PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Tehran, Kitābkhāna-yi Majlis-i shurā-yi Islāmī, 17286

[Low-resolution colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]
Collection of two works: Arabic. Date:

Monday, 23 Jumādā l-ākhira 912/9 November 1506 (216v).

Or.:

copied in Tabriz by an unknown scribe (216v).

Prov.:

an ownership statement by [mullā] ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ b. Kalib ʿAlī Hamadānī (d. 1173/1759-60), son of the poet and writer Mullā Kalib ʿAlī from Isfahan (1r, cf. the name in the margins of 3v, 4r, etc.; see also Dharīʿa). A recitation of a Persian poem by Bābā Aṣlī Damāwandī (11th/17th c.), dated 1273/1856-7 (217v). An ownership statement, two seals (1r) and a further seal (184v), all illegible on the scans.

Cod.: paper, 217 ff. (unfoliated; catchwords). At least five different hands . Most prominently: First hand (18r–19v, 112r–159v): a neat and small naskh hand in black; mostly dotted ductus, hardly any vowels or shaddas, no final hamzas; frequent use of lām-alif mukhaffafa. Second hand (160r–169v, 177r–179r and 208v–217v): a fast neat nastaʿlīq hand; mostly dotted, occasional vowels, frequent shaddas and final hamzas. Rubrication throughout the codex in different styles: quotations from the Arabic Tetrabiblos mostly with red or black overlines; chapter headings irregularly highlighted, sometimes in red ink, sometimes in black ink with bold characters or in thuluth script. A substantial text passage crossed out in red on ff. 131v–132r. Diagrams: the three horoscopes usually found in this commentary (182r, 184v [in the margin] and 186r, with text written in a different hand). Dimensions: 255×175 mm; mostly 21 lines per page (no ruling). Blank pages and spaces mostly indicated with notes in pencil (52r, 52v) or in black ink (111r). Substantial moisture and mold stains in the margins, especially towards the end of the manuscript; restorations of the margins with pasted paper on the first and last pages. Simple dark leather binding of Type III.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: title page (1r); Ptolemaica (1v–216v); notes on astrology, including quotes from Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Kitāb al-Thamara (verba 77 and 31, here numbered 79 and 33) and Zarathustra’s Kitāb al-Mawālīd (217r, 216v and 217v, in this order); sketches on an inlaid sheet (217bis). Blank: 52v, 111v. The same combination of works is also found in the later MS Tehran, Millī Library, Ar. 946.

Bibl.: DharīʿaĀqā Buzurg al-Ṭihrānī, ʿAlī Naqī Munzawī and Aḥmad Ḥusaynī Ishkawarī, al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa, 26 vols, Najaf / Tehran, 1936–1985, vol. IX, p. 315; Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʿAbbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries), London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 35–40; FankhāMuṣṭafā Dirāyatī, Fihristgān-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Īrān (Fankhā), 45 vols, Tehran: Library, Museum and Documentation Center of The Islamic Consultative Assembly, 20 2011, vol. XVIII, p. 972 (no. 1); Maḥmūd Naẓarī, Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Kitābkhāna-yi Majlis-i Shūrā-yi Islāmī, vol. XLVII/2: Nuskhahā-yi shumāra-yi 17101-17300, Tehran: Kitābkhāna, Mūza wa Markaz-i Asnād-i Majlis-i Shūrā-yi Islāmī, 2012, p. 121. Majlis Library online catalogue: http://dlib.ical.ir/site/catalogue/1038156 (currently unavailable).

1v–⁠216v

\1v\ قال أبو الحسن علي بن رضوان بن علي بن جعفر المتطبب: قصدنا أن نشرح أقاويل الحكيم بطلميوس في صناعة القضاء لنجوم على الحوادث. فنقول: إنّ القضاء بالنجوم على الحوادث صناعة تنبئ عن مبادئ صادقة بالمتكوّنات المزمعة وذلك أن مبادئها الصادقة هي أش⟨ياء⟩ تبيّن بعضها في العلم الطبيعيّ وبعضها في العلم التعالميّ — \116v\ فهذه أشياء قد شرحتها لك فانعم النظر فيها وتأملها والله يهدي من يشاء إلى صراط مستقيم.

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

. — Title: Sharḥ ʿAlī Ibn Riḍwān Arbaʿ maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs (1r). — Index: Book I.1 (=I), 1v–21r; I.2 (=II), 21r–42r; I.3 (=III), 42r–60r; II.1 (=IV), 60r–78r; II.2 (=V), 78r–97r; II.3 (=VI), 97r–111r; III.1 (=VII), 111r–131v (incomplete at the end); III.2 (=VIII), 132r–148r (incomplete in the beginning); III.3 (=IX), 148r–169v; IV.1 (=X), 170r–187r; IV.2 (=XI), 187r–206v; IV.3 (=XII), 206v–216v. — Incorrect title for Book III.3; a non-matching catchword suggests that the second hand did not continue where the copy by the first hand breaks off (159v–160r). Undated scribal colophon. A horoscope in the margin of f. 184v. Minor marginal corrections, no collations. Some glosses in Arabic, especially in the hand of ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ; some of these refer to Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (e.g., 3v) and Abū Maʿshar (e.g., 22v). Some annotations trimmed.