Author
a page of notes
Publication Date
1595-1603 (CE, Gregorian)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
77 x 61 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Sloane MS 2696
Record ID
vdc_100000000653.0x00017d
Library Location
British Library: Western Manuscripts
Date
1595-1603 (CE, Gregorian)
Notes
An anonymous notebook containing texts on gemstones, Ottoman sultans, and herbs, interspersed with notes and a prayer.
Divisions of the text:
(1) Lughat al-jawhar wa-asmāʾ al-jawāhir wa-manāfiʿihā (كتاب لغة الجوهر واسماء الجواهر ومنافعها, ff.1v-20v);
A text enumerating different types of gemstones including rubies, emeralds, topaz, diamonds, turquoise, agate, magnetite, emery, and lapis lazuli, as well as pearls and coral. Their qualities, variants, colours, values, and medical uses are listed. The text is interrupted by a page of notes (f. 5r) comprising an account of Noah's ark, a calligraphic exercise, notes on the ascendant planets governing days of the week, and a list of herbal ingredients including opium, saffron and henbane.
(2) Tawārīkh salṭanat IbnʿUthmān (تواريخ سلطنة ابن عثمان, f.21r-21v);
A list of the Ottoman Sultans from ʿUthmān I, with notes of feats including the conquests of Istanbul, Aleppo and Cyprus. Accession dates and lengths of rule are given up to the end of Sultan Murād III's (مراد) reign in 1595. The accession of Muḥammad III (محمد, r. 1595-1603) is also recorded. A note of ingredients for manufacturing soap (f. 21v), followed by a continuation of (1) Lughat al-jawhar wa-asmāʾ al-jawāhir wa-manāfiʿihā (f. 22r), about magnetite;
(3) Maʿrifat al-ʿushb (معرفة العشب, ff. 22v-25r);
A text on the properties, origins, and values of different plants and herbs with instructions for their alchemical use.
(4) f. 26v-26r: A prayer.
The volume is decorated with a roughly-executed frontispiece in gold, green, red and blue, with lettering in red (f. 1v); and a diagram of a talismanic engraving in gold, green and blue, depicting a triangle enclosed in a circle with lettering indicated in red (f. 7v).
Begins (f. 1r, lines 1-4):
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبه نستعين
نكتب لغة الجوهر وأسماء الجواهر ومنافعها
أول اسم عام لجميع الأحجر المعدنية
النفيسة...
Ends (f. 26r, lines 3-4):
ارحمني وعلمني صلاحاً وادباً ومعرفة
فاني امنت بوصاياك
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 38, pp. 52.
