Author
‘Abd al-‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Birjandī
Publication Date
30 Sha‘bān 1097 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Publication Place
Qom -
Subject
1
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
247 x 130 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 13060
Record ID
vdc_100030796164.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
30 Sha‘bān 1097 (AH, Hijri qamari)
Notes
Commentary by ‘Abd al-‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Birjandī (Abdul Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn al-Birjandi, d. 923/1525 or 26) 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). Al-Birjandī completed his commentary in Rabī‘ I 913/July or August 1507 (see author's
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 393v, lines 22-23, transcribed below).
Since the commentary follows the structure of the text commented upon, it is divided into four books each subdivided into chapters:
Book One: What Must Be Presented
Book Two: The Arrangement of the Heavenly Bodies
Book Three: The Arrangement of the Earth and What Pertains to it on Account of the Different Positions of the Heavenly Bodies
Book Four: Knowing the Measure of the Distances and the Heavenly Bodies.
The text contains numerous diagrams including one of the so-called 'Tusi couple' (f. 212v [Book Two, Chapter Eleven]), which demonstrates how linear motion can result from circular motion. This chapter was translated into Sanskrit in the 18th century (Takanori and Pingree,
Arabic Astronomy in Sanskrit
[Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002]).
This copy was completed on Morning of Sunday 30 Sha‘bān 1097/22 July 1686 at Qom by Muḥammad Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ‘Alī ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (Muhammad Yusuf bin Muhammad Ali bin Abd al-Rahman, see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 394r, lines 2-6, transcribed below). In two notes next to the
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, the copyist complains of the difficulties he faced in producing a correct copy of the text, specifically that although he collated his copy as best he could, he was unable to find a correct copy for the collation. Nevertheless, he believes that he has produced the most correct copy in Qom (and I think that there was not in that town a more correct copy than mine, and God knows best, see collation note next to
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 394r).
A scrap of Western laid paper containing verses and calligraphic inscriptions seemingly unrelated to al-Birjandī's text is found inserted between ff. 49 and 50. A scrap of purple Western (?) laid paper containing calculations concerning measurements in cubits (cubit) has been pasted to f. 273r.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-4):
Praise be to God, who created the heavens and the earth, and made darkness and light, and extended over
The watchful carpet, with the right hand of his dazzling power, shade and heat, with his wisdom he has adorned the sky
The world is with the adornment of the stars and the light of the face of the dust with the lights of the piercing stars...
Ends (f. 393v, line 21-394r, line 1):
...The dryness of the pen revealed its composition and arrangement
What was deposited and arranged in the month of Rabi` al-Awwal of the thirteenth year of the Noble Year
The nine hundred years of the Hijra, and I am supplicating to God Almighty and to the Prophet of the Two Thaqalayn, Abd
Al-Ali bin Muhammad Hussein, may God rectify his affairs and protect him from what befalls him, Amen, Lord of the Worlds
Copyist's
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 394r, lines 2-11):
The servant in need of the mercy of his Most Gracious Lord, Muhammad Yusuf bin Muhammad Ali, ennobled him
Bin Abdul Rahman in the town of Qom, may God protect it from what happened, and it was accomplished
Retouching it on Sunday morning, peeling the holy month of Shaban from months
The seventh year of the last ten of the first hundred
From the second millennium of the Prophet's migration
Al-Mustafawiyyah has migrated a thousand thousand times
Greetings and may his family be well
Al-Wari is healthy
What repeated the day
And the evening
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Köken
Muḥammad Ja‘far (محمد جعفر), his seal, without date (f. 1r);
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (محمد بن إبراهيم), his seal, dated 1229/1813-14 (ff. 1r 394v and back flysheet iii-v);
Rectangular seal, illegible (at end of
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 394r).
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Edition of the Arabic text and Sanskrit version of Book Two, Chapter Eleven with an English translation:
Kusuba, Takanori and David Pingree,
Arabic Astronomy in Sanskrit: Al-Birjand
ī on Tadhkira II, Chapter 11 and its Sanskrit Translation
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002)
Studies:
Kusuba, Takanori, 'Birjandī: ‘Abd al-‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Birjandī', in
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
, ed. by Thomas Hockey et al. (New York: Springer, 2007) p. 127
Ragep, F. Jamil,
Naṣ
īr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī's Memoir on Astronomy (al-Tadhkira fī ʿilm al-
hayʾa)
, 2 vols., (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 57 and 63
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu,
Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th c.)
, (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003) pp. 314-16
