Binding: The volume is bound in a European restored binding incorporating older pasteboard covers. The older covers are covered with dark-red leather, having a blind, oval medallion (floral arabesques and scalloped edges), with pendants; the design on each cover is framed by two gilt fillets enclosing a gilt braid. Part of the original fore-edge flap remains on one of the covers; the envelope flap is now missing. The edges and spine are of recent dark-brown leather. The doublures are of plain brown leather with two gilt frames, and the endpapers are modern.Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldContents note: There are scattered marginalia, mostly written in the same hands as annotated many of the illustrations. The fifth book (maqālah) also has a separate numbering of the individual leaves written in red ink in the upper left corner. On Folio 1a there are later pious statements and invocations written near the illuminated roundel.Decoration: Contains a depiction of Dioscorides and 289 illustrations of medicinal plants.Dimensions: 24.6 × 16.6 cm (size of leaf). 16.8 × 10.8 cm (size of written area).Hand: The text is written in a medium-large professional and consistent Naskh with occasional vocalization, with dark-brown ink and headings in red. The letters ḥāʾ and ʿayn frequently have minuscule letters underneath. Háčeks occur frequently over the letter rāʾ and occasionally over sīn; the letter ﻫ, when an attached pronoun, frequently has a minuscule letter over it.Layout: Written in one column throughout; 15 lines per page; the text area has been frame-ruled.Origin note: Copied in al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmīyah, Baghdad?; 25th Dhū al-Ḥijjah 637. AH; 17th July 1240. CERecord origin: Manuscript description based on NCAM-1 = Emilie Savage-Smith, A New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Volume I: Medicine, University of Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011."An illustrated copy of Iṣṭafan ibn Bāsil's Arabic translation of Books III-V of Dioscorides' Materia Medica. Dioscorides’ Greek treatise on materia medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς)composed of five bookswas translated several times into Arabic. The version most widely circulated was that by Iṣṭafān ibn Bāsil and slightly revised by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (d. 260/873 or 264/877). In the fourth/tenth century an interpretation of the Greek terms left unexplained in the Iṣṭafān/Ḥunayn version was undertaken in Spainwhile in Iran (or possibly Samarqand)the Iṣṭafān translation was revised by al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥasan al-Khurshīd al-Ṭabarī al-Nātilī about 374/985. In the sixth/twelfth centuryanother translation was prepared by Mihrān ibn Manṣūr ibn Mihrān (fl. c. 545/1150) working in Diyārbakr from a Syriac version made in the third/ninth century by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq."
Dimensions: 267 × 184 mm (size of leaf).Although the copy itself attributes this work to Alexander the Great, the it was in fact written by Muḥammad ibn Manglī, fl. 778/1376–7, a Mamluk officer of the guard (hḥalqah) to Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Sha‛bān (reg. 764–78/1362–77). This manuscript is one of the earliest copies of this text.
Binding: Envelope binding.Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldDecoration: 77 miniatures.Record origin: "Manuscript description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team."Fables.
Dimensions: 228 × 142 mm (size of leaf).Record origin: Emile Savage-Smith, A Descriptive Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts at St John’s College Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)MS 122 is a heavily annotated copy of a compendium on the linguistic sciences written by al-Sakkākī. This manuscript was completed on 23 Rajab 732 = 20 April 1332.
Dimensions: 216 × 138 mm (size of leaf).Origin note: Earliest dated owner inscription from 1715.Record origin: Emilie Savage-Smith, A Descriptive Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts at St John’s College Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).MS 370 is a complete copy of all 50 maqāmāt by al-Ḥarīrī. This copy was collated and vocalized by Jarmānūs Farḥāt (1670-1732), a Syrian grammarian.
Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldThis extensive and popular commentary on the Mūjiz composed by by Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 CE) was given the title Ḥall al-Mūjiz because, according to the author, it resolves (yaḥullu) the problems and obscurities that occur in the Mūjiz. The copy was completed on 14 Ṣafar 972 AH/ 18 Sept 1564 CE by al-Laṭīf ibn Shams al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī in the village of Maʿarr Ballīt in Syria.Leaf.
Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldThis extensive and popular commentary on the Mūjiz composed by Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 CE) was given the title Ḥall al-Mūjiz because, according to the author, it resolves (yaḥullu) the problems and obscurities that occur in the Mūjiz. This copy was completed in 906 AH/ 1500−1 CE in al-Madrasah al-Ikhlāṣiyah in Harāt (Herāt) by ’Abd Allāh ibn ’Abd al-Raḥmān al-Shirwānī.Leaf.
Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World"This is a copy of Ḥall al-Mūjiz (The resolution of the Mūjiz) by Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Āqsarā’ī (d. 779/1379). It is an extensive and popular commentary on the Mūjizan epitome of the Ibn Sīnā’s (Avicenna's) Qānūn fī al-ṭibb composed by the Damascene physician Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 687/1288)."'This copy was completed on 9 Jumādá I 883 AH (7 Aug. 1478 CE) by ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Ḥasan al-Kātib. Written diagonally alongside the colophonin red inkis a statement providing the information that it was made in the Gawhar Shad Madrasahwhich was built in Herat in 1417-38 CE. Written diagonally on the right-hand side of the colophonthere is a statement that the volume was collated at the beginning of Jumādá II in 883 AH. Also on this folio there is a marginal note stating that on 12 Ramaḍān 988 AH (21 Oct. 1580 CE) there arrived an order from Constantinople to the effect that Jews and Christians were not to wear turbans but rather to wear high conical hats (taratir)red for Jews and black for Christiansand many turbans were removed throughout the Ottoman territories; however it resulted in many becoming ill because their heads were uncoveredsince it was in the middle of the autumn.'
Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldContents note: 2 vols. The three recensions of the work are not here distinguished.Record origin: "Manuscript description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team."Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān
Full catalogue record in Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldRecord origin: "Manuscript description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team."1 copy of Ḥikāyat al-faras al-abnūs wa-mā jará fīhā.