PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Ahmet III 3330

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]
Single work: Arabic.  Date:

Saturday, 15 Rabīʿ al-awwal 706/24 September 1306 (189v).

Or.:

Tabriz; copied by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Maḥmūd al-Qarafī (189v).

Prov.:

undated note, said to be in al-Nishābūrī’s hand, stating that he corrected this copy on the basis of another one (189v). Unreadable signature (1r, top of the page); two occurrences of the talismanic invocation yā kabīkaj (IIIr, 1r). Undated tughra of the Ottoman Sultan Bāyazīd II (r. 1481–1512) (1r, 189v). Undated seal of endowment by Aḥmad Thālith b. Muḥammad, i.e., Ahmet III (r. 1703–1730) (1v). Shelfmark ‘hayʾat 42 3330’ in pink (Ir).

Cod.: paper, III+189+IIa ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals in pencil; bound in quinions: quire signatures in the form ‘al-juzʾ al-thānī’ in the upper left corner of every tenth recto; catchwords). A single clear nastaʿlīq hand in black; ductus mostly undotted, no shaddas, no hamzas. Book and chapter numbers in thuluth in black, section beginnings qawlu-hu/aqūlu in red, abjad notation in the text in red. Substantial diagrams with lines in black and labels and geometrical points in red. Two small mathematical tables with headings in red (22r, 22v). An illuminated titlepiece (with Mamluk characteristics) consisting of three main elements: a central shamsa stating the donation to the library of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī in tawqīʿ, the title of the work at the top, and the name of the author (said to be al-Shīrāzī’s student) at the bottom, both in thuluth (1r). Codex in good condition; minor moisture and mould stains on the first and last leaves. Dimensions: 245×165 mm, written area: c. 115×195 mm; 33 lines per page. Original cover probably lost, rebound in a dark brown leather cover from the same period with fore-edge and envelop flap, elaborately decorated with small tools: a central round ornament on both covers and flap, filled by interlace, numerous frames surrounding the main parts of the back cover and the ornaments; blind-tooled decoration and title on fore-edge flap covered by a pasted slip of paper with (new?) title (added in the 19th or 20th century). Type II binding.

Cont.: Astronomy. — Index: Ptolemaica (1r–189v). Blank: Iv–II, IIIv, 123r, Iar–IIav.

Bibl.: Fehmi Edhem Karatay and O. Rešer, Topkapı Saraı Müzesi Kütüphanesi. Arapça yazmalar kataloğu, 4 vols, İstanbul: Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, 1962–1969, vol. III, p. 768 (no. 7097).

1r–⁠189v

\1v\ السعد قرين من صدر كلامه بالحمد لواهب السعادة واليمن رسيل من أعلق يمينه بشكر تمتري الزيادة. فأحمده على ما أوّلانا من النعم ذات الطول والعرض — \189v\ وأن ينعم عليه لحظة فلحظة سعادة ويسرى ويجدّد له ساعة فساعة كرامة وبشرى.

= Niẓām al-Dīn al-Ḥasan al-Nīsābūrī, Tafsīr Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.38)

. — Title: Kitāb Sharḥ al-Majisṭī (titlepiece, 1r). — Additional title: Sharḥ Taḥrīr Majisṭī al-musammā bi Tafsīr al-Taḥrīr fī al-hayʾa (1r, spine). — Index: Authorʼs preface, 1v–3r; Book I, 3r–33r; II, 33r–48r; III, 48r–66r; IV, 66r–75v; V, 75v–96r; VI, 96r–122v; VII, 123v–128v; VIII, 128v–132r; IX, 132v–144r; X, 144v–151r; XI, 151v–159r; XII, 159r–172v; XIII, 173r–189v. Dated authorial colophons for each book except Book VII, deviating as follows from the dates given in the work description: Book I: only the year 703/1303-4; VI: 21 Rabīʿ al-awwal 704/22 October 1304 (the author also states that the long interval between the compilation of the commentary on Books V and VI is because of his travel from Khurasan to Azerbaijan); IX, Saturday, 27 Jumādā al-ūlā 704/26 December 1304. Scribal colophon including the date of copying (189v). Folio 23bis is an inlaid slip of paper in the scribe’s hand with three diagrams omitted in the main text. Marginal corrections in the same hand as the main text indicated by ṣaḥḥa.