PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Tehran, Kitābkhāna-yi markazi-i Dānishgāh-i Tehrān, 1352

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

finished on Tuesday, 4 Dhū l-ḥijja 1015/3 April 1607 (colophon, 250v); Book V finished on Wednesday, the day of the fire festival Chahār-shanbeh Sūrī in the year 1014, i.e., probably 6 Dhū l-qaʿda/‌15 March 1606 (120r).

Or.:

apparently Isfahan (colophon, 250v); according to its colophon, Book I was copied by Abū l-Ḥasan al-Zawārī (33r, possibly copied from the exemplar), while other books mention Ṣafī (al-Dīn) b. Muẓaffar al-Dīn Muḥammad (b. Muḥammad) al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusaynī as the copyist (in different variations on ff. 74v, 95v, 120r, 251r). According to the colophon, al-Ṭūsī’s autograph was used as exemplar for the copy and for a collation which was finished on Thursday, 18 Shaʿbān 1020/‌27 October 1611 (250v, 251r).

Prov.:

an audition certificate in the hand of the scribe, stating that he read the manuscript to a certain Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad (see the note on f. 251v and Dānishpazhūh, who identified the listener as Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad Sipāhānī). An ownership statement by Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Munajjim Muẓaffar Ḥusaynī, probably a relative of the scribe, together with his rectangular seal dated 1110/‌1698-9 (3r). A statement of acquisition in Tehran (3r) and a statement of ownership (251v), both by ʿAbd al-Dalīl Jalāl al-Dīn (?) and dated Ramaḍān 1285/‌December-January 1868-9 (251v). An undated ownership statement by Ibn Mīr Muḥammad Muḥammad-taqī al-Shirwānī (3r). A faded rectangular seal (3r); a small Shiite seal ‘ʿAlī’ (3r, 251v). Old shelfmark: ‘973’ (1r).

Cod.: oriental paper, 252 ff. (foliated in pencil with Hindu-Arabic numerals, Persian variants, at the left top of rectos; another foliation, 2 less than the main one, in red Hindu-Arabic numerals, Persian variants, on the first 20 folios only; no catchwords). One black nastaʿlīq hand (or two strikingly similar ones), neat and partially dotted; hamzas, shaddas and vowel marks mostly omitted; textual dividers in the form of red dots. Book headings in gold thuluth, chapter headings in gold or blue ink, paragraph beginnings in red or blue. Chapter beginnings additionally introduced by overlined bold abjad numerals in gold or blue; subsections occasionally numbered with red or blue overlined abjad numerals in the margins. Hindu-Arabic and abjad numbers in the main text mostly rubricated or in blue ink, often with overlines. Numerous tables, diagrams, and a rosette (139r); tables with golden lines, headers and numbers in red, blue, or black; diagram lines and geometrical points mostly in black or red, occasionally in blue. Dimensions: 20×11 cm, written area: 12×5 cm (Dānishpazhūh); 19 lines per page. Codex in very good condition; minor damage caused by moist, not affecting the readability; some folios loose (e.g., 142–144). Illuminated incipit page: a rectangular panel with cupola, predominant use of dark blue and golden elements including lancets; floral decoration in green, blue, yellow, white, and red; golden cartouche without inscription. Text on the incipit pages (1v–2r) in cloudbands with the surrounding space in gold; floral decoration also used for the heading of the first book (4v) and to fill the space around a diagram (12r). Elaborately decorated leather binding with envelope and fore-edge flap: covers made from crème-coloured tawed leather with black frame, decorated with a central mandorla including pendants and a medallion on the flap. The same central motifs are stamped on the reddish leather doublures and, like the elements on the covers, probably filigree work. The decorations on the doublures are filled with gilded vegetal motifs on a blue background, while the covers depict forest animals (deer, bird, and rabbit). In a later binding process, the book covers were attached in reversed order (flap on the right side instead left, elements on the covers upside down). The flyleaves appear to be paper with leather optic. Type II binding.

Cont.: astronomy. — Index: Ptolemaica (3v–250v); an extensive note by the scribe (251r–v). Blank: 252r–v.

Bibl.: Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh, Fihrist-i Kitābkhāna-yi Markazī-yi Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, vol. VIII: Nuskhahā-i khaṭṭī-yi shumārahā-i 1321 - 2120, Tehran: Chāpkhāna-yi Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1961 (1339 H.S.), p. 45; FankhāMuṣṭafā Dirāyatī, Fihristgān-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Īrān (Fankhā), 45 vols, Tehran: Library, Museum and Documentation Center of The Islamic Consultative Assembly, 2011–13 1390, vol. VII, pp. 213–214 (no. 27); ParraMª 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. 304–305.

3v–⁠250v

\3v\ أحمد الله مبدأ كلّ مبدأ وغاية كلّ غاية، ومفيض كلّ خير ووليّ كلّ هداية، وأرجو حسن توفيقه في كلّ بداية ونهاية، وأصليّ على عباده المخصوصين بالعناية والدراية، سيّما محمّد وآله الموسومين بالنبوّة والولاية، المنقذين من كلّ عماية وغواية. وبعد فقد كنت برهة من الزمان عازمًا على أن أحرّر لنفسيّ ولسائر طلبة العلم من لإخوان كتاب المجسطي المنسوب إلى بطلميوس القلوذي الذي هو الدستور العظيم لأصحاب صناعة الهيئة والتنجيم تحريرًا لا يفوته مقاصد ذلك الكتاب النظريّة — \250v\ يا، في خاتمة الكتاب قال وإذا تمّمنا جميع ما نفتقر إلى إرشاده من وجود ما يحتاج إلى وجوده وتصحيح ما يحتاج إلى تصحيحه إلّا الشاذّ بحسب ما وصل إليه علمي ومبلغ رأي وبقدر ما أعان الزمان عليه ودوّنّا ما هو نافع في هذا العلم من غير أن قصدنا بذلك تكبّرًا أو افتخارًا فلنختم الكتاب. وأقول وإذ وفّقني الله تعالى أيضًا لإتمام ما قصدته وإيجاز ما وعدته فلأقطّع الكلام حامدًا له على الآية ومصلّيًا على جميع أوليائه خصوصًا على خاتم أنبيائه والبررة من آله وأحبّائه.

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

. — Title: Taḥrīr al-Majiṣṭī (3r). — Additional title: nuskha Majiṣṭī (1r). — Index: author’s preface, 3v–4r; Book I, 4v–33r; II, 33v–56r; III, 56r–74v; IV, 75r–95v; V, 96r–120r; VI, 120v–139v; VII, 140r–154r; VIII, 154r–171v; IX, 171v–198v; X, 198v–206r; XI, 206v–222r; XII, 222r–233v; XIII, 233v–250v. — Dated scribal colophons for Books V and XIII and a mention of the authorial base manuscript (250v). This manuscript includes some of the glosses by al-Ṭūsī himself, mostly introduced by ḥāshiya, in the hand of the scribe. Occasional use of crosses as reference marks. Minor marginal corrections in the hand of the scribe mostly indicated by siglum ṣḥ.