Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Add MS 22371

Record Id:

032-003167594

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003167594

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100026482773.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100030440493.0x000002

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 22371

Title:

al-Thānī min Kitāb al-Filāḥah الثاني من كتاب الفلاحة

Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn أحمد بن الحسين، ابن وحشية

Scope & Content:

Volume Two of a copy of the Nabataean Agriculture (الفلاحة النبطية), a work on agronomy in the tradition of the Graeco-Latin Geoponica, which mixes diverse subjects related to farming such as plant, animal and weather lore; descriptions of agricultural techniques; and much material of a more legendary and magical nature. According to the preface, not present in this manuscript, the text was translated from Nabataean (Aramaic) into Arabic in 291/903-04 by Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī ibn Qays al-Kasdānī (أبو بكر أحمد بن علي بن قيس الكسداني), known as Ibn Waḥshiyah (ابن وحشية), and then dictated to Abū Ṭālib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad al-Zayyāt (أبو طالب أحمد بن الحسين بن علي بن أحمد الزيات) in 318/930-31.

According to the colophon (f. 256v, line 15, transcribed below), this copy was completed in Ṣafar 389/January-February 999 by Abū al-Khayr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ma‘arrī (أحمد بن محمد الشهير بأبي الخير المعري), but the hand appears to date from the 13th century. Perhaps the colophon was copied along with the text from the exemplar.

The beginning of the text in this volume corresponds with p. 715, line 6 of the edition by Toufic Fahd (Dimashq: al-Maʻhad al-ʻIlmī al-Faransī lil-Dirāsāt al-ʻArabīyah, 1993-95) vol 1.

Begins (f. 3v, lines 2-5):

واعلموا أن الدهن إذا طاب ريحه على ما وصفنا وتمكن طيب الريح فيه وتخمر صار ذلك النبات أطيب ريحًا

أهو (!) عديم الدهن وأقل دهنًا بل أقول إنما فيه دهن من النبات وقد طاب ريحه فإنه يكون طيب الرائحة جدًا أكثر من

غيره كما قدمنا من القول قال قويامي (!) فهذا قول أدمى في علل طيب الرائحة على الصفة التي وصفت ويدخل في تلك

الصفة جميع ضروب ما له ريح طيبة وإن كان في قوله ما هو مخالف لقول غيره فإني أرى أن قوله أحق ورأيه أصوب

Ends (f. 256v, lines 4-10):

... وأما سياسة البقر والغنم

وغيرها من الدواب المعينة لنا على الفلاحة والمقوية على تمام معاشنا فقد أفردنا

له كتابًا جعلنا تاليًا لهذا الكتاب وألحقنا فيه بذلك من اتخاذ الحمام والوراشين

واستجلابها والعصافير والكراكي وغيرها من أصناف الطائر فمن أدمن على ذلك وعمله

فليأخذه من ذلك الكتاب وهذا القول ختمنا كتابنا هذا والسلام قال

أبو بكر أحمد بن وحشية ما وقع إلى هذا الكتاب الذي ذكره قوثامي وأنه ألفه في سياسة البقر وغيرها من الماشية وإلا رأيته ولو وقع إلي لنقلته

Colophon (f. 256v, lines 11-15):

تم كتاب الفلاحة بأسره

بحمد لله وعونه

صلواته على سيدنا محمد وآله وصحبه وسلم

حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل

من كتابة العبد الفقير إلى الله تعالى أحمد بن محمد الشهير بأبي الخير المعري شهر صفر سنة 389 غفر الله له ولوالده ولجميع المسلمين

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003167594", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 22371: al-Thānī min Kitāb al-Filāḥah الثاني من كتاب الفلاحةIbn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn أحمد بن…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003167594

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003167594

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. iv+257+iv

Digitised Content:

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100026482773.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1200

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

13th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Physical characteristics:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 265 x 175 mm leaf [215 x 135 mm written]

Foliation: Arabic foliation in black ink; British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah; 27 lines per page; vertical spacing 13 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh; the scribe is Abū al-Khayr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ma‘arrī (أحمد بن محمد الشهير بأبي الخير المعري; see colophon, f. 256v, line 15)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in red

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum binding

Condition: Very minor waterstains and insect damage; repairs to margins of ff. 2-9 and 256

Marginalia: Very few

Seals: f. 3v

Custodial History:

Many illegible owners' inscriptions, some erased (f. 2r);
Semi-legible seal, and associated owner's inscription with name defaced (f. 3v).

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased from the Rev. Benjamin Webb (1819-1885), 8 May 1858

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 997, pp. 462
Hamarneh, Sami, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library (Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte, 1975), Item 69, pp. 61-2

Publications:

Edition:

Ibn Waḥsiyya, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, al-Filāḥah al-nabaṭīyah. L'agriculture nabatéenne, ed. by Toufic Fahd (Dimashq: al-Maʻhad al-ʻIlmī al-Faransī lil-Dirāsāt al-ʻArabīyah, 1993-95) 3 vols

Study and partial translation:

Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko, The last pagans of Iraq : Ibn Waḥshiyya and his Nabatean agriculture (Leiden: Brill, 2006)

Studies:

Alves Carrara, Angelo, 'Geoponica and Nabatean Agriculture: A New Approach into their Sources and Authorship', in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 16 (2006) pp. 103-32
Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 440-43

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, fl 0903-0930

Subjects:

Agriculture--Early works to 1800
Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī, active 9th century. al-Filāḥah al-Nabaṭīyah