Catalogue: Chemical Medicine
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Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān (MS A 30) - (The Culmination of Perfection in the Treatment of the Human Body)
- غاية البيان فى تدبير الانسان
- by Ṣāliḥ ibn Naṣr Allāh al-Ḥalabī Ibn Sallūm (d. 1670/1081)
- صالح ابن نصر الله ابن سلوم الحلبى
This is a complete copy of the version of Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān that is divided into four maqalat, or chapters, the first of which is concerned with the basic principles of medicine, while the second chapter is in two parts concerned with materia medica and with compound remedies. The third chapter of this version discusses diseases associated with specific parts of the body, while the fourth concerned those diseases, such as fevers and skin complaints, not specific to any one part. There is also a brief addendum on the occult properties of certain substances.
Illustrations
The opening of a version of the treatise on chemical medicine titled Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān by Ibn Sallūm (d. 1670/1081). The copy is written in a North African Maghribi script and was completed on 1 Jumadá II 1241 (= 11 January 1826) by the copyist Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Af..?.. al-Ḥanafī. At the top of the page there is an impression of an undated octagonal owner's seal.
This is the colophon of a copy, written in a North African Maghribi script, of the treatise on chemical medicine titled Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān by Ibn Sallūm (d. 1670/1081). The copy is dated 1 Jumadá II 1241 (= 11 January 1826) and the copyist's name (partially illegible) is given as Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Af..?.. al-Ḥanafī.
The covers of this 18th or 19th century Persian/Turkish have a large scalloped mandorla panel stamp and two pendants. The inner panels are filled with intertwined cloudbands, ribbons, flowers, and vines, while the blind-stamped devices are framed by blind-tooled borders of simple fillets. The envelope flap attached to the lower cover has a blind-stamped device identical to one of the pendants on the covers.
Physical Description
Arabic. 91 leaves (fols. 1b-91a [old pp. 1-178]). Dimensions 29 x 19.3 (text area 21.8 x 13) cm; 31 lines per page. No author or title appears in the manuscript; the title is taken from other copies of the text. The author's identity has been established by comparison with NLM MS A 12, which, from fol. 1 line 5, is virtually identical with this manuscript from fol. 1b line 20. A later hand has written on prelim fol. [1a] and fol. 1a, which is otherwise blank, the phrase: Hadha Kitāb Hibat Allāh fī al-tibb (translation: This is the book of Hibat Allāh on medicine); these notes and the statement at the start of the table of contents led Sommer (Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS, p. 307) to suggest that the author of the treatise might be Hibat Allāh Ibn Jumay‘ who died in 1198; this is clearly not the case, as it is a much later treatise citing European seventeenth-century writers, such as Daniel Sennert (fol. 50b).
The copy is dated 1 Jumadá II 1241 (= 11 January 1826) on fol. 91a, lines 4-5. The copyist's name (partially illegible) is given as Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Af..?.. al-Ḥanafī (fol. 91a line 6).
The first maqalah on general principles occupies fols. 1b-11b, the second on simple and compound remedies fols. 11b-39a, the third on diseases of the bodily parts fols. 39a-79a, and the fourth on diseases not associated with one part fols. 79a-90b; an addendum (khatimah) discusses special magical powers of certain substances (fols. 90b-91a).
The text is written in a medium-large North African Maghribi script, using dark-brown ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and the text is written within frames formed of one green and two red lines. There are catchwords. The main text has been paginated in Arabic numerals, recently refoliated in Western numerals.
There are a few marginal notations in Arabic. A recent reader has placed penciled X's in the margins near the names of cited authorities and provided transliterated European names such as Shanaritus for Sennert (fol. 64a).
The opaque, beige paper is matte-finished and has neither laid lines or chain lines visible. There is considerable bleed-through, and there is some foxing. The edges have been trimmed from their original size.
The volume consists of 91 leaves and 5 preliminary ones. Fols. 1a and 91b are blank except for a short title by a later hand on folio 1a. Preliminary fols. [1]a-[3]a are blank except for penciled annotations on [1]a giving author and title. Prelim. fols. [3b] to [5b] contain a guide to the contents of the manuscript, written in the same hand as the main text; this index has the title: Hadha barnamaj mufradat Kitāb Hayat [sic] Allāh al-Hakīm (translation: This is the listing of topics of the book of Hayat Allāh the physician); Sommer transcribed the name as Hibat Allah.
Binding
The volume is bound in an 18th or 19th-century Persian/Turkish binding of dark-red leather over pasteboards. The covers have a large scalloped mandorla panel stamp and two blind-stamped pendants. The inner panels are filled with intertwined cloud-bands, ribbons, flowers, and vines, while the blind-stamped devices are framed by blind-tooled borders of simple fillets. The envelope flap has a blind-stamped device identical to one of the pendants on the covers. The spine is a modern replacement. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.
Provenance
There is on fol. 1b an impression of an undated octagonal owner's seal with the name Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Zarūf al-sharīf.
The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library apparently from A. S. Yahuda.
References
Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A30, p. 307, where author's name given as Hibat Allah ibn Jumai‘.
NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-118 no. 3
