al-Takmilah fī sharḥ al-tadhkirah التكملة في شرح التذكرة Khafrī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad خفري، محمد بن أحمد

Content

Supercommentary by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Khafrī (شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد الخفري, d. ca 1550) on the Memoir on Astronomy (كتاب التذكرة في الهيئة) by Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274). The text is presented as a completion (تكملة) of an earlier Commentary on Naṣīr's Memoir (شرح التذكرة النصيرية) by ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAli al-Ḥusaynī al-Jurjānī ( علي بن محمد بن علي الحسيني الجرجاني; d. 1413), known as al-Sayyid al-Sharīf (السيد الشريف). The composition of the text was completed on 4 Muḥarram 932/21 October 1525 (see Saliba, 1994, p. 19).

The text contains numerous diagrams, and many unfilled spaces left blank for further diagrams especially towards back of volume. Likewise, only three of the many spaces left blank for rubricated section headings have been filled in (see ff. 65v, 90r and 204v), and the rest have been left blank (see ff. 18v, 49v, 94r, 114r, 118v, 131v, 138v, 145v, 151r, 177v, 181v, 189v, 195r, 229v, 232r, 237v, 240v, 243r, 246r, 248v, 251v, 252v and 257r).

The copy was completed on 24 Dhū al-Ḥijja by Ghulām Muḥammad (غلام محمد) neglects to mention the year (see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 258r, lines 10-12, transcribed below). The year is not mentioned in the colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. as it currently appears, but seems to have been written, then erased and overwritten with the words 'after Friday prayers' (بعد نماز الجمعة).

Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-5):

تعاليت يا ذا العرش الأعلى وما أعظم شأنك وتباركت يا مبدع السموات العلي

وما أجل سلطانك صلى وسلم على سيد الوري وآله أنوار ملك الهدي أما بعد

فيقول الفقير إلى الله الغني محمد ابن أحمد الخفري لما كان أجل العلوم بيانًا وأ[و]ثقها

بيانًا هو علم الهئة الذي انكشف به أسرار المبدعات واتضحت أحوال المضوعات

Ends (f. 258r, lines 6-9):

... هذا انتهى الأبعاد المعلومة المقادير وأما بعد

محدب فلك الأعظم فلا يعلم إلا الله سبحانه وتعالى في بعض النسخ ولنختم الكتاب ههنا حامد

ين الله تعالى ومصليين على نبيه المصطفى وعلى آله الطيبين الطاهرين حسبنا الله

نعم الوكيل

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 258r, lines 10-12):

قد وقع الفراغ عن تكميل التكملة التي صنفها شمس الدين الخفري شرحًا للتذكرة من مصنفات

نصير الدين الطوسي على يد الفقير إلى الله الغني غلام محمد في رابع العشرون

شهر ذوي الحجة يوم الجمعة وقت بعد نماز الجمعة

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+258+i

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 214 x 124 mm leaf [155 x 80 mm written]

Foliation: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. foliation in pencil

Ruling: No ruling visible; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 14 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh ; the scribe is Ghulām Muḥammad (غلام محمد, see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 258r, line 11)

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

Decoration: None

Binding: Western, half-leather binding, both boards covered in marbled paper

Condition: Some repaired insect damage

Marginalia: A moderate amount by many hands (see especially f. 148v)

Seals: Ff. 1r and 258v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IO Islamic 1715

History of this record

Date(s)

18th century (CE, Gregorian)

Provenance

• East India Company Library, its seal (ff. 1r and 258v);
• Three semi-legible seals, one said by Loth to belong to 'a servant of ‘Ālamghīr' (f. 1r).

Immediate source of acquisition

From the library of Richard Johnson (1753-1807), incorporated into the collection of the East India House in 1807.

Related material

Finding aids

Loth, Otto, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. (London: Printed by order of the Secretary of State for India in Council, 1877), Item 747, p. 218

Select Bibliography

Edition and translation on text commented upon:

• Ragep, F. Jamil, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī's Memoir on Astronomy (al-Tadhkira fī ʿilm al-hayʾa) , 2 Vols., (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993)

Studies:

• Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th - 19th c.) , (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003), no. 936, pp. 313-14
• Saliba, George, 'A Sixteenth-Century Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy: The Work of Shams al-Dīn al-Khafrī', Journal for the History of Astronomy 25, (1994), pp. 15-38
• Saliba, George, 'Ḵafri, Šams-al-Din', Encyclopaedia Iranica , XV/4 (2010) pp. 341-43
• Cooper, Glen M., 'Khafrī: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Khafrī al-Kāshī', in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , ed. by Thomas Hockey et al. (New York: Springer, 2007) pp. 263-64

Subjects

Astronomy--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Khafrī'Alī ibn Muḥammad JurjānīNaṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ṭūsī

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al-Takmilah fī sharḥ al-tadhkirah التكملة في شرح التذكرة Khafrī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad خفري، محمد بن أحمد, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, IO Islamic 1715, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100046777069.0x000001> [accessed 7 October 2024]

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