Author
Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Mas‘ūd al-Shīrāzī
Publication Date
22 Ramaḍān 737 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Publication Place
Cairo -
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
260 x 185 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Add MS 23393
Record ID
vdc_100022676548.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
22 Ramaḍān 737 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Notes
Commentary by Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Mas‘ūd al-Shīrāzī (Qutb al-Dīn Mahmud ibn Masoud al-Shirazi; c. 1236-1310) on the
Kitāb al-tadhkirah fī al-hay’ah
(The Authority’s ticket book; see British Library, MS Or. 11209) a treatise on the astronomical system presented in the
Almagest
of Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus; c 90-c 168) by Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī (Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tusi; d. 1274).
The copy was completed on 22 Ramaḍān 737 (18 September 1356) in the neighborhood of the Khānqāh of the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn (King Al-Nasir Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Qalāwun, intermittantly reg. 1293-1341) in Cairo, and collated with its exemplar on 2 Shawwāl 737 (28 September 1356) by the book's first owner Maḥmūd (?) ibn Mas‘ūd ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad al-Isḥāqī al-Murshidī al-Shīrāzī (Mahmoud [?] bin Masoud bin Ishaq bin Muhammad bin Mahmoud bin Ahmad al-Ishaqi al-Murshidi al-Shirazi, see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 177, transcribed below).
The text is divided into four books (sections), each subdivided into chapters (chapters), and occasionally further subdivided into smaller variously designated sections (sections, sections and laws).
Contents:
'Book One: What must be introduced before attempting the aims [of the text], containing three chapters'
'Book Two: The arrangement, placements and movements of the simple bodies, and associated and related matters, sixteen chapters'
'Book Three: The arrangement of the Earth and its division into populated and empty [regions] and related matters on account of differences in the placements of the heavenly bodies and the like, thirteen chapters'
'Book Four: Knowledge of the quantity of distances and (heavenly) bodies, three chapters'
The title page (f. 2r) refers to the text as follows: A book containing the Shahi masterpiece in knowledge, the body, written by the Sheikh, the Imam, the scholar, the just, the pious, the ascetic, the Qutb, Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Masoud Al-Shirazi...
The text contains numerous diagrams.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 1-6):
...May God’s blessings be upon our master Muhammad
The best initiate is that which is adorned with praise to the One who gives power to praise Him and praises His Prophet with blessings
And upon His servant and upon his good and pure family. Praise be to God and peace be upon His servants who [...]
Especially for Muhammad, the Chosen One, and his chosen family (?). As for what follows, God’s creation most in need of Him is [Praise be to Him].
Ibn Masoud Al-Shirazi, may God seal his blessings, says, “If only the custom had not been justified.”
For the younger ones to turn to the elders, the means of holding on to themselves will be difficult for them, and it will expose them...
Ends (f. 177r, lines 14-18):
...By God Almighty, I ask that you grant the meditator success in it
For what benefits him, and if you excuse me for an oversight that occurred in him, then I am bound to sins
And with the inability and shortcomings of the one who confesses, may God increase our recognition of inability, and beware of the inability to reach realization
Realization and praise be to God who guided us to this, and we would not have been guided if God and prayer had not guided us
Upon our Master Muhammad, his Messenger and servant, and upon his pure family and companions after him
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 177r, written vertically in lower margins):
The emptiness became apparent
Thursday, the twenty-second of Ramadan
It spread to its right in the year 7 AH
Thirty-seven hundred Prophetic migrations
At the hands of his weak, poor owner, Mahmoud [?]
Bin Masoud bin Ishaq bin Muhammad bin Mahmoud
Bin Ahmed Al-Ishaqi Al-Murshidi Al-Shirazi
May God grant him success in both worlds
To collect what is required and enjoyed (?) in
Next to the new Khanqah, Al-Malikiyah, Nasiriyah
God immortalized the king of its well-known creator
In Syriac, called Sesame
In the homes of Egypt, God Almighty guarded them
About the afflictions of Muhammad Sayyid Sadat
Praise be to God, the Creator of cars
And blessings be upon His Messenger, the Possessor of perfection
And upon his family, the possessors of dignity, it did not fail
Al-Ammari (?) and Hammamet
Then the emptiness of meeting him occurred to the extent of capacity and energy
With its origin in the date of Sunday, the second noon time
From the month of Shawwal in the year seven hundred and thirty-seven, from the hand of its scribe
And his companion, may God forgive him and his parents
And better...
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Cureton, William and Charles Rieu,
Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens
(London: The British Museum 1846-71), Item 1344, pp. 621-22
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from Mrs Taylor, April 1860
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Study:
'Shīrāzī: Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Ma‘sūd Muṣliḥ al-Shīrāzī' in
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
, Thomas Hockey et al., eds., (New York: Springer, 2007) pp. 1054-1055
