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Catalogue: Medical Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias

Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (MS A 16, item 1; MS A 84, item 1): (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine); حقائق اسرار الطب; by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī (fl. before 1334/734 H); مسعود ابن محمد السجزى

Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī's only known treatise is a relatively short introduction to the medical art, written in Arabic, that focuses upon medical terminology. It was dedicated to the vizier Sadr al-Dawlah Abū al-Mafakir Qasīm ibn ‘Iraq ibn Ja‘far, a minister in Iraq, who (according to the introduction) had requested information about medical terms and concepts. The treatise consists of three sections (fanns): the first concerns medical and pharmaceutical terms and the names of diseases, the second is on medicinal substances and how they might be prepared, while the third concerns compound remedies and their various types and methods of preparation. In the course of the treatise, all the basic medical, physiological, and pathological ideas current at the time are explained.

For other copies, see Ullmann, Medizin, p. 237 note 1; Iskandar "Wellcome", p. 104; Iskandar, "UCLA", p. 45; GAL-S, vol. 2, p. 299 item 1b; Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts (in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian) in the Libraries of Turkey, ed. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (Istanbul: Research Centre of Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1984), p. 248 no. 226; and Hamarneh, "British Library", p. 204.

Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (MS A 16, item 1)

Illustrations

Folio 2a of MS A 16 which features the beginning of Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine) by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī. The biscuit, semi-glossy paper has very wavy horizontal laid lines. The text is written in a small naskh script. Brown ink with headings in red and red overlinings.

MS A 16, fol. 2a

The beginning of the book Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine), following the enumeration of its contents. The book was written by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī, who must have been working before 1334/734 H, though few details are known of his life. The copy is undated.

Physical Description

Arabic. 40 leaves (fols. 1b-40a). Dimensions 17.2 x 10.7; text area 12.5 x 7.6 cm; 18 lines per page. The title is given on folio 1b, line 14. It is also written by a recent hand, in pencil, on folio 1a and on a modern paste-on label of a previous owner. On folio 1b, line 3, the author's name is given as Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sinjarī al-tabib (the physician), which was corrected in the margin to read al-Sijzī.

A complete copy.

The copy is undated. The general appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a dating of the 16th century.

The text is written in a small naskh script. Brown ink with headings in red and red overlinings. There are catchwords. There are also marginal corrections by the copyist and marginalia in later hands. The pages have been trimmed from their original size, cutting off some of the marginalia. Fols. 30, 31, and 34-38 are written in a different hand, with no rubrications or overlinings or marginalia and with 21 lines per page; these appear to be replacement folios. At the last binding, some folios were placed out of sequence: folio 33 should follow folio 29, and folio 22 should follow folio 33.

The biscuit, semi-glossy paper has very wavy horizontal laid lines but no chain lines. Fols. 30, 31, and 34-38 are of different paper, with much finer laid lines. There is some water staining of the paper, and it is soiled with grease. The tops of fols. 42 and 43 have been repaired. Fol. 1 is guarded.

The volume consists of 44 leaves. Fols. 1b-40a contain the medical encyclopaedia by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī here cataloged; fols. 40b-44b (MS A 16, item 2) contain the anonymous treatise on compound remedies. Both treatises were copied by the same scribe.

Binding

The volume is bound in pasteboards covered with brown leather, with a blind-tooled medallion in the center of each cover.

Provenance

Fol. 1a has four owners' stamps (illegible) and nine owners' notes (no dates or names are legible). Fol. 44b has a different owner's stamp.

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda, who acquired it from a dealer in An Najaf in Iraq (ELS no. 1753, Med. 49).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 302, entry A16; Hamarneh, "NLM", pp. 102-103.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-115 no. 2

Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (MS A 84, item 1): (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine); حقائق اسرار الطب; by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī (fl. before 1334/734 H); مسعود ابن محمد السجزى

Illustrations

Folio 39a from MS A 84 which features the colophon of Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine) by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī. The beige lightly-glossed paper has single chain lines and watermarks. The paper is waterstained, and the edges have been trimmed from their orignal size. The text is written in a small compact naskh, with some ligatures. Black ink with headings in red and red overlinings.

