Abstract: This manuscript is a commentary on Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ṭūsi's al-Tadhkira fī al-‘ilm al-hay’a (Memoir on astronomy). Written in the second half of the 13th century, Ṭūsi's work was hugely influential for subsequent generations of astronomers in the Islamic world, and several of the commentaries on it became popular in their own right. This commentary is by Niẓām al-Dīn Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-A‘raj al-Nīsābūrī al-Qummī (died after 1311). In the introduction to his work, which the author himself entitles Tauḍīḥ al-Tadhkira (Elucidation of the Memoir), al-Nīsābūrī praises Ṭūsi's work as possessing a wealth of riches, including the most important thoughts of the moderns and a summary of the views of the ancients. He adds that in writing his commentary, he undertook to include the entire text of Ṭūsi's work, and that the figures in the original text would be rendered in black, whereas those of the commentary would be drawn in red in order to make it possible to “distinguish the [individual] viewpoints.” Al-Nīsābūrī could trace his intellectual lineage to Ṭūsi via his own teacher, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd Quṭb al-Shīrazī (1226–1311), who is often cited as the most outstanding student of Ṭūsi. In addition to this work, al-Nīsābūrī wrote commentaries on Ṭūsi's Taḥrīr al‐Majisṭī (Recension of the Almagest), his Sī faṣl dar ma‘rifat-i taqwīm (Thirty chapters on the science of the calendar), and his Zīj-i Ilkhāni (The Īlkhānid astronomical handbook). The colophon of the present manuscript lists the date of completion as the first day of Rabī‘ al-awwal of the year 711 AH (July 18, 1311), which was shortly after the death of Quṭb al-Shīrazī. Scholars have claimed that Tauḍīḥ al-Tadhkira Tauḍīḥ was the most important text at Ulugh Beg's madrasah in Samarkand for the study of al-Tadhkira fī al-‘ilm al-hay’a.Physical description: (Number of lines: 19) : drawings ; 19 x 13.5 centimeters
Abstract: This astronomical manuscript is comprised of notes by al-Birjandi on a treatise by Qadi’zadah, which is itself a commentary on a work by al-Jighmini entitled al-Mulkhkhas fi al-hay’ah (Précis of astronomy). The manuscript is thus the work of three scientists specializing in mathematics and astronomy. Included are extensive hashiyah (marginal notes) on Qadi’zadah’s sharh (commentary) on the principles of astronomy by al-Jighmini. The manuscript first covers the principles of geometry necessary for the study of the heavens. There follows extensive coverage of the position of celestial bodies in relation to the earth and the seasons. The three authors demonstrate the vitality from the 13th to the 17th centuries of what is called “Arab” astronomy. Research was passed from generation to generation and from academy to academy. But the work also reminds us that what is often termed “Arab science” is in fact a body of knowledge created by scholars from many lands who wrote in Arabic, the lingua franca of the learned. For example, astronomer-mathematician Qadi’zadah was born in Turkish-speaking Bursa, a city west of Istanbul. He moved to the Timurid city of Samarkand in Central Asia, where Persian and Turkish were commonly spoken but where scientific writing was largely in Arabic. Qadi’zadah wrote little, but his commentary was frequently copied and used as a textbook in many parts of the Islamic world. The central text is copiously annotated and there are a few geometric illustrations in the margins. The colophon mentions that the work was copied by Mustafa ibn ‘Ali al-Buluni (sic). On the front leaves are ownership statements and poetic couplets in Persian; on the back flyleaves is a long comment on the characteristics of fixed stars. None of the three works has been edited and published in a critical edition.Physical description: 102 pages ; 21 x 15 centimeters
Abstract: This work is a commentary on Mulahhas fī al-Hay'a Al-Basīta (The compendium of plain astronomy), a treatise on theoretical astronomy by Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad Jighmīnī. A renowned Persian mathematician and astronomer, Jighmīnī was born in the village of Jaghmīn, in the region of Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan. He died circa 1221 during the cataclysmic Mongol conquest of Khwarizm. Several popular commentaries were written on his treatise. On the cover of this manuscript a handwritten note from a previous owner states: “This is a commentary of the 'Handbook of al-Jighmīnī' on astronomy, which has been rendered by Al-sayyid Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī for the Sultan Ulugh Beg ibn Shāhrukh ibn Amīr Taymūr Gurkān, may the Lord bless them all.” The attribution of this commentary to Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī creates a chronological problem, as the only known astronomer of this name flourished more than a century and a half before Ulugh Beg's era. The misattribution of the work is confirmed by the text of the manuscript itself, which clearly is a copy of the very popular commentary by Qāḍīzāda al-Rūmī (Ṣalāh al-Din Mūsā ibn Muḥammad, 1364–1436). Qāḍīzāda was one of the principal astronomers working at the celebrated Samarqand observatory under the patronage of the astronomer and ruler Ulugh Beg. Indeed, one of Qāḍīzāda's surviving works is a commentary on Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī's Ashkāl al-ta’sīs (Forms of foundation), which Qāḍīzāda also dedicated to Ulugh Beg. It is not clear how the name of the author of the work for which Qāḍīzāda wrote a commentary came to be associated with Qāḍīzāda's commentary on Jighmīnī's work. The manuscript is executed in Nasta‘liq script, with numerous figures, in black and red ink, and it contains copious marginal notes in Arabic.Physical description: 82 pages ; 11.5 x 20.5 centimeters
ملخص: مجلد مجمع يضم نصين أحدهما عن صناعة الأسطرلاب والآخر عن التنجيم.نُسخ النص الأول في منتصف شهر جمادى الأولى ١٠٥٦هـ\نهاية يونيو ١٦٤٦م، بينما اكتمل الناسخ غياث الدين محمد بن حسن بيك منجم النص الثاني في ١٨ شوال ١٠٦١هـ\٤ أكتوبر ١٦٥١ (انظر حرد المتن، ص. ٣٢ظ، السطر ٩، المنسوخ أدناه)، كما يوجد ختم ملكيته وتذييله في ص. ١٤و.أدخلت الجداول والرسوم البيانية والتمارين على كتابة الخط الموجودة في صص. ١١-١٣ في المجلد.المحتويات:(١) رساله در صنعت اسطرلاب (صص. ٢ظ-٩و)؛(٢) كوشيار بن لبان، "كتاب المجمل في أحكام النجوم" (صص. ١٤ظ-٣٢ظ).ملخص: Composite volume containing two texts on the manufacture of the astrolabe and on astrology.The first text was copied in the middle of Jumādá I 1056/end of June 1646, while the second was completed on 18 Shawwāl 1061/4 October 1651 by the scribe Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Bīk Munajjim, 'the astronomer' (غياث الدين محمد بن حسن بيك منجم, see colophon, f. 32v, line 9 transcribed below), whose ownership stamp and inscription is also found on f. 14r.The tables, graphs, and calligraphic exercises found on ff. 11-13 are inserted into the volume.Contents:(1) Anonymous treatise on the construction of the astrolabe [رساله در صنعت اسطرلاب] (ff. 2v-9r);(2) Kūshyār ibn Labbān (كوشيار بن لبان),
Kitāb al-mujmal fī aḥkām al-nujūm(كتاب المجمل في أحكام النجوم; ff. 14v-32v).الوصف المادي: المادة: ورق مسلّك شرقي وورق نسج استخدم للإصلاحات والمدخلات.الأبعاد: حجم الورقة ١٩٠ x ٣٣٠ مم [مساحة كتابة النص الأول ٢٧٥ x ١٠٥ مم؛ مساحة كتابة النص الثاني ٢٧٠ x ١٣٠ مم]ترقيم الأوراق: ترقيم المتحف البريطاني بالقلم الرصاص؛ ترقيم مكتبة مكتب الهند بالقلم الرصاص (ملغى)؛ ترقيم عربي شرقي في الهامش العلوي من صفحة الظهر (صص. ٢ظ-٣٢ظ باستثناء المدخلات، صص. ٢٣، ٢٦).التسطير: مسطرة؛
٢٩ سطرًا في كل صفحة؛ مسافة تباعد عمودية ١١ سطرًا لكل ١٠ سمالخط: نستعليق بأياد مختلفة؛
ناسخ النص الثاني هو غياث الدين محمد بن حسن بيك منجم (انظر حرد المتن، ص. ٣٢ظ، السطر ٩)الحبر: حبر أسود، مع تحمير العناوين والخطوط الأفقية أعلى النصالزخرفة: لا يوجدالتجليد: تجليد من الجلد البني الفاتح الخالصالحالة: حواف الأوراق تالفة وجرى إصلاحها بكثافة؛ أدخلت الورقتان ٢٣ و٢٦؛ بعض التلطيخ وبقع الحبرالحاشية: توجد ملاحظات هامشية وتصحيحات بشكل متقطع. بعض الملاحظات بالقلم الرصاص (مثل ص. ١٦ظ)الأختام: صص. ٢و، ١٤و، ٣٢ظالوصف المادي: Material: Eastern laid paper with wove paper used for repairs and inserts.Dimensions: 190 x 330 leaf [first text: 275 x 105 written; second text: 270 x 130 written]Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; India Office Library foliation in pencil (cancelled); Eastern Arabic foliation on verso head margins (ff. 2v-32v excluding inserts, ff. 23 and 26).Ruling:
Misṭarah; 29 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cmScript:
Nastaʿlīqin different hands; the scribe of the second text is Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Bīk Munajjim, 'the astronomer' ( غياث الدين محمد بن حسن بيك منجم, see colophon, f. 32v, line 9)Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in redDecoration: NoneBinding: Plain light brown leather bindingCondition: Paper edges damaged and heavily restored throughout; ff. 23 and 26 are inserted; some stains and smudges throughoutMarginalia: Intermittent marginal notes and corrections. Some notes in pencil (e.g., f. 16v)Seals: ff. 2r, 14r and 32v