Kitāb al-Tashīl wa-al-taqrīb fī al-ḥall wa-al-tarkīb كتاب التسهيل والتقريب في الحل والتركيب Majdī, Aḥmad ibn Rajab مجدي، أحمد بن رجب

Content

Astronomical handbook also known more fully as Simplification and Clarification Concerning Analysis and Compilation (التسهيل والتقريب في بيان طرق الحل والتركيب) on the calculation of planetary trajectories, by the Cairene astronomer and muwaqqit (timekeeper) Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Rajab ibn Ṭaybughā al-Majdī al-Shāfiʿī (شهاب الدين أبو العبّاس أحمد بن رجب بن طيبغا المجدي الشافعي, d. 1447), known as Ibn al-Majdī.

The present incomplete copy was transcribed from a manuscript which was itself copied by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Wafāʾī al-Mutaʿānī (عبد العزيزبن محمد الوفائي المتعاني, d. 1471 or 1474/75), a disciple of Ibn al-Majdī, from the latter's unfinished holograph rough draft (مسودة) which broke off at the entry on the planet Mercury (عطارد, see below f. 46v, fore edge margin). Further losses are indicated in a marginal note (see f. 4r).

A marginal note on f. 1v relates an authorial statement, presumably missing from the incomplete text of this copy, stating that the work was conceived as a didactic teaching aid on the analysis of zīj tables (فيقول [...] إني أردت أن أضع دستورا كافيا في حل الزيجات حتى يكون ذلك وسيلة للطلاب...).

The last page of text contains a reading certificate testifying to the transmission of the text by al-Wafāʾī to one of his own students, the son of Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Ṣufī (شمس الدين محمد بن أبي الفتح الصوفي, d. ca. 899/1494), here given the nisbah al-Kutubī (الكتبي). The certificate, dated 20 Jumādá I 875/14 November 1470 (see f. 46v, lines 23-24), follows immediately after the main text in a different hand, presumably that of Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Taqī al-Dīn al-Baṣrī (سليمان بن محمد بن أحمد بن تقي الدين البصري) who names himself in the certificate in humble terms. Another individual named as Ibn Fatḥ Allāh (بن فتح الله, f. 46v, line 24) may have been the scribe of the main text. Sulaymān al-Baṣrī is also mentioned in a partially-obscured note dated 1085/1674-5 (f.1r).

The colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. date of 10 Jumādá II 886/6 August 1481 may therefore refer to a subsequent process of collating the text (f. 46v, fore edge margin).

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

فصل في تقويم الكواكب السبعة بطريق الأصل وكيفية حلها

وتركيب جداولها والعمل بها أما تقويم الشمس بالأصل فيه أن تحصل

وسطها وأوجها للوقت المفروض ثم أسقط الأوج من الوسط

يبق الخاصة...

Ends (f. 46v, lines 5-6):

وهكذا إلى أن يكون في السطر التاسع والأربعين امرلٮ مح نٮ وليكن ذلك

آخر المجموعة والله أعلم بالصواب

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 46v, fore edge margin):

هذا آخر ما وُجد في المسودة بخطه رحمه الله تعالى وبقي الكلا[م] على عطارد فقط وهو مقيس على غيره من الكواكب كذا نقل من نسخة بخط الشيخ عبد العزيز

رحمه الله وذكر أنه نقل ذلك على هذه الصورة من نسخة بخط المصنف والله تعالى أعلم تمت بحمد لله وعونه وحسن توفيقه في يوم الأربعاء المبارك عشر من

شهر جمادى الآخر عام ست وثمانين وثمانمائة

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+47

Physical characteristics

Material: A mixture of Eastern laid papers

Dimensions: 180 x 136mm leaf [123 x 90mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; lines per page vary from 19 to 23; vertical spacing 15 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh ; the scribe is Ibn Fatḥ Allāh (بن فتح الله ح, f. 46v, line 24)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings

Decoration: None

Binding: Brown leather binding with all-over stamped floral pattern on a dotted background; spine reinforced with black leather strip.

Condition: Waterstains and grubby marks throughout; ff. 1-5 affected by creasing and tears and repaired with tape and gauze

Marginalia: Few; some marginal notes and corrections

Seals: British Museum stamps (ff. 1v and 47v)

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 11864

History of this record

Date(s)

10 Jumādá II 886 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Provenance

• Partially-obscured note relating that shaykh Muḥammad al-Kutubī [?] and shaykh Abū al-ʿIzz al-Mu[?]ṣ al-Mashhadī read the text to al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Aramūnī (الشيخ محمد الكـتبي [؟] والشيخ أبو العز المـ[...]ـص المشهدي قر[ؤ]وا على السيد الشريف الأرموني, f. 1r)

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from E. R. Sasson, 24 December 1948

Related material

Select Bibliography

Studies:

• Brentjes, Sonja, 'Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi on Muwaqqits, Mu'adhdhins, and the Teachers of Various Astronomical Disciplines in Mamluk Cities in the Fifteenth Century', in Emilia Calvo et al. (eds), A Shared Legacy: Islamic Science East and West (Barcelona, 2008), pp. 129-50
• Charette, François, “Ibn al‐Majdī: Shihāb al‐Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Rajab Ibn Ṭaybughā al‐Majdī al‐Shāfiʿī,” ed. Thomas Hockey, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (New York: Springer, 2007), pp. 561-2
• De Block, Fien, 'Al-Zīj al-Jadīd as an Instrument for Timekeeping in Fifteenth-Century Cairo: The Materiality of Bodleian MS Arch. Seld. A 30', Mamluk Studies Review, 24 (2021), 103-18
• Fazlıoğlu, İhsan, “Ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ al‐Ṣūfī: Shams al‐Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ al‐Ṣūfī,” in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Thomas Hockey (New York: Springer, 2007), p. 547
• King, David A., 'A Treatise on the Compilation of Planetary Ephemerides', in A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library (Winona Lake, 1986), p. 72

Subjects

Astronomy--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad WafāʾīAḥmad ibn Rajab Ibn al-MajdīMuḥammad al-Ṣūfī

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Kitāb al-Tashīl wa-al-taqrīb fī al-ḥall wa-al-tarkīb كتاب التسهيل والتقريب في الحل والتركيب Majdī, Aḥmad ibn Rajab مجدي، أحمد بن رجب, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 11864, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/node/9574> [accessed 17 June 2024]

Link to this record

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