Kitāb al-ta‘dīl fī al-hay’ah كتاب التعديل في الهيئة Maḥbūbī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd محبوبي، عبيد الله بن مسعود

Content

Commentary by ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd al-Maḥbūbī al-Bukhārī al-Ḥanafī (عبيد الله بن مسعود المحبوبي البخاري الحنفي, d. 1346 or 47) known as Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa al-Thānī (صدر الشريعة الثاني) on his own treatise on astronomy. The treatise, without commentary, formed the third and final part of his encyclopaedia of sciences known as the Adjustment of the Sciences (تعديل العلوم). The composition of the text was completed at noon on Wednesday 6 Rabī‘ II 747/26 July 1346, in the shrine or district of Shara‘ābād (مقام شرعآباد) in Bukhārā (see author's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 70r, lines 18-19, transcribed below).

The lemmata of the text commented upon are indicated by the abbreviation م (= متن), and the commentary is indicated by س or ش (= شرح).

The title page (f. 1r) reads:

كتاب

التعديل في الهيئة

لخان صدر الشريعة

البخاري

The copy was completed at Bukhārā in mid-Rajab 823/mid-July 1420 by Aḥmad b. Sirāj al-Dīn al-Ghijduwānī (أحمد بن سراج الدين الغجدواني), who praises the ruler and well-known patron of mathematics and astronomy Ulugh Beg (ألغ بگ, d. 1449; see scribe's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 70r, transcribed below).

The text contains numerous diagrams, and some spaces have been left blank for diagrams that were never added (see e.g. f. 68v). A slip of paper containing two diagrams of planetary revolutions has been bound into the volume as f. 18.

This copy was used as the primary witness for the edition prepared by Dallal (1995, see p. 4).

Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-4):

م الحمد لله الذي زين السماء بالبروج بعدما أحكم بناءها فقال وزيناها وما لها من فروج

والصلوة على رسوله الذي جعل سراجًا منيرًا ومن نوره مستنيرًا وجعل اله وآله وأصحابه نجومًا

ولشياطين الإنس رجومًا ...

Ends (f. 70r, lines 16-18):

فإذا كان الارتفاع الغربي ذلك المقدار تنصب خشبة أو يعلق شاقول فظل الخشبة أو ظل خيط الشاقول

هو سمت القبلة هذا العمل لا يحتاج إلى الشرح بل يحتاج إلى معرفة الأصطرلاب وبعد معرفة العمل سهل والله

هو المسهل لكل عين ...

Author's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 70r, lines 18-19):

... تم تصنيفه ظهيرة يوم الأربعاء السادس من ربيع الآخر سنة سبع وأربعين

وسبعمائة في مقام شرعآباد من مدينة بخارا صانها الله تعالى مع سائر بلاد المسلمين عن الآفات والمخافات

Scribe's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 70r, written diagonally to main text block, below author's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. ):

تمت كتابته على يد العبد المذنب الجاني

أحمد بن سراج الدين الغجدواني

في أواسط رجب سنة 823

بفاخرة بخارا صينت عن البلايا

وهي من ممالك السلطان الأعظم

والخاقان المكرم العالم بدقائق العلوم والحكم

معين الدين ظهير الدولة أميرزاده

ألغ بيگ كورگان زيد عدله

ورأفته على أصل الإيمان

بمنه وكنه

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. ii+70+ii

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 173 x 125 mm leaf [110 x 80 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; nine quires (eight quaternions and one ternion) with mid- quire Collection of papers folded in half and stitched together to form a gathering of folios. marks and quire Collection of papers folded in half and stitched together to form a gathering of folios. signatures visible on ff. 9r, 17r, 26r, 34r, 42r, 50r, 58r, and 66r

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 19 lines per page; vertical spacing 17 lines per 10 cm

Script: Nasta‘līq ; the scribe is

Aḥmad b. Sirāj al-Dīn al-Ghijduwānī (أحمد بن سراج الدين الغجدواني, see scribe's colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 70r)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings, abbreviations, overlinings and diagrams in red

Decoration: None

Binding: Half-leather binding with marbled paper on boards

Condition: Tidemarks towards head of volume; black ink stain in lower edge corner; some foxing

Marginalia: Annotations by more than one hand

Seals: f. 1r

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 7484

History of this record

Date(s)

mid-Rajab 823 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Provenance

• Ja‘far al-Ḥusayn (جعفر الحسين): his inscription, dated Wednesday 8 Jumādá II 1015/11 October 1606 (f. 1r);
• al-Ḥāj Muḥammad ibn ‘Umar (الحاج محمد بن عمر): his inscription, dated 7 Muḥarram 1165/26 November 1751, and his seal without visible date (f. 1r; the name in the inscription is preceded by the word عبده 'His [i.e. God's] servant', not عبدة 'slave girl' as stated by Dallal 1995, p. 4).

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from Mary Rich (née Mackintosh), widow of Claudius James Rich (1786-1821), Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in Baghdad (1808-21), 25 March 1825

Related material

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 400, pp. 190

Select Bibliography

Edition, translation and study:

• Maḥbūbī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy: Kitāb Taʿdīl hayʾat al-aflāk of Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa , ed. and trans.by Ahmad S. Dallal (Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill, 1995)

Studies:

• Thompson, J.R. Fawcett, 'The Rich Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly 27.1/2 (1963) pp. 18-23
• Cooper, Glen M., 'Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa al-Thānī: ʿUbaydallāh ibn Masʿūd al-Maḥbūbī al-Bukhārī al-Ḥanafī', in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , ed. by Thomas Hockey et al. (New York: Springer, 2007) pp. 1002-3

Subjects

Astronomy--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd Maḥbūbī

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Kitāb al-ta‘dīl fī al-hay’ah كتاب التعديل في الهيئة Maḥbūbī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd محبوبي، عبيد الله بن مسعود, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 7484, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100046067744.0x000001> [accessed 19 April 2024]

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