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Add MS 14055
- Record Id:
- 032-002036478
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002036478
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000046.0x000086
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100023282032.0x000002
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 14055
- Title:
-
Kitāb al-ḥiyal fī al-ḥurūb wa-fatḥ al-madāʾin wa-ḥifẓ al-durūb كتاب الحيل في الحروب وفتح المدائن وحفظ الدروب
Ibn Mankalī, Muḥammad ابن منكلي، محمد
- Scope & Content:
-
A manual on the military arts supposed to have been discovered in the tomb of Alexander the Great at Alexandria and translated from Greek into Arabic (see ff. 2v, line 7-3r, line 2). In fact, the author is thought to be the mamluk general and tactician Muḥammad Ibn Mankalī or Ibn Manjlī (محمد بن منكلي or ابن منجلي, active 1362-1376). The title of the work is found on f. 2v, lines 5-7). A list of twenty-one chapters (أبواب) into which the text is said to be divided is given on ff. 3r-4r, but many other subdivisions (also called أبواب) are found in the work. The volume contains one table of inflammable oils (f. 71r-v) and fifteen diagrams of mechanical devices (ff. 148r, 149, r, 150r, 151r, 152r, 153r, 156r-v, 157v, 158v, 160r, 161r, 162v, 163v, and 164v), all of which diagrams appear in the 'Chapter on gears (باب الدواليب, begins on f. 146v)'.
The title page (f. 1r) gives the title as 'The Book of War Machines found amongst the Treasures of Alexander Son of Dārāb the Byzantine (al-Rūmī), known as the Two-Horned (Dhū al-Qarnayn), translated from Greek into Arabic (كتاب الحيل في الحروب مما وجد في دخائر الإسكندر بن داراب الرومي المعروف بذي القرنين ونقل من اليوناني إلى العربي)'.
Begins (f. 1v, line 2-7):
الحمد لله دي النعم والألاء والإفضال
والكرم خالق البرايا وبارئ النسم الذي
أوجد الوجود بحكمته من العدم وعلمنا
منه بلطفه ما لم نكن نعلم وفضلنا بكرمه
على سائر الأمم برسوله المصطفى سيد العرب
والعجم صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم ...
Ends (f. 224v, lines 5-8):
... فإن أسلحتهم رثة واعتمادهم
على الرجلة الأماكن من بلاد كابل والدبيل والزابلين
وجل عتماد الهند على التراس والخفة عند الرجلة
وخفة الأيدي باستعمالهم السيوف ...
Colophon (f. 224v, lines 8-9):
... تم الكتاب
بحمد الله وعونه وحسن توفيقه
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002036478", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 14055: Kitāb al-ḥiyal fī al-ḥurūb wa-fatḥ al-madāʾin wa-ḥifẓ al-durūb كتاب الحيل في الحروب وفتح…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002036478
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002036478
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Codex; ff. vi+224+v
- Digitised Content:
- https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100000000046.0x000086
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Arabic
- Scripts:
- Arabic
- Start Date:
- 1500
- End Date:
- 1699
- Date Range:
- 16th century-17th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Paper
Dimensions: 267 x 182 mm leaf [165 x 110 mm written]
Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil and previous western Arabic numeral foliation in black ink; where the two foliations correspond, often no pencil foliation has been added; there are two consecutive folios marked 55 in the ink foliation and this has not been rectified in the pencil foliation; quire marks (quinions) have been appear in eastern Arabic numerals in black ink
Ruling: Misṭarah; 9 lines per page; vertical spacing 6 lines per 10 cm
Script: Naskh
Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings; on replacement folios 4 and 224 the red ink has become silver; diagrams painted in red, green and yellow
Binding: Western binding in vermillion leather with gilt tooling; fore-edge, head and tail gilt; yellow and green marbled pastedown
Condition: Very minor water damage, some grime and fingerprints; minor repairs to front paper vi and ff. 1-7 and 216-223; ff. 4 and 224 have been replaced on paper bearing the tre lune watermark (f. 224) and initials GM (f. 4)
Marginalia: Very few
Seals: f. 1r
- Custodial History:
-
- Muḥammad ibn Nūr al-Dīn al-Minūfī al-Ḥanafī (محمد بن نور الدين المنوفي الحنفي), his inscription, dated 1039AH/AD 1629-30 (f. 1r, centre left);
- Abū al-Wafā’ al-Shaykh Sulaymān Aulīyā Zādah (أبو الوفاء الشيخ سليمان أوليا زاده), his inscription and seal, undated (f. 1r, lower centre);
- Illegible inscription, undated, (f. 1r, lower right);
- Two erased inscriptions and an erased seal (f. 1r).
- Source of Acquisition:
-
Purchased at the sale of the Earl of Munster's library, 6 April 1843 (lot 151)
- Finding Aids:
-
Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum 1846-71), Item 1155, pp. 527-8
- Publications:
-
Edition:
- Ibn Manjlī, Muḥammad, al-Ḥiyal fī al-ḥurūb wa-fatḥ al-madāʾin wa-ḥifẓ al- durūb, Nabīl Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Aḥmad, ed., (al-Qāhirah: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al- Miṣrīyah, 2000)
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)