Cancelled page of Ottoman alchemical poetry Anonymous
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A page of anonymous alchemical poetry in Ottoman Turkish, which has been struck through and cancelled. Its catchword does not match the first word of the following folio. Begins (f. 112v, lines 2-3): گل ای نجم سعادت آفتابی ° اِشِت گل كيبی بو نازک جوابی ندندر سيم وزريا علم كميا ° قوپر هر قطردن...
Anonymous fragment of a treatise on practical chemistry
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Instructions for the production of a distilled ‘hot water’ (ماء حار ; f. 159r, line 23, transcribed below) that can split and dissolve stone. The text begins abruptly and appears to have been copied by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣilī (محمد بن سليمان الموصلي) (see colophon, f. 158v, line 21). B...
Lines 1-9 give instructions for producing false ambergris (عنبر); lines 9-15 give instructions for a distillation process for oil of cloves and roses; and lines 16-17 give brief instructions for the washing of ṭaḥīnah. Begins (f. 159v, lines 1-4): خذ من الشب ٣٠ درهم ومن البارود ٣٠ درهم وقطرهم ...
Risālah nāfi‘ah fī ghāyat al-naf‘ wa-al-nafāsah lam yu‘raf muṣannifuhā رسالة نافعة في غاية النفع والنفاسة لم يعرف مصنّفها
Scope & Content:
A treatise on the elixir containing many extracts from poetical and prose sources. The text was copied in late Rajab 919 (Sept-Oct 1513) at al-Madrasah al-Maulawiyyah al-ʿAlawiyyah in Fez by Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ādharī (see colophon, fol. 11a). Although the title states that the author is ...
Risālah li-Abī Hishām al-Amīr Khālid رسالة لأبي هشام الأمير خالد Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī خالد بن يزيد الأموي
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A treatise on alchemy attributed to Abū Hāshim Khālid ibn Yāzīd al-Umawī (ca 48 AH/AD 668 - 85 AH/AD 704), the Umayyad prince credited (probably spuriously) with sponsoring the first translations in Islam, and notably the first translations of alchemical texts into Arabic (Ibn Nadīm, Fihrist, 30...
Kitāb Tarākīb al-anwār كتاب تراكيب الأنوار Ṭughrāʾī, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī طغرائي، الحسين بن علي
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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...
اين فصول از بعض كتب ستاذ كبير جابر Īn fuṣūl az ba‘z̤ī kutub-i ustaẕ kabīr Jābir Jābir ibn Ḥayyān جابر بن حيان
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Five passages in Persian supposedly taken from the writings of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān. The main bulk of the corpus of texts attributed to this semi-legendary figure, however, are thought to have been composed between the second half of the 9th century and first half 10th century. Since this text begin...
Selections from Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ (كتاب الملخص) concerning physics Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar رازي، فخر الدين محمد بن عمر
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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
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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...
