Author
Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh
Publication Date
13th century (CE, Gregorian)
Subject
1
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
325 x 215 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 4946
Record ID
vdc_100041536079.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
13th century (CE, Gregorian)
Notes
The Canon of Medicine (The Law in Medicine) by Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh (Abu Ali Al-Hussein bin Abdullah), known as Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, latinised as Avicenna, 980-1037).
An unsigned note, without date, in the upper margin of f. 1r states that the physycian Ibn al-Nafīs (Ibn al-Nafīs, d. 1288), here referred to by his full name Abū al-Hasan ‘Alā’ al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm al-Qurashī (Abu al-Hasan Ala al-Din Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm, famous as al-Qurashī), claimed that this copy was produced by Avicenna himself.
Begins (f. 1v, lines 1-3):
...And after he lost his petition
Some of it is saved from me, my brothers, and whomever I need to help in what he permits, and I have endeavored to add to medicine a book that includes its general and partial laws in a comprehensive way that combines concise explanation.
And to Eva the most right of the statement
Ends (f. 274r, line 9):
A third is an utholat, seven qarats, a mathus is an ounce, a half of a mathusin is a third of an uthol, an eighth of an utholu is four, and two karats are two grams.
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 274r, line 10):
The law of medical science was written
after these words another hand writing with another ink writes
By its author
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Ellis, A.G. and Edward Edwards,
A Descriptive List of the Arabic Manuscripts Acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894
(London: British Museum, 1912), p. 43
Hamarneh, Sami,
Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library
(Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte, 1975), Item 98, pp. 99-101
Köken
Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-mutaṭabbib (أحمد بن حسين المتطبب): his inscription, dated 1034/1624-5 (f. 1r);
‘Alī ibn ‘Abd al-Majīd al-ṭabīb (علي بن عبد المجيد الطبيب): his inscription, without date (f. 1r);
Aḥmad ibn al-‘Aṭṭār Aḥmad (أحمد بن العطار أحمد): his inscription, defaced, dated 866/1461-2 (f. 1r);
Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Yūsuf al-Shāfi‘ī (محمد بن يوسف بن يوسف الشافعي): his inscription, defaced (f. 1r);
al-Ḥājī Bashīr (الحجي بشير), Ottoman Kizlar Ağası or Chief Harem Eunuch (أغاء دار السعادة, served 1717-46; see Hathaway, Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem [Oxford: Oneworld, 2005]): his seals (the larger dated 1130/1717-18 [Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 465], and the smaller without date [Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 464]), and inscription, dated 1158/1745-6 (f. 1r; the seals appear again on ff. 25r, 92r, 169r, 214r, and 274r);
Muḥammad Amīn (محمد أمين), Inspector of Endowments at Mecca and Medina (مفتش أوقاف الحرمين المحرمين): His seal, without date (see Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 385), and inscription, without date, stating that this manuscript was endowed (وقف) by al-Ḥājī Bashīr (الحجي بشير), Ottoman
Kizlar Ağası
or Chief Harem Eunuch (أغاء دار السعادة, tenure 1717-46) (f. 1r);
Maḥmūd ibn Mas‘ūd ibn ‘Alī al-ṭabīb (محمود بن مسعود بن علي الطبيب): his inscription, without date, below which is an unsigned note by another hand, claiming that the note above was by the hand of the astronomer and physician of Samarqand Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Mas‘ūd al-Shīrāzī (قطب الدين محمود بن مسعود الشيرازي, d. 1310) (f. 274r).
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Edition:
Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʻAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʻAlī,
al-Qānūn fī al-ṭibb
, ed. by Idwār al-Qashsh, 2nd edition, 4 vols (Bayrūt: Muʾassasat ʻIzz al-Dīn, 1993)
Study:
Hathaway, Jane,
Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem
(Oxford: Oneworld, 2005)
