Publication Date
2 Sha‘bān 891 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
265 x 170 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 6888
Record ID
vdc_100022561341.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
2 Sha‘bān 891 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Notes
A medical treatise on ophthalmology divided into three chapters (articles), written in the form of 207 questions and answers. The title page and opening lines (ff. 1r and 1v, lines 1-2, both transcribed below) state that the author, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (Hunayn ibn Ishaq; d. 873), composed the text for his sons Dāwūd (David) and Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn (Ishaq ibn Hunayn, d. 910?).
The text contains a single diagram (f. 3r), but there are spaces perhaps left for other diagrams on ff. 17r and 17v. The copy was completed 2 Sha‘bān 891 (3 August 1486; see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
f. 24v, line 17, transcribed below).
The title page reads (f. 1r) reads:
The book of Hunayn bin Ishaq (!)
There are two hundred and seven issues in Al Ain
On the path of question and answer, he wrote it
He has two sons, David (!)
And Isaac
Contents:
Chapter One (Article One, ff. 1v-9v);
Chapter Two: (Article Two, ff. 10r-14v);
Chapter Three: (Article Three, ff. 15r-25v).
The text on f. 17v is formatted to appear like a chapter
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, but there is no chapter break here and the reason for this fomatting is clear.
A note in the margin next to the
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 24v) gives a recipe for the preparation of saffron ointment.
Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-6):
The first article from Hunayn bin Ishaq's book on Al-Ayn
On the question-and-answer method, he composed a question for his two sons, David and Ishaq, Ma Hadd al-Ain.
Answer: A body is composed of layers, membranes, ligaments, and arteries
And muscles, and this is their complete limit, and He has defined it with many limits, and this limit has completed its limits
And complete it...
Ends (f. 24v, lines 6-12):
Question: What is the sign of the thymus in the eye? Answer
Its mark is shaped like a berry
It is suspended red meat beaten to
The blackness is soft, so perhaps it is emanating
There is blood in it, or maybe not
It emits
Blood
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 24v, lines 13-21):
The third article from the book of Hunayn bin Ishaq was completed
In Al-Ayn, which is the last of the book, and we have explained the proofs of the issues in the matter
The eye, its structure, causes, diseases, and the signs of all of that
What did we base (?) on, then that is with God’s praise and help, and it coincides with emptiness
It is the second month of Shaban in the year eight hundred and ninety-one
May God have mercy on those who prayed for his writer to repent and forgive
May God have mercy on all Muslims
Who says?
Amen
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from Ibrahim Elias Gejou, 28 July 1908
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Edition and French translation:
Hụnayn ibn Ishạ̄q al-ʻIbādī,
Le livre des questions sur l'oeil de Honain ibn Ishaq
, Paul Sbath and Max Meyerhof, eds, (Cairo: Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientate, 1938)
Study:
Sezgin, Fuat,
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
, vol. 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1970). p. 252
Ullmann, Manfred,
Medzin im Islam
(Leiden: Brill, 1970), p. 206
