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Or 8254
- Record Id:
- 032-003435960
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-003435960
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100073295527.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100083803263.0x000002
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Or 8254
- Title:
-
Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ رسائل إخوان الصفاء
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ إخوان الصفاء
- Scope & Content:
-
The second volume (المجلد الثاني, probably of an original three) of the well-known Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (رسائل إخوان الصفاء, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), compiled by an anonymous group calling themselves Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ ( إخوان الصفاء وخلان الوفاء, Brethren of Purity and Sincere Friends; active ca mid-tenth century).
This encyclopaedic compendium of 51 (sometimes 52) treatises covers various exoteric and esoteric branches of knowledge, including mathematical, natural, intellectual and divine sciences. The full work comprises four sections, and the present copy includes the seventh epistle of the second section through to the ninth epistle (out of ten) of the third section.
A date of copying of Friday, 11 Dhū al-Hijjah 644/19 April 1247 is given in the colophon to the eighth epistle of section two [22], (f. 93v, lines 10-11, transcribed below). No other dating is found in this copy.
Contents
Section titles and epistle numbers in square brackets are taken from de Catallaÿ, 'The Classification of Knowledge in the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa', in El-Bizri, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: The Ikhwan al-Safa' and their Rasa'il: An introduction (2008). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 58-82), pp. 73-74.
Section Two [Corporeal and Natural Sciences]
- Epistle 7 [21] (ff. 1r-12v);
- Epistle 8 [22] (ff. 13r-93v);
- Epistle 9 [23] (ff. 94r-101v);
- Epistle 10 [24] (ff. 102r-111r);
- Epistle 11 [25] (ff. 111r-129r);
- Epistle 12 [26] (ff. 129r-140r);
- Epistle 13 [27] (ff. 140r-145v);
- Epistle 14 [28] (ff. 146r-152v);
- Epistle 15 [29] (ff. 153r-160v);
- Epistle 16 [30] (ff. 161r-175r);
- Epistle 17 [31] (ff. 175v-184v).
Section Three [Sciences of the Soul and of the Intellect]
- Epistle 1 [32] (ff. 185r -194v);
- Epistle 2 [33] (ff. 195r-200v);
- Epistle 3 [34] (ff. 201r-205v);
- Epistle 4 [35] (ff. 206r-214r);
- Epistle 5 [36] (ff. 214r-223v);
- Epistle 6 [37] (ff. 224r-232r);
- Epistle 7 [38] (ff. 232v-248r);
- Epistle 8 [39] (ff. 248r-258v);
- Epistle 9 [40] (ff. 259r-279r).
Diagrams:
Epistle 33 is accompanied by one diagram, and epistle 40 with two:
- Diagram of the planetary spheres (f. 196r);
- Diagram of the nine philosophical questions (f. 260r);
- Diagram of the four categories of causes and the four categories of effects (f. 266v).
Begins (f. 1v, lines 1-4):
...ربّ وفّق
وإذ قد فرغنا من ذكر الجواهر المعدنية وبيّنا طرفاً من كيفية تكوينها وكمية أجناسها
وفنون أنواعها ومنافعها ومضارّها في رسالة لنا وبيّنا فيها أن آخر المرتبة المعدنية
متصلة بأول مرتبة النبات ...
Colophon to epistle 22 (f. 93v, lines 7-12):
تمت الرسالة
الحيوانية وعجائب