Catalogue: Pharmaceutics

Kitāb al-Aghdhiyah wa-al-ashribah (MS A 82, item 1)

(The Book of Food and Drink)

كتاب الاغذيه والاشربه

by Abū Ḥamid Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn ‘Umar Najīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 1222/619 H)

ابو حامد محمد ابن على ابن عمر نجيب الدين السمرقندى

Kitāb al-Aghdhiyah wa-al-ashribah (The Book of Food and Drink) was one of the essays making up the compilation referred to under the title: al-Najibiyat al-Samarqandiyah.

For other copies, see Ullmann, Medizin, p. 202 note 1; and A.Z. Iskandar, 'A study of al-Samarqandi's medical writings', Le Museon, vol. 85 (1972), p. 458 note 57. For five copies in Turkey, see Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, editor, Fihris al-makhtutat al-tibb al-Islami bi-l-lughat al-‘arabiyah wa-al-turkiyah wa-al-farisiyah fi maktabat turkiya; Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts (in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian) in the Libraries of Turkey, prepared by Ramazan Sesen, Cemil Akpinar, and Cevad Izgi (Istanbul: Research Centre of Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1984), pp. 375.

Illustrations

The front cover is made of red leather over pasteboards. It has a blind-stamped central medallion, scalloped and with internal vegetal design. Blind quadrant lines and diagonals, decorated with S-stamps radiate from the central design. The wide frame is formed of blind fillets on either side of blind-tooled S-stamps.

Physical Description

Arabic. 87 leaves (fols. 1a-87a). Dimensions: 21 x 14.7 (text area 15.5 x 8) cm; 21 lines per page. The author's name appears for this item on the title page (fol. 1a) as Najib al-Din al-Samarqandī. The title Kitāb al-Aghdhiyah wa-al-ashribah (The Book of Food and Drink) appears in the colophon (fol. 87a line 6).

The copy is dated in the colophon on fol. 87a (lines 8-10): 3 Dhu al-Hijjah 1012 (= 3 May 1604) where the copyist's name is given as Muḥammad ibn Gharīb al-Ṣūfī, though the last part of the name is not certain and the preceding word, Gharīb, has been defaced and rewritten.

The text is written in a small, careful, and consistent naskh script, in dense black ink with headings in red. The text area has been frame-ruled. There are catchwords.

There are some marginal corrections, apparently by the scribe, and a few other marginal notes.

The entire volume is written on the same type of paper. It is a glossy ivory paper with vertical laid lines, single chain lines and is watermarked (with initials NC and with small grapes). There is water damage across the top and at the corners.

The volume consists of 202 leaves. Fol. 87b has two later notes giving recipes. Fols. 88ab and 89a are blank. Fol. 202b contains miscellaneous later therapeutic notes and recipes, in Arabic and Turkish. The entire volume is written on the same type of paper. Item 1 (fols. 1a-87a) is Najīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī's Kitāb al-Aghdhiyah wa-al-ashribah is here catalogued; item 2 (fols. 89b-176b) is his Kitāb al-Qarābādhīn ‘alá tartīb al-‘ilal (MS A 82, item 2), item 3 (fols. 177b-201a) his Kitāb al-Aghdhiyat al-marḍá (MS A 82, item 3), and item 4 (fols. 201b-202a) is the al-Risālah fī al-as’ilah al-ṭabī‘īyah al-Ḥārithīyah (MS A 82, item 4).

Binding

The front cover is made of red leather over pasteboards. It has a blind-stamped central medallion, scalloped and with internal vegetal design. Blind quadrant lines and diagonals, decorated with S-stamps radiate from the central design. The wide frame is formed of blind fillets on either side of blind-tooled S-stamps. The spine and back cover are recent red-leather replacements. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

There are owners' notes on fol. 1a (not dated).

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Damietta, Egypt. According to A.S. Yahuda's notes, he assigned to the manuscript the number ELS 1691 Med. 20 - a number also written in the volume.

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. in incun. & MSS. p. 324, entry A82 no. 1. Hamarneh, 'NLM', p. 99-100.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-127 no. 6.