Author
Abu Yusuf Ya‘qūb ibn ‘Ali al-Qarshī al-Qaṣrānī
Publication Date
Shawwāl 768 (AH, Hijri)
Publication Place
Cairo -
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
242 x 155 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Delhi Arabic 1916 vol 1
Record ID
vdc_100065934803.0x000002
Library Location
British Library: Corporate Archives
Date
Shawwāl 768 (AH, Hijri)
Notes
Volume One of the
Book of Interrogations
(Book of Issues), an extensive treatise on astrological interrogations by Abū Yūsuf Ya‘qūb ibn ‘Alī al-Qarshī al-Qaṣrānī (Abu Yusuf Yaqoub bin Ali al-Qurashi al-Qasrani, fl. late 9th century).
This volume was completed during the first 10 days of Shawwāl 768/late May-early June 1367 (see Volume One
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 193, line 8, transcribed below).
An illuminated frontispiece (f. 1r) contains in its upper half the work's title and author's name (Book of Questions by Al-Qasrani in the Stars), and in its lower half the patron statement of the Mamluk amir Sayf al-Dīn Asandamur al-Nāṣirī (Saif al-Dīn Asandamur al-Nāsiri, d. 769/1368), Commander-in-chief (Atabek al-Askar) during the reign of Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Sha‘bān II (reg. 764-778/1363-1377; see Van Steenbergen, 'On the Brink of a New Era?',
Mamlūk Studies Review
15 [2011], p. 126ff and Van Steenbergen,
Order Out of Chaos
[2006], pp. 179-80 and 194). The patron statement reads as follows:
Drawing the treasury of the noble headquarters
Mawlawi Al-Saifi was destroyed
Atabek Al-Askar Al-Mansoura
May God bless his supporters
Between folios 157 and 158 (now foliated as 157a) is a horoscope written in Persian by a hand much later (Mughal-period ?) than that of the main scribe.
Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-9):
Praise be to God, the Possessor of [...] the opulent power, the all-powerful glory, and the brilliant proofs. I praise Him
For his pure blessings, ask forgiveness for past sins, and protect him from sleep
The competition and the questions of blessings be upon Muhammad, His faithful servant, and upon his pure family, may God bless him and grant him peace
May God be upon him and them in the first and the last. And I found what he found for us
On the authority of the first two, of the hidden secrets in her books that were deposited, there are three levels of knowledge, the highest of which
Knowledge, which is the science of medicine, and its medium is the knowledge perceived by analogy, which is
Science of the stars and I found this middle rank most honorable...
Ends (f. 193v, lines 3-6):
And so are all the stars. So he said, “When will this come into being?”
The thief, we found Jupiter on the eleventh and the luminaries connected to Saturn, so I said
This thief will be found. They said: When will he be found? The evidence was on the ninth, so I said
It is found in the market, so the thief was injured in the market, and the sword and belt were injured along with it, and God knows best
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 193v, lines 7-10):
The issues were written, thanks to God and his help
On the first ten days of Shawwal of the year seven hundred and sixty-eight
May God’s blessings be upon our Master Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, and upon all his family and companions
God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs
On either side of the
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
Another hand wrote the following in green ink:
(Right)
The first part of
(Left)
Followed by Chapter Seven
In the matter of the two opponents
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased by the Government of India at sale organised by Delhi Prize Agents, 1859; administrative deposit
India Office
The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors.
Library, 1876
Köken
Sayf al-Dīn Asandamur al-Nāṣirī (سيف الدين أسندمر الناصري) d. 769/October 1368: his patron statement (f. 1r);
The Government of India, its seal with central legend 'Delhi MSS' (f. 1r).
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Studies:
Burnett, Charles, ‘Al-Kindi on Judicial Astrology: "The Forty Chapters"’,
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy
3.1 (1993), pp. 77-117 (see pp. 85-86)
Burnett, Charles, Keiji Yamamoto and Michio Yano, ‘Al-Kindī on Finding Buried Treasure’,
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy
7.1 (1997), pp. 57-90 (see pp. 62 and 66-71)
Pingree, David and Wilferd Madelung, ‘Political horoscopes relating to late 9th century ‘Alids’,
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
36.4 (1977), pp. 247-75
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu,
Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th
-
19th c.)
, (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003), p. 46, no. 95
Sezgin, Fuat,
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
, vol. 7 (Leiden: Brill, 1977), pp. 138-39
Ullmann, Manfred,
Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam
(Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 314-15
Van Steenbergen, Jo, 'On the Brink of a New Era? Yalbughā al-Khāṣṣakī (d. 1366) and the Yalbughāwīyah',
Mamlūk Studies Review
15 (2011), pp. 117-52
Van Steenbergen, Jo,
Order Out of Chaos. Patronage, Conflict and Mamluk Socio-Political Culture
, 1341-1382 (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2006)
