Work C.3.1
Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Dāya
تفسير كتاب الثمرة
Tafsīr Kitāb al-Thamara
A detailed commentary dealing with each verbum of the Thamara (B.1.1) individually and quoting the base text in full. It was composed in Fusṭāṭ (Cairo) sometime between 300/912-3 (year referred to in the past tense in the commentary on verbum 100) and Abū Jaʿfar’s death, given as c. 330–340/941–952 by Yāqūt. Alternative titles: Kitāb [al-Thamara] Baṭlamyūs ibn Falbūs al-Qalūdhī; Sharḥ [[Abī]] Aḥmad al-Ṭūlūnī al-Kātib; Kitāb al-Thamara li-Baṭlamyūs mim-mā tarjama-hū wa-kashafa ʿan maʿnā-hu Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Kātib al-Ṭūlūnī; Kitāb al-Thamara al-musammā bi-l-rūmiyya ā-n-ṭ-r-w-m-ṭ-ā wa-maʿnā-hu l-miʾat al-kalima (corruption of ἑκατὸν ῥήματα); Kitāb al-Thamara li-Baṭlīmūs al-mālik al-ḥakīm ilā mālik al-yūnāniyya Sūray tafsīr Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Miṣrī al-munajjim wa-hiya miʾat kalima mulakhkhaṣa.
Content: The most complete version of the work opens with Pseudo-Ptolemy’s introduction, verbum 1 in full, an introduction by Abū Jaʿfar, and the commentary on verbum 1. Then follow the remaining 99 verba, each provided with a commentary. In the case of verbum 1 only, the commentary is divided into three parts that repeat the relevant part of the verbum before the actual commentary. All these features have been preserved intact in three manuscripts (Milan, BA, A 29; Milan, BA, C 86; Rampur, Raza, Arabic 4190, although this last witness displays a highly erratic numbering of the verba and commentary). Five manuscripts (Berlin, SBPK, Sprenger 1839; Cairo, Dār al-kutub, mīqāt 962; Escorial, RBMSL, ár. 969; Patna, Khuda Bakhsh, 2474; Qom, Markaz Iḥyāʾ Mīrāth, 787) omit Pseudo-Ptolemy’s preface and the full verbum 1 (but the latter’s text is still present as part of the commentary). Two of these five manuscripts (Berlin and Escorial) designate the last part of the commentary on verbum 1 as a new verbum, thus shifting the verbum numbering by 1 for a total of 101 verba. Four manuscripts (Istanbul, Nuruosmaniye, 2800; St Petersburg, IOM, D 171; Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 1441; Vatican, BAV, Sbath 48) also omit Abū Jaʿfar’s introduction, thus opening with the commentary on verbum 1; they contain a total of 102 verba due to the fact that the second and third part of the commentary on verbum 1 were considered as new verba and the verbum numbering was consequently shifted by 2. The same structure with 102 verba is found in the very early manuscript Tehran, Malik Library, 5924 and its late copies Qom, Marʿashī Najafī Library, 7383 and Tehran, Millī Library, Ar. 392; these three manuscripts do include Pseudo-Ptolemy’s preface before the commentary on verbum 1, but it was added in the Malik manuscript in the nineteenth century. Escorial, RBMSL, ár. 918 and Uppsala, UB, O Nova 550 (Zetterstéen 203) preserve a reworking of the original text in which Abū Jaʿfar’s preface was replaced by a redactor’s preface and the 100 verba were sorted into eight chapters, each dealing with a different subject; Vatican, BAV, ar. 955 contains a single chapter from this version. A manuscript of the Thamara without the commentary but displaying the same division into eight chapters (Cairo, Dār al-kutub, riyāḍiyyāt Taymūr 141) credits Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Kammād (fl. early 12th c.) with this new sorting. Finally, Cairo, Dār al-kutub, akhlāq Taymūr 290 and its copy Cairo, Dār al-kutub, falsafa (W) 2837 preserve some extracts from a version with 100 verba.
Text: [Tehran, Malik Library, 5924 with additions from Martorello’s edition in angular brackets]
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بالنيازك وهي الحراب لشبهها بها في سرعة سلوكها فيحقّ ما كانت ثوانيها ولم تكن منها. [
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Bibl.: Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (ed. FlügelGustav Flügel, Kitâb al-Fihrist, 2 vols, Leipzig: Vogel, 1871–1872, vol. I, p. 268, lines 11–12; tr. DodgeBayard Dodge, The Fihrist of al-Nadīm. A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, 2 vols, New York / London: Columbia University Press, 1970, vol. I, p. 640); Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt al-ʿUmam (ed. CheikhoLouis Cheikho, Kitâb Tabaqât al-Umam ou Les catégories des nations par Abou Qâsim ibn Ṣâʿid l’Andalous, Beyrouth: Imprimerie Catholique, 1912, p. 57, lines 11–12); tr. BlachèreRégis Blachère, Ṣâʿid al-Andalusî. Kitâb Ṭabaḳât Al-Umam (Livre des Catégories des Nations), Paris: Larose, 1935, p. 113, lines 22–24; Yāqūt, Irshād al-ʿarīb (ed. MargoliouthDavid S. Margoliouth, The Irshád al-aríb ilá ma‘rifat al-adíb or Dictionary of Learned Men of Yáqút, 7 vols, Leyden: Brill, 1907–1927, vol. II, pp. 157–160; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamā (ed. LippertJulius Lippert, Ibn al-Qifṭī’s Taʾrīḫ al-ḥukamā, Leipzig: Dieterich, 1903, p. 78, lines 17–19); Hājjī Khalīfa, Kashf al-ẓunūn (ed. YaltkayaŞerefettin Yaltkaya and Kilisli Rifat Bilge, Kashf al-ẓunūn ʿan asāmī l-kutub wa-l-funūn li-... Ḥajji Khalīfa ..., 2 vols, Istanbul: Maarif Matbaası, 1941–1943, vol. I, col. 524). — UllmannManfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Leiden: Brill, 1972, pp. 327–328; Richard Lemay, ‘Origin and Success of the Kitāb Thamara of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm from the Tenth to the Seventeenth Century in the World of Islam and the Latin West’, in Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, Ghada Karmi and Nizar Namnum (eds), Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of Arabic Science (Aleppo, April 5-12, 1976), Aleppo: Institute for the History of Arabic Science, 1978, vol. II, pp. 91–107; GAS VIIFuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol. VII: Astrologie – Meteorologie und Verwandtes bis ca. 430 H., Leiden: Brill, 1979, p. 157; Richard Lemay, Le Kitāb aṯ-Ṯamara (Liber fructus, Centiloquium) d’Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf [Ps.-Ptolémée], 1999 [unpublished]; Franco Martorello and Giuseppe Bezza, Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Dāya. Commento al Centiloquio Tolemaico, Milano / Udine: Mimesis, 2013.
Ed.: Full edition in Lemay, Le Kitāb (unpublished). Full edition (from eight manuscripts) with Italian translation by Franco Martorello in Martorello & Bezza.
MSS |
Qom, Iḥyāʾ-i mīrāth, 787, ff. 195v–224v (undated)
St Petersburg, IOM, D 171, ff. 74r–98v (undated)
Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 1441, ff. 1-27 (1270/1853-4)
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