al-Zīj al-mukhtār min al-azyāj الزيج المختار من الأزياج Abū al-ʿUqūl, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad أبو العقول، محمد بن أحمد

Content

Astronomical handbook (زيج) by Abū al-‘Uqūl Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarī (أبو العقول محمد بن أحمد الطبري, fl. ca 1300), teacher of astronomy at the Mu’ayyadīyah Madrasa (المدرسة المؤيدية), in Ta‘izz (تعز), Yemen, under the Rasulid Sultan al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad Dāwūd ibn Yūsuf I (الملك المؤيد داوود بن يوسف, reg. 1296-1321). The zīj is divided into two treatises (مقالتان): Treatise One (المقالة الأولى, ff. 3r-69v) contains the text, while Treatise Two (المقالة الثانية, ff. 70r-199r) contains the tables. Two tables of contents, one for each treatise, are found on f. 2v.

The tenth quire Collection of papers folded in half and stitched together to form a gathering of folios. (ff. 77-84) has been bound upside down. A note in English signed W.C. (= William Cureton?) and bound into the volume as f. 200 contains some basic information about the text and manuscript.

The copy was completed on Saturday 13 Shawwāl 1007/8 May 1599 (see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 119v, line 5, transcribed below).

Begins (f. 3v, lines 2-4):

الحمد لله الذي خلق السبع الطباق ورفع سمكها فسواها وزينها بالكواكب الظاهرة

الإشراق ليهتدي بها في ظلمات والبر والبحر وحلاها وقدر القمر منازل وأنار به الأغساق

وأوضح به معالم الحساب وجلاها وأبان أياته في الأنفس والآفاق ...

Ends (f. 119v, lines 1-4):

وإذ قد أتينا على ما وعدنا به في أول الكتاب فلنختم المقالة الثانية بما بدأنا به فنقول المحد لله

الذي ليس له كفوء ولا نظير ولا شريك ولا وزير ولا معين ولا ظهير وصلى الله على رسوله سيدنا

محمد البشير النذير السراج المنير وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين وسلم سلامًا متصلًا إلى يوم

الدين وحسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل ونعم المولى ونعم النصير ...

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 119v, lines 4-5):

... تم الزيجم المختار بعون الله

وحسن توفيقه في يوم السبت ثالث عشر شهر شوال أحد شهور سنة ألف وسبع هجرية على صاحبها وآله وصحبه أفضل الصلاة والتسليم

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. iv+1+i+199+iv

Physical characteristics

Material: Western laid paper

Dimensions: 295 x 200 mm leaf [245 x 140 mm written]

Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink; quire Collection of papers folded in half and stitched together to form a gathering of folios. signatures (quaternions) in the form of Eastern Arabic numerals in black ink, overlined and circled in red are found in upper edge margins of rectos; British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: No ruling visible; 25 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings, punctuation and some elements of tables in red

Decoration: Calligraphic title page (f. 3r), first opening (ff. 3v-4r) has text frame in red

Binding: British Museum half-leather binding

Condition: Some foxing and stains, minor insect damage

Marginalia: Some, by more than one hand

Seals: f. 3r

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 3624

History of this record

Date(s)

13 Shawwāl 1007 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Provenance

• Aḥmad [ibn ‘Abd al-Mun‘im] al-Damanhūrī (أحمد [بن عبد المنعم] الدمنهوري, d. 1778), Shaykh al-Azhar (شيخ الأزهر): his inscription recording his endowment of the manuscript to the Mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, and his seal, date illegible (f. 3r; see also notes to the same effect, without seal, in head margin f. 13r and ca every 10th folio thereafter);
• Ottoman seal with ṭughrá , erased and semi-legible (f. 3r).

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased at Sotheby's 8 November 1888

Related material

Finding aids

Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 768, pp. 525-26

Select Bibliography

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. 653, p. 230
• King, David A., 'Abū al-‘Uqūl: Abū al-‘Uqūl Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarī', in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , ed. by Thomas Hockey et al. (New York: Springer, 2007), p. 10

Subjects

Astronomy--TablesAstronomy--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Abū al-‘Uqūl

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al-Zīj al-mukhtār min al-azyāj الزيج المختار من الأزياج Abū al-ʿUqūl, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad أبو العقول، محمد بن أحمد, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 3624, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049326410.0x000001> [accessed 13 May 2024]

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