Author
‘Abd al-Ghanī ibn Ismā‘īl al-Nābulusī
Publication Date
Muḥarram 1161 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
214 x 140 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Add MS 19547
Record ID
vdc_100000000041.0x0001c1
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
Muḥarram 1161 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Notes
Treatise in defense of tobacco smoking (شَرَب التُتُن) on medical and legal grounds, written in 1092/1682 (see Author's
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 127v, lines 11-13, transcribed below) by ‘Abd al-Ghanī ibn Ismā‘īl al-Nābulusī.
The copy was completed at the end of Muḥarram 1161/January-February 1748 (see Scribe's
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 127v, lines 14-16, transcribed below).
On the title page are recorded two lines (bitan) of verse on the theme of smoking by Shaykh al-Zarqānī between the two hemistichs of which two new hemistichs have been inserted (a poetic practice known as تشطير) by al-Shaykh al-Ṣafwānī al-Rashīdī.
The treatise is divided into seven chapters (فصول), a list of which is given in the introduction (ff. 6v-7v):
Chapter One: Explanation of why people disagree over judging some things permissable, and why fatwas from the ulamas disagree over allowing or prohibiting tobacco smoking العلماء في حل شرب التتن وحرمته 7v-21v);
Chapter Two: The initial use of this special plant known as tobacco, the origin of the method of smoking it in this special way, a discussion of its appearance in the
Levant
A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
and elsewhere, an explanation of its names and the names of its paraphernalia events in the Syrian country and other names and instruments 21v-28r);
Chapter Three: Explanation of the origin of smoke in general, knowledge of how it is produced, and a discussion of its benefits and harms (chap.
Chapter Four: Explanation of this special plant called tobacco, and a discussion of its smoke and benefits.
Chapter Five: Explanation of the flawed evidence adduced by those who say the use of tobacco is forbidden (Chapter Five in the Statement of Corrupt Evidence which argues that the use of tobacco is forbidden; ff. 44v-104r);
Chapter Six: Summary of what is said in the statement allowing the smoking of tobacco after forbidding it has been refuted, prohibitive and abstinential disgust, and the difference of the first sanctions and sanctions ff. 104r-119r);
Chapter Seven: What we have discovered about the truth of tobacco smoking according to the moderns from poetic verses and refined love poems, and what we have written of this sort as a conclusion for what we intended in writing these chapters poetry and literary works and what we have in this example is not intended to edit the article; ff. 119r-127v).
Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-6):
Praise be to Allah who made smoking smoke use
Benefits by draining excess moisture in the body
ومحللًا لما تكاثف في الصدر من لزجة البلغم
It consists of the stomach heavy meals and delayed
للرياح المحتبسة في العروق
Ends (f. 127v, lines 9-11):
After all, we have the will to explain this issue
May Allah Almighty benefit the Ummah and the Almighty because of it
They are in that sorrow.
Author's
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 127v, lines 11-13):
... and there is a vacuum
Noon of the fourth day of the last month of Dhul-Hijjah
ختام سنة 1092 Twenty-nine and a thousand
Scribe's
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 127v, lines 14-16):
I also agreed to complete the editing of this version today
Happy Friday is the end of the month of Muharram
(27 AH?) 1161 AH
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 1158, p. 529
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from W.B. Barker, 11 June 1853
Köken
Ownership inscription in Ottoman Turkish, without name, recording purchase of book on 27 Dhū al-Qa‘dah 1175/19 June 1762 (f. 1v)
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Editions:
Nābulusī, ‘Abd al-Ghanī ibn Ismā‘īl,
al-Ṣulḥ bayna al-ikhwān fī ḥukm ibāḥat al-dukhān
, ed. by Muḥammad Adīb al-Jādir (Dimashq: Nīnawá lil-Dirāsāt wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘, 2015)
Nābulusī, ‘Abd al-Ghanī ibn Ismā‘īl,
al-Ṣulḥ bayna al-ikhwān fī ḥukm ibāḥat al-dukhān
, ed. by Muḥammad Aḥmad Dahmān (Dimashq: 1343/[1924])
Study:
Grehan, James, 'Smoking and "Early Modern" Sociability: The Great Tobacco Debate in the Ottoman Middle East (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries)',
The American Historical Review
111.5 (2006), pp. 1352-1377 (especially pp. 1369-1372)
