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Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn

Title	Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn
Publication Date:	1883
Subject	Astrology, Arab, Astronomy, Arab, Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
Type	Document
Language	Arabic
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	Yes
Library:	Harvard Library
Library Asset ID	LCCN: 2008401927, LCCallNum: QB23 .M67 1882
Record ID	TN_cdi_loca_primary_2008401927
Library Location	ONLINE ACCESS
Date	1883
Notes	The first four pages are Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Miṣrī's poem, Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn, a poem on astronomy and astrology. It covers the sun, the moon, the planets, the constellations, the signs of the Zodiac and the astrological characteristics of each day of the week. On fol. 3a, the author says that he completed this poem on 18 Rabīʻ al-awwal 1298 (17 February 1881). The author's own commentary (Tuḥfat al-murīdīn bi-sharḥ Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn) on the poem begins on leaf 3, verso, line 10. While in the West, particularly in modern times, poetry and science tend to differ sharply in their approach to describing the world, this is not the case in the Arabic-speaking world, where the use of the literary form of the poetical treatise has produced remarkable works in a variety disciplines, including mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and astrology. The present manuscript shows that the tradition of the Arabic poetical treatise was not confined to the Middle Ages but was still alive in the 19th century. Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Miṣrī (1814-1856) is the author of both the poetical stanzas found in the first three folios of the manuscript and of the prose commentary on the poem that follows. The subject of the treatise straddles astrology and astronomy, as it proceeds from the description of the heavenly bodies to a treatment of the zodiacal signs and their influences. This elegant manuscript is enriched by rubricated headings that lead the reader through the paragraphs of the poem and through the chapters of the prose commentary, which deal with the Arabic and Coptic reckoning of months, the zodiacal signs and their paths in the heavens, the seven planets known at the time, and the hours of sunrise and sunset. World Digital Library.
Kaynak	Library of Congress Digital Collections: All Content
Başlık	Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn

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Harvard Library

Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn

Publication Date 1883

Subject Astrology, Arab, Astronomy, Arab, Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)

Type Document

Language Arabic

Digital Yes

Manuscript Yes

Library Harvard Library

Library Asset ID LCCN: 2008401927, LCCallNum: QB23 .M67 1882

Record ID TN_cdi_loca_primary_2008401927

Library Location ONLINE ACCESS

Date 1883

Notes The first four pages are Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Miṣrī's poem, Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn, a poem on astronomy and astrology. It covers the sun, the moon, the planets, the constellations, the signs of the Zodiac and the astrological characteristics of each day of the week. On fol. 3a, the author says that he completed this poem on 18 Rabīʻ al-awwal 1298 (17 February 1881). The author's own commentary (Tuḥfat al-murīdīn bi-sharḥ Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn) on the poem begins on leaf 3, verso, line 10. While in the West, particularly in modern times, poetry and science tend to differ sharply in their approach to describing the world, this is not the case in the Arabic-speaking world, where the use of the literary form of the poetical treatise has produced remarkable works in a variety disciplines, including mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and astrology. The present manuscript shows that the tradition of the Arabic poetical treatise was not confined to the Middle Ages but was still alive in the 19th century. Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Miṣrī (1814-1856) is the author of both the poetical stanzas found in the first three folios of the manuscript and of the prose commentary on the poem that follows. The subject of the treatise straddles astrology and astronomy, as it proceeds from the description of the heavenly bodies to a treatment of the zodiacal signs and their influences. This elegant manuscript is enriched by rubricated headings that lead the reader through the paragraphs of the poem and through the chapters of the prose commentary, which deal with the Arabic and Coptic reckoning of months, the zodiacal signs and their paths in the heavens, the seven planets known at the time, and the hours of sunrise and sunset. World Digital Library.

Kaynak Library of Congress Digital Collections: All Content

Başlık Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn