), 52v–64r; II.3 (=VI), 64r–72r; III.1 (=VII), 72v–83r; III.2 (=VIII), 83r–92v (incomplete); III.3 (=IX), 93v–104v (incomplete); IV.1 (=X), 104v–114v; IV.2 (=XI), 114v–124r; IV.3 (=XII), 124r–129v. — The end of Book III.2 and the beginning of Book III.3 are missing. Undated scribal colophon. Minor marginal corrections by the scribe. No collations or glosses.