Catalogue: Mathematics

Nazm al-ḥisāb (MS A 86, item 2): (Poem on Arithmetic); نظم الحساب; by Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī (fl. 1694-1719/1106-1132); قوام الدين محمد الحسنى

Five Arabic poems by Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī were collectively titled al-Khamsah al-Qazwiniyah (The Five Qazwini [poems]), a reference to the fact that the author worked in the Persian city of Qazwin. The five poems are concerned with medicine, astronomy, arithmetic, calligraphy, proper conduct. The poem concerned with mathematics is a didactic poem on arithmetic.

The copy at NLM was copied by a professional scribe for the author, whose stamps are in the volume, next to statement that he corrected and collated (balagha) the volume in the year 1132 [= 1719-1720]. Only one other copy of these five poems is recorded, and it is now in Mosul, in Iraq (Mosul, MS 294; see GAL-S, vol. 1 p. 826).

Nazm al-ḥisāb (MS A 86, item 2)

Illustrations

Folio 47b of MS A 86 which begins Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī's Nazm al-ḥisāb (Poem on Arithmetic). The thin, lightly-glossed, brown paper is now quite discoloured. It is fibrous and has inclusions, with horizontal laid lines. The text is written in a medium-small professional calligraphic naskh script using black ink.

MS A 86, fol. 47b

The beginning of a poem on the arithmetic composed in 1700/1112 by Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī, who worked in the Persian city of Qazwin. This copy was made by a professional copyist for the author himself, who placed his stamps in the volume and collated it in the year 1719/1132 H.

Physical Description

Arabic. 26 leaves (fols. 47b-72a). Dimensions 18.2 x 11.5; text area 13.7 x 8.2 cm; 16 lines per page. The title is given on the title page (fol. 1a) and on fol. 47b, line 2, where the author's name is given as Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Mahdi al-Ḥasanī.

It is stated in the poem (fol. 48b, lines 1-2) that the poem was written in the year 1112 [= 1700-1].

The copy is undated, but was produced between 1700/1112, when this poem on arithmetic was written, and the year 1720/1132, when the author wrote, alongside his stamp, that he corrected the volume.

The text is written in a medium-small professional calligraphic naskh script, fully vocalized. The text area has been frame-ruled. There are scattered marginalia and textual corrections. The entire volume was copied by the same scribe. The copy was corrected (balagha) by the author himself in the year 1132 [1719-1720], for there are dated notes alongside the author's stamp later in the volume (fols. 72a and 90b).

The thin, lightly-glossed, brown paper is now quite discoloured. It is fibrous and has inclusions, with horizontal laid lines but no chain lines. It is stained and water damaged near the edges and some folios have been repaired.

The volume consists of 90 leaves. Fols. 46, 47a and 72b are blank. The first item (fols. 1b-45b) is the medical poem; the second item (fols. 47b-72a) is the poem on arithmetic here catalogued; the third item (fols. 73a-79a) a poem on the astrolabe; the fourth item (fols. 79b-83a) a poem on calligraphy; and the final item (fols. 83a-90b) a poem on proper conduct.

Binding

The volume is bound in a modern European library binding of pasteboards covered with brown leather. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was owned by the author, Qiwām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī, whose stamp appears on fols. 72a and 90b, at the end of the second and fifth poems, alongside a hand written note that he corrected (balagha) the volume in the year 1132 [1719-1720].

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda (ELS 1738 Med. 50).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 326 entry A 86, item 2, where it is said that the manuscript is "in the author's own hand."

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-129 no. 3.