MS A 84, fol. 39a

The colophon to a copy of Ḥaqā’iq asrār al-ṭibb (The Truths of the Secrets of Medicine) by Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī, who must have been working before 1334/734 H. The copy was completed at the beginning of the month of Sha‘ban 971 [= Marsh 1564] by Mas‘ūd ibn Mas‘ūd ibn ‘Alī, known as Kamāl al-Dīn al-Kirmānī.

Physical Description

Arabic. 39 leaves (fol. 1a-39a). Dimensions 20.8 x 14.5; text area 14.2 x 7.5 cm; 23 lines per page. The title is taken from the title page (folio 1a); it is also found on folio 1b, line 17, and in a penciled note on a recent title page inserted before folio 1. The author is given on folio 1b, line 3, as Mas‘ūd ibn Muḥammad al-Sijzī al-tabib (the physician).

According to the colophon on fol. 39a, the copy was completed at the beginning (fi ibtida') of the month of Sha‘ban in 971 [= the middle of March 1564]. The copy (naql) was made by Mas‘ud the son of our master (ibn maulana) Mas‘ūd ibn ‘Aī, known as (mulaqqab bi-) Kamāl al-Dīn al-Kirmānī. Hamarneh read the name of the scribe as Kamāl al-Dīn as‘ūd ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Kirmānī (Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 103).

The text is written in a small compact naskh, with some ligatures. Black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. Catchwords. The leaves have been frame-ruled, and sometimes the final letters of a word at the end of a line are written at a distance outside the ruling line.

The beige lightly-glossed paper has single chain lines and watermarks. The paper is waterstained, and the edges have been trimmed from their orignal size.

The volume consists of 59 leaves. Fols. 39b-41a contain a treatise falsely attributed to Hippocrates; (MS A 84, item 2) fols. 41a-44a have a synopsis of a treatise by Galen; (MS A 84, item 3) fols. 44b-46a a tract by al-Rāzī; (MS A 84, item 4) and fols. 46a-59b an anonymous medical manual (MS A 84, item 5). All the items are copied by the same copyist.

Binding

The volume is bound in a modern library binding of brown leather over boards. Modern pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda (ELS No. 1708; Med. 19).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS, p. 325 entry A 84 item 1;

Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 103.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-17 no. 4

Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (MS A 18, MS A 18.1, MS A 87, item 12): (The Comprehensive Book on the Art of Curing); كتاب الحاوى فى علم التداوى; by Maḥmūd ibn Ḍiyā’ al-Dīn Ilyās Najm al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1330/730); نحم الدين محمود ابن ضياء الدين الياس الشيرازى

Najm al-Din al-Shirazi's large medical encyclopedia titled The Comprehensive Book on the Art of Curing consists of five sections (maqalahs): The first maqalah is composed of 125 chapters (babs) and concerns the symptoms and treatments of diseases specific to a part of the body, discussed in order from head to foot. The second maqalah, in 27 chapters, is on fevers. The third, in 108 or 109 chapters, concerns external and superficial ailments and includes in chapters 86-102 a discussion of antidotes for poisons and poisonous bites. The fourth maqalah presents materia medica in alphabetical order, while the final maqalah, in 50 chapters, is on compound remedies, arranged according to type.

A French translation of the fourth and fifth sections (maqalahs) has been published by Pierre P.E. Guigues, Le livre de l'art du traitement de Najm ad-Dyn Mahmoud --- texte, traduction, glossaires, precedes d'un essair sur la pharmacopee arabe (Beirut: Impr. du Succes, 1902).

For other manuscript copies, see Ullmann, Medizin, p. 178 note 6; GAL-S, vol. 1 p. 901 and vol. 2, pp. 298-9; Iskandar, "UCLA", p. 46; Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts (in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian) in the Libraries of Turkey, ed. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (Istanbul: Research Centre of Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1984), pp. 273-4 no. 263; and Hamarneh, "British Library", pp. 205-207.

Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (MS A 18)

Illustrations

Folio 216b from Najm al-Din al-Shirazi's Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (The Comprehesive Book on the Art of Curing). The beige semi-glossy paper has very wavy vertical laid lines and traces of single chain lines. The text is written in a careful and consistent medium-small naskh script. Dense black ink with headings in red. There is a note in the right margin written in red ink.

MS A 18, fol. 216b

The section on a type of collyrium (shiyaf) from the fifth and final section, on compound remedies, of the Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (The Comprehesive Book on the Art of Curing) by Najm al-Din al-Shirazi. The copy is undated, but appears to from the 16th century.

Physical Description

Arabic. 221 leaves (fols. 1a-221b). Dimensions 25.2 x 18; 18.5 x 12.3 cm; 27 lines per page. The title is given as Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-ṭibb (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine) on fol. 106a, line 5, where it is said to be the end of the first and second maqalahs and the beginning of the third maqalah. The author's name is not given in the manuscript. The text clearly corresponds to other copies of the Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī by Najm al-Din al-Shirazi.

A nearly complete copy. It begins in the middle of the table of contents (bab 11 of the 2nd maqalah), and leaves are missing between fols. 32/33, 89/90, and 205/206. It is otherwise complete. The 2nd maqalah begins on folio 78b, the 3rd on fol. 106a, the 4th on fol. 155b, and the 5th on fol. 176a.

The copy is undated. The general appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the 16th century.

The text is written in a careful and consistent medium-small naskh script. Dense black ink with headings in red. The red marginal subject-headings are possibly added later. There are catchwords and marginal corrections, with other marginalia in Persian and Arabic. At fol. 217 both the paper and the hand changes, with 21 lines per page on the later folios.

The beige semi-glossy paper of fols. 1-216 has very wavy vertical laid lines and traces of single chain lines (but no evident watermark). The papers of fol. 217-221 is a watermarked paper. The paper throughout the volume has been severely stained, damaged and darkened by water and damp. Some folios are torn. The edges have been trimmed from their original size.

The volume comprises 221 leaves and one preliminary leaf. On the preliminary leaf there is one note in Hebrew and a penciled title of the standard form.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda, who acquired it from a dealer in Damascus (ELS No. 3901; Med. 16).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 303 entry A18.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-115 no. 4

Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (MS A 18.1): (The Comprehensive Book on the Art of Curing); كتاب الحاوى فى علم التداوى; by Maḥmūd ibn Ḍiyā’ al-Dīn Ilyās Najm al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1330/730); نحم الدين محمود ابن ضياء الدين الياس الشيرازى

Physical Description

Arabic. 133 leaves (fols. 1a-133a). Dimensions 25 x 17.2; text area 19.3 x 13 cm; 34 lines per page. The title is given at the end (fol. 133a) as al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-ṭibb. The author's name is not given in the manuscript. The text clearly corresponds to other copies of the Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī by Najm al-Din al-Shirazi. The manuscript was previously incorrectly attributed to al-Rāzī, because of the confusion of titles (Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 89; and D.A. Kronick & A.S. Ehrenkreutz, "Arab medicine, A.D. 740-1400", Medical Bulletin of the University of Michigan, vol. 22 (1956), p. 219.

A complete copy, with a table of contexts occupying fols. 1a-2a. The 2nd maqalah begins on fol. 62a, the 3rd on fol. 76b, the 4th on fol. 102a, and the 5th on fol. 111b. The contents and subject matter of the last two chapters (babs 49 and 50) of the 5th maqalah have been switched, compared to the sequence in the table of contents and to the order found in NLM MS A 18. The subsections (babs) in folios 16b to 20b are out of order.

The copy was completed on 8 Muharram 885 [= 20 March 1480]. In the colophon (fol. 133a, lines 28-29) only part of the scribe's name can be read, for the margin has been destroyed. The part still legible reads Lutf Allāh, though the second part of the name is conjectural.

The text is written in a small, compact naskh script. The text area has been frame-ruled. Two different hands were involved, one (fols. 48b-133b) is more careful and precise than the other, the latter (fols. 1-48a) using a blacker ink and many ligatures. The hand copying fols. 48b-133b used an ink that is browner. There are headings in red and catchwords (many cut off with the edges were trimmed). The black overlinings were added later as were the large black marginal headings. The text has been collated (collation notes on fols. 42a, 59a, etc), and there are marginal corrections and annotations in several hands. On fol. 55b the text on the lower third of the page is written vertically.

The beige, semi-glossy paper is severely waterdamaged around the edges, where the paper has become quite brown. The paper is also wormeaten and brittle. The edges have been trimmed from their original size. Fols. 1-3 are loose. The two loose unnumbered leaves at the end of the volume are of a different paper from the rest of the volume.

The volume consists of 133 leaves and two unnumbered loose leaves placed at the end of the volume. Recipes and miscellaneous notes were written on fol. 133b by a later hand. The pastedowns , and the two loose unnumbered sheets at the end of the volume, have miscellaneous poetry, blessings, and notes (one dated 1249 [= 1833-4], and geomantic generation lines and tableaus, all written in later hands.

Binding

The volume is bound with covers formed from old manuscript pages. There is a cloth spine.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1962 from Dr. Lufti M. Sa'di of Detroit.

Formerly NLM MS A 17a

Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī (MS A 87, item 12): (The Comprehensive Book on the Art of Curing); كتاب الحاوى فى علم التداوى; by Maḥmūd ibn Ḍiyā’ al-Dīn Ilyās Najm al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1330/730); نحم الدين محمود ابن ضياء الدين الياس الشيرازى

Physical Description

Arabic. 3 leaves (fols. 140b-142a). Dimensions 23.2 x 15.8; text area 16.5 x 12; 23 lines per page. The title is given as Kitāb al-Hawī (The Comprehensive Book) on fol. 140b, line 16 and on fol. 141a, line 1. The author is given on fol. 140b, line 16, and on fol. 141a, line 1, as al-Shaykh Ilyās al-Shirazi.

These three leaves contain fragments, or selections, from the Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī by Najm al-Din al-Shirazi.

The copy is undated. The general appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the 18th century.

The text is written in a small naskh script (Turkish hand?). Although the text begins on line 16 of fol. 140b, immediately after the previous item in the volume finished at line 15, this item appears to have been copied by a different copyist. Black ink, with no rubrications. There are extensive marginalia and interlinear notes.

The ivory paper is thick and stiff, with visible laid lines and single chain lines (no evident watermarks). Black ink.

The volume consists of 186 leaves. It is a mixed volume with 18 different items in it, copied by at least two different copyists. Item 1 (fols. 1a-3b) is an anonymous alchemical fragment (MS A 87, item 1), item 2 (fols. 4a-54a) is the abridgement of a treatise called al-Bayān by Ibn Jazlah (MS A 87, item 2), and item 3 (fols. 54b-64b) extracts from al-Bayān [by Ibn Jazlah] (MS A 87, item 3). Item 4 (fols. 65b-68a) is an anonymous, untitled essay on stones (MS A 87, item 4), item 5 (fols. 68b-74a) an anonymous collection of therapeutic procedures (MS A 87, item 5), and item 6 (fols. 74a-75b) on regimen for infants, extracted from Kitāb al-Bayān [? Ibn Jazlah] (MS A 87, item 6). Item 7 (fols. 76a-96b) is the anonymous treatise on materia medica (MS A 87, item 7); item 8 (fols. 97a-100a) an anonymous tract on medicinal oils (MS A 87, item 8), and item 9 (fols. 100b-121a) a magical-medical treatise by Ibn Tūmart al-Maghribī (MS A 87, item 9). Item 10 (fols. 121b-125a) is an anonymous alphabetical list of medicaments (MS A 87, item 10), and item 11 (fols. 125b-140b) is the commentary on an identified "poem on the principles of the art of medicine" (MS A 87, item 11). Item 12 (fols. 140b-142a) contains selections from Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī ‘ilm al-tadāwī here catalogued, and item 13 (fols. 142b-157b, 159a-172a) is an untitled anonymous treatise in five chapters on medicine, magic, and divination (MS A 87, item 13). Item 14 (fols. 172b-174a) is an anonymous tract on divination (MS A 87, item 14), item 15 (fols. 174b-175a) untitled extracts from medical writings (MS A 87, item 15), and item 16 (fols. 175a-181b) is an anonymous astrological treatise (MS A 87, item 16). Item 17 (fols. 182a-184b) is an anonymous treatise titled Dā'ir muḥibb fī ‘ilm al-ṭibb , on magical medicine (MS A 87, item 17), while the final item, item 18 (fols. 185a-186b), is an anonymous essay on the numerical values of letters and magic squares (MS A 87, item 18).

Binding

The volume is bound in pasteboards covered with brown leather, over which light-brown paper has been placed on the covers. There is a recent brown leather spine. The paper pastedowns are contemporary with the manuscript and are covered with miscellaneous notes.

Provenance

There is an owner's signature dated 1268 [= 1851-2] on fol. 3b of the volume, and there are several owners notes on fol. 4a.

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda, who acquired it fram a dealer in Sanaa, the Yemen (ELS 2369).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., pp. 326-7 entry A87 (this item not described).

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-129 no. 4