Author
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Tīfāshī. Transcribed by a single scribe who completed his work on 15 Jumādá II 799 AH
Publication Date
15 Friday II 799 (AH)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
170 x 130 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 1198
Record ID
vdc_100000000094.0x00008f
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
15 Friday II 799 (AH)
Notes
A treatise on precious stones by Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Tīfāshī. Transcribed by a single scribe who completed his work on 15 Jumādá II 799 AH (16 March AD 1397), and signed his name illegibly at the bottom of f. 60r.
Al-Tīfāshī composed the text in 640 AH and gave it the title by which it is more commonly known, but not mentioned in this copy,
Azhār al-afkār fī jawāhir al-aḥjār
(The flowers of ideas in the jewels of stones).
F. 60v contains 11 lines of poetry transcribed by another hand.
Begins (f. 1v, lines 1-4):
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and my success is only in God, in whom I trust
The poor servant to God Almighty, Ahmed bin Yusuf Al-Tifashi, said
May God forgive him. This is a strange book. The situation is strange and the collection is of great benefit
It included a mention of the stones found in the treasuries of kings and the relics of presidents
Ends (ff. 59v, line 11-60r, line 3):
If you want to see the house as if it were a pearl, find some solution and put it in
Agana, then take ground gum (sic) like three, crushed, and wrap it on it, then insist (sic) it with water
Until the east, then plaster the house with gypsum, then wipe the house with talc after the gypsum
Then let it sit for an hour, then polish the walls well with a glass polisher
He is patient as if he were the color of pearls. Its value and price per ounce is good
A dirham is a click
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 60r, lines 3-10):
Then the book, with God’s help and good success.
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and may God’s blessings and peace be upon our Master Muhammad, his family and companions
May God be pleased with all the companions of the Messenger of God.
God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs
Oh God, I ask for Your forgiveness and turn to You for what I have done
His paradise is my hand, O Lord of the worlds, and may God’s blessings and peace be upon our master Muhammad and his family.
It was written on the fifteenth of the month of Jumada al-Akhir in the year seven hundred and ninety-nine
The center of the months has a blackening (?) that is not pasted (?), and God knows best
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Rieu, Charles,
Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts
(London: The British Museum 1894), item 781
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from Alexandre Jaba, 12 Oct 1872
Köken
Inscribed with owner's note in Arabic at top of f. 1r, but owner's name is illegible.
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Editions:
Tīfāshī,
Specimen Arabicum continens descriptionem et excerpta libri Achmedis Teifaschii De gemmis et lapidibus pretiosis
, ed. by Sebald Rau (Traiecti ad Rhenum: Ap. Abrahamum à Paddenburg 1784)
Tīfāshī,
Fior di pensieri sulle pietre preziose di Ahmed Teifascite
, ed. by Antonio Raineri (Firenze: Nell'imp. E R. tipografia orientale Mediceo-Laurenziana 1818)
Tīfāshī,
Kitāb Azhār al-afkār fī jawāhir al-aḥjār
, ed. by Muḥammad Yūsuf Ḥasan and Maḥmūd Basyūnī Khafājī (Cairo: al-Hayʾah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb 1977)
Translation:
Arab Roots of Gemology
, trans. by Samar Najm Abul Huda (Lanham, MD & London: Scarecrow Press 1998)
Study:
Jaques Clement-Mullet,
Essai sur la minéralogie arabe : une étude historique et philologique, particulièrement sur les gemmes on pierres précieuses, basée sur le traité de Teifaschi (XIIIe siècle)
(Amsterdam: APA 1981 [Photographic reprints of articles published in the
Journal asiatique
in 1858 and 1868])
