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Add MS 23604

Record Id:

032-003169051

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003169051

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100026565682.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100030446977.0x000002

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 23604

Title:

Kitāb sumūm wa-tiryāqāt كتاب السموم والترياقات

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

Scope & Content:

Treatise on poisons, theriacs and antidotes composed by 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), 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; see f. 2v, lines 2-5, transcribed below)

The following is written on the title-page (f. 2r):

كتاب

سموم وترياقات

ابن وحشية

كاتبه ومالكه

وصاحبه محمد بن شيخ

علي بن محمد الملقّب بشرف الدين

الشريف (؟) المدعو بالنيمدهي

عفى الله عن

ذنوبنا

Book

of Poisons and Theriacs

[by] Ibn Waḥshīyah

Its copyist, owner

and possessor is Muḥammad ibn Shaykh

‘Alī ibn Muḥammad, called by the laqab Sharaf al-Dīn

al-Sharīf (?), named al-Nīmidihī

God forgive

our sins

The copy was completed on 25 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 919/21 February 1514 by the 'Servant of the divine scholars and godly Islamic sages, Muḥammad ibn Shaykh ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad, called by the laqab Sharaf al-Dīn, known as al-Nīmidihī' (خادم العلماء الربانية والحكماء الإلهية الإسلامية محمد بن شيخ علي بن محمد الملقّب شرف الدين المشهور بالنيمدهي) who produced the copy for his own use (see colophon, f. 108r, lines 9-13, transcribed below). The colophon also say that he produced his copy from an exemplar dated Dhū al-Qa‘dah 113/January-February 732, but this cannot be correct, because the text's author, Ibn Waḥshīyah, was not active until the early 10th century (see colophon, f. 108r, lines 13-15, transcribed below). The copyist is the author of a Qur‘ānic tafsīr (exegesis) called the Risālat al-anvār fī maʿdan al-asrār yā tafsīr-i āyah-'i Nūr (ed. by Ismāʿīl Ḥākimī [Tihrān: Bunyād-i Qurʾān, 1361/1982-3]).

The main text is followed (f. 108v) by two short medical notes: the first is a poison made from dung beetles, and the second is a fragmentary discussion of the astrological causes and treatment of passion attributed to the sage Tinkalūsha (تنكلوشا/Teukros of Babylon [in Egypt], fl. late 2nd-early 1st century BC; see Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam [1972, pp. 278-79]).

Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-6):

هذا كتاب أملأه أبو بكر أحمد بن علي ابن قيس الكشداني

المعروف بابن وحشية على ابن أبي طالب أحمد

بن الحسين بن علي بن أحمد بن محمد بن عبد الملك

الزيّات وهو كتاب ألّفه في السموم قال (!) على

مذهب الكشدانيين ورأيهم ...

Ends (f. 107v, line 19-f. 108r line 1):

... ولذلك به يجذب السم من

غور البدن إلى خارجه ويرئه ومن جعل هذا موضع

صحيح أقرحه وأنكاه وأوجعه العقرب يشرح وشد

على موضع لدغها فيجذب السم إلى خارج فيسكن

الوجع ولها أدوية كثيرة لكن هذه أبلغ وأجود والسلم

Colophon (f. 108r, lines 2-18):

انتهى كتاب السموم والترياقات تأليف الشيخ

الرئيس الفاضل الكامل الحكيم الكريم وهو أقدم من هذه

الحكماء الإسلامية المشهورة عند الفضلاء أحمد

بن علي ابن قيس الكشداني المشهور

بابن وحشية ألّفه على مذهب

الحكماء الكشدانيين

ورأيهم على يد

خادم العلماء الربانية والحكماء الإلهية الإسلامية محمد بن

شيخ علي بن محمد الملقب بشرف الدين المشهور بالنيمدهي

بستر (؟) الله عيوبه وغفر ذنوبه في خماس عشرين

شهر ذي حجة الحرام سنة تسع عشر وتسعمائة

الهجرية انتسخت من من نسخة كتبها

في شهر ذي قعدة سنة ثلث عشر مائة

الهجرية النبوية والحمد لله

رب العالمين

أولًا وأخرًا

كتبت لأجلي

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003169051

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003169051

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. ii+108+iii

Digitised Content:

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100026565682.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1514

End Date:

1514

Date Range:

25 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 919

Calendar:

Hijri qamari

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 180 x 125 mm leaf [140 x 70 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: No ruling visible; 22 lines per page; vertical spacing 16 lines per 10 cm

Script: Nasta‘līq; the scribe is Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Shaykh ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Nīmidihī (شرف الدين محمد بن شيخ علي بن محمد النيمدهي; see colophon, f. 108r, lines 9-10)

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

Binding: Morocco leather Islamic binding without flap; blind tooled medallion, pendants and borders on both boards

Condition: Waterstains towards middle of volume; minor insect damage; some folios torn and repaired

Marginalia: Notes by various hands including that of the scribe

Seals: F. 2r

Custodial History:

Colonel Robert Taylor (1788-1852), Political Resident in Baghdad (1828-43): his seal, undated, with legend عبده تيلر (f. 2r);
Two round seals, illegible (f. 2r).

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased from Mrs Taylor, widow of Colonel Robert Taylor (1788-1852), Political Resident in Baghdad (1828-43), 14 April 1860

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 1357, pp. 630-31
Hamarneh, Sami, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library (Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte, 1975), Item 72, pp. 62-4

Publications:

Study and translation:

Levey, Martin, Medieval Arabic toxicology: the Book on poisons of Ibn Wahshiya and its relation to early Indian and Greek texts, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series 56.7 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1966)

Study:

Ullmann, Manfred, Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1970), pp. 228-29

Edition of text authored by copyist:

Nīmdihī, Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad, Risālat al-anvār fī maʿdan al-asrār yā tafsīr-i āyah-'i Nūr, ed. by Ismāʿīl Ḥākimī (Tihrān: Bunyād-i Qurʾān, 1361/1982-3)

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, fl 0903-0930
Nīmdihī, Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad, fl 1514

Subjects:

Medicine--Early works to 1800
Pharmacology--Early works to 1800
Toxicology