Four treatises on astronomy and calendrics

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Add MS 7492
  • Dates of Creation
    • 25 Dhū al-Qaʿdah 912
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Persian Turkish
  • Physical Description
    • Codex ii+1+i+47+iii+20+iii. Material: Thin, burnished Western laid paper. Dimensions: 196 x 131mm leaf [133 x 69 mm written]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil (older pencil foliation crossed out on ff. 50r-68r [formerly 49r-67r]); Eastern Arabic foliation in red ink (to f. 48r, end of first text in volume). Ruling: Misṭarah; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 16 lines per 10 cm. Script: Naskh; the scribe is Dadah ibn Muṣṭafá (دده ابن مصطفى, see f. 48r, lines 18-19). Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in red. Decoration: None. Binding: Beige British Museum half leather binding. Condition: Good condition, a few ink stains and smudges. Marginalia: Intermittent marginal notes throughout, interlinear Persian explanations towards front of volume. Seals: ff. 2r and 66v; British Museum stamps: ff. 1r, 31r, 43r, 48v, 58r and 68v.

Scope and Content

Contents:. (1) Sharḥ mukhtaṣar fī maʿrifat al-taqāwīm (شرح مختصر في معرفة التقاويم, ff. 1r-48r); (2) Dar yāftan-i avval-i sāl-i suryāni (در يافتن أول سال سرياني, f. 48v); (3) Anonymous treatise on the calculation of days and months (ff. 49v-52r); (4) al-Abharī (الأبهري), al-Zīj al-shāmil (الزيج الشامل, ff. 52v-66v); According to the colophon to the first text (f. 48r, lines 17-22, the only colophon in the volume), it was completed at noon on Tuesday, 25 Dhū al-Qaʿdah 912/18 April 1507 by the scribe Dadah ibn Muṣṭafá (دده ابن مصطفى), in Amasya (أماسية, in modern-day Turkey). The second text treats the same subject as the third, but is written in Ottoman Turkish.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Mary Rich (née Mackintosh), widow of Claudius James Rich (1786-1821), Political Resident in Baghdad (1808-21), 25 March 1825

Other Finding Aids

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 395, pp. 188-89.