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Kitāb Tarākīb al-anwār كتاب تراكيب الأنوار Ṭughrāʾī, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī طغرائي، الحسين بن علي
Scope & Content:
An influential alchemical treatise by Muʾayyad al-Dīn abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭughrāʾī (d. 515 AH/AD 1121), a high-ranking Seljuq vizier and the most important alchemist of his time. The text was copied in early Raǧab 925 (June/July 1519) at Damascus by Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ād...
An introduction to the principles of alchemy spuriously ascribed to Democritus. This Democritus is not the atomist philosopher of Abdera, but the Greek alchemical authority of the same name, sometimes equated with Bolos of Mendes. The text’s style and content suggest that it is not, in fact, a G...
Selections from Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ (كتاب الملخص) concerning physics Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar رازي، فخر الدين محمد بن عمر
Scope & Content:
A collection of fifteen or more extracts taken from Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (AD 1149/50-1210) Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī al-falsafah. The extracts all deal with physics, and cover such subjects as ‘that movement is either caused by fleeing what is unnatural or seeking what is natural’ (f. 67v, line 1...
Selections from al-Rāzī’s al-Kutub al-Ithná ‘asharah (الكتب الإثنى عشرة) Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā رازي، أبو بكر محمد بن زكريا
Scope & Content:
A summary of Books Two, Three, Six, Seven, and Nine of the Twelve Books (الكتب الإثنى عشرة) of the physician and philosopher Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā al-Rāzī (أبو بكر محمد بن زكريا الرأزي; d. ca 925), his most complete exposition of the art of chemistry. In this copy, the summary of Book S...
Extracts from Kitāb fī Maʿrifat al-ḥajar (كتاب في معرفة الحجر) Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn أحمد بن الحسين، ابن وحشية
Scope & Content:
Extracts from Kitāb fī Maʿrifat al-ḥajar (كتاب في معرفة الحجر) attributed to Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī ibn Qays al-Kasdānī (أبو بكر أحمد بن علي بن قيس الكسداني), known as Ibn Waḥshiyah (ابن وحشية; fl. first half of the 10th century). The passages extracted relate the opinions on alchemical matters...
Excerpts from a commentary on the poem of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Tammām al-ʿIrāqī (عبد العزيز ابن تمام العراقي) Anonymous
Scope & Content:
An anonymous and untitled commentary on the alchemical didactic poem al-Qaṣīdah al-nūnīyah by Abū al-Iṣbaʿ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Tammām al-ʿIrāqī (fl. late 4th AH/AD 10th century). Sezgin lists manuscripts of five commentaries on this poem (GAS 4, p. 290; see also Ullmann, 1972, p. 220). Begins (ff...
Excerpts from a commentary on the alchemical poem Shudhūr al-dhahab (شذور الذهب)
Scope & Content:
Excerpts from an anonymous and unattributed commentary on the alchemical poem Shudhūr al-dhahab by Abū Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mūsá ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Ibn Khalaf al-Anṣārī al-Jayyānī al-Andalusī, known as Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (died 593 AH/AD 1197). The title in full is given as follows (f. 98r, 11-15): في...
Excerpts from the Risālah fī al-Ṣināʿah al-falsafīyah (رسالة في الصناعة الفلسفية) al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Bukhārī al-Naqshabandī السيد الشريف البخاري النقشبندي
Scope & Content:
Excerpts from the Risālah fī al-Ṣināʿah al-falsafīyah by al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Bukhārī al-Naqshabandī, a native of Constantinople (see scribal correction above line 2, f. 111r). The compiler explains his method of abridgement and tells us a bit more about this unknown author in a note appended ...
Kitāb al-Wāfī fī al-Tadbīr al-kāfīكتاب الوافي في التدبير الكافي Maṣmūdī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad مصمودي، محمد بن أحمد
Scope & Content:
A general treatise on practical chemistry, composed in Tilimsān in 897 AH/AD 1492 (see Ullmann, 1972, p. 245) by Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Maṣmūdī (محمد بن أحمد المصمودي). The text was copied on 27 Ramaḍān 1177 AH (30 March AD 1764) at Algiers by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣilī (محمد بن سليمان المو...
Works in Javanese by Kyai Haji Ahmad Rifa‘i of Kalisalak
Scope & Content:
Works by Kyai Haji Ahmad Rifa‘i of Kalisalak (1786-1876). Ahmad Rifa‘i established his pĕsantren at Kalisalak after spending 1833-41 in Mecca, and was exiled by the Dutch colonial regime to Ambon in 1859, where he died. A: ff. 1r.-48r. Nazham tazkiyyah, by Haji Ahmad al-Rifa‘i ibn Muhammad Ma...
