Sharḥ fuṣūl Abuqrāṭ شرح فصول أبقراط Ibn al-Nafīs, ʻAlī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm ابن النفيس، علي بن أبي الحزم

Content

Commentary by ‘Alā’ al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm al-Qurashī (علاء الدين علي بن أبي الحزم القرشي), known as Ibn al-Nafīs (ابن النفيس, d. 1288) on the Aphorisms (كتاب الفصول) of Hippocrates (أبقراط, d. ca 370 BC).

The manuscript is defective at end, terminating abruptly during Aphorism 55, the penultimate aphorism of Book Seven (cf. ed. Tytler, 1832, p. 65).

The title is found on f. 1r.

The folios after f. 104 were previously bound in a different order as may be seen by the note on f. 107v, which was previously the final folio (f. 161) when the folios were counted at the time of the manuscript's acquisition in April 1901. By January 1909, the folios had been rebound in their present order (see note at foot of f. 161v). Thirteen unfoliated, blank leaves have been bound into the manuscript to mark missing folia, one of which has become detached and now rests between the left board and end flyleaf.

Contents:

Following the arrangement of the Aphorisms, the commentary is divided into 7 books (مقالات):

المقالة الأولى (Book 1; ff. 1v-43r);

المقالة الثانية (Book 2; ff. 43r-70v);

المقالة الثالثة (Book 3; ff. 70v-102v);

المقالة الرابعة (Book 4; begins on f. 102v-defective at end);

المقالة الخامسة (Book 5; defective at beginning-125v);

المقالة السادسة (Book 6; ff. 125v-145v);

المقالة السابعة (Book 7; ff. 145v-161v defective at end).

Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-7):

قال الشيخ علاء الدين

علي ابن أبي الحرم القرشي

إن ما قد سلف من شروحنا لهذا الكتاب

فإن نسخة تختلف بحسب إختلاف أغراض

الطالبين وهذه النسخة إنما نتبع فيها ما نراه

لائقًا بالشروح ورائقًا في التصنيف ...

Ends (f. 161v, lines 10-13 defective at end):

... قال أبقراط

من كان لحمه رطبًا فينبغي أن يجوع فإن

الجوع يجفف الأبدان، التفسير

اللحم الرطب هو الرهل ومن كان لحمه كذلك

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+161+i

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 175 x 120 mm leaf [120 x 85 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 13 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum half-leather binding

Condition: Insect damage, many leaves mutilated and repaired with minimal loss of text, tide marks towards head

Marginalia: Very few

Seals: None

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 5914

History of this record

Date(s)

14th century (CE, Gregorian)

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from David Fetto, 13 April 1901

Related material

Finding aids

• Ellis, A.G. and Edward Edwards, A Descriptive List of the Arabic Manuscripts Acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894 (London: British Museum, 1912), p. 42
• Hamarneh, Sami, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library (Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte, 1975), Item 240, pp. 196-7

Select Bibliography

Edition of text commented upon:

• Hippocrates, الفصول الابقراطية The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, Translated into Arabic by Honain ben Ishak, Physician to the Caliph Motawakkul , ed. by John Tytler (Calcutta: The Education press, 1832)

Studies:

• Karimullah, Kamran, 'Transformation of Galen’s Textual Legacy from Classical to Post-Classical Islamic Medicine: Commentaries on the Hippocratic Aphorisms', Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 5.3 (2017) 311-58
• Pormann, Peter and Kamran Karimullah, 'The Arabic Commentaries on the Hippocratic Aphorisms: Introduction', Oriens: Journal of the International Society for Oriental Research 45.1-2 (2017), 1-52
• Rosenthal, Franz, '"Life Is Short, the Art Is Long": Arabic Commentaries on the First Hippocratic Aphorism', Bulletin of the History of Medicine 40, 1966, p. 226-45
• Ullmann, Manfred, Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1970), pp. 172-3

Subjects

Medicine--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Hippocrates'Alī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm Ibn al-Nafīs

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Sharḥ fuṣūl Abuqrāṭ شرح فصول أبقراط Ibn al-Nafīs, ʻAlī ibn Abī al-Ḥazm ابن النفيس، علي بن أبي الحزم, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 5914, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100054481745.0x000001> [accessed 19 April 2024]

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