PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Manchester, John Rylands Library, Arabic 299

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

unknown.

Or.:

unknown, possibly India; unknown scribe.

Prov.:

ex-libris Bibliotheca Lindesiana (inner back cover), i.e., the library of the British astronomer James Ludovic Lindsay (1847–1913), 26th Earl of Crawford, who sold the manuscript to the John Rylands Library in 1901. Old shelfmark: ‘Hamilton 94’, corrected to ‘Arabic 299’ (inner back cover).

Cod.: three different kinds of paper, VI+419+IIa ff. (foliated with Arabic-European and Hindu-Arabic numerals [Persian forms], both in pencil; catchwords on most versos). A single clear Indian nastaʿlīq hand in black. Mostly dotted ductus, hardly any shaddas or vowels, substantial hamzas and lām-alif mukhaffafa. Chapter headings in dark and light red (partial sulphurisation of lead contained in the ink). Numerous figures and tables in red and black. Codex in good condition: no stains, minor damage caused by insects. Dimensions: 254×160 mm, written area: c. 18¾×10½ cm; 19 lines per page. Red leather cover with an unfinished decorative element in the middle, frame with fillets and gilding; inside decorated with marble paper. Type III binding.

Cont.: astronomy. — Index: A list of chapters written upside-down (ff. III–VI, added around 1830 according to Mingana), Ptolemaica (1r–419r). Blank: flyleaves.

Bibl.: James L. Lindsay, Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Hand-list of Oriental manuscripts. Arabic – Persian – Turkish, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press (private publication), 1898, p. 78 (under ‘Ptolemy’); Alphonse Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1934, cols 595–596 (no. 368).

1v–⁠419r

\1v\ الحمد لله الذي جعلنا من المتفكّرين في خلق السموات والأرض وألهمنا طريق معرفة مقادير حركات الأجرام النيّرة في الطول والعرض خلق سبع سموات طباقًا وجعل القمر فيهن نور وجعل الشمس سراجًا — \419r\ والحمد لله أوّلاً وآخرًا وباطنًا وظاهرًا والصلوة والسلام على زيده الليال والأيّام وآله الأخيار العلظام (كذا) وصحية الأبرار الكرام وقد فرغت من تأليف هذا الشرح وتسويده وتصحيحه بقدر الإمكان و تجويده (?) ضحوة يوم السبت العاشر من شهر ذي القعده سنة إحدى وعشرين وتسعمائة من الهجرة.

= al-Birjandī, Sharḥ Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.42)

. — Title: Sharḥ Majisṭī (1r). — Index: author’s preface, 1v–3r; Book I, 3r–75r; II, 75r–110v; III, 110v–148r; IV, 148r–172r; V, 172r–220v; VI, 220v–260v; VII, 260v–285v; 〈VIII〉, 285v–320v; IX, 320v–349r; X/XI, 349r–369v/358v–375v; XII, 375v–393r; XIII, 393r–419r. — Heading of Book V repeated in the margins. Authorial colophon, giving the date of completion as Saturday, 10 Dhū l-qaʿda 921/15 December 1515; no scribal colophon. Few marginal collations, glosses or reading statements, very few corrections in the hand of the scribe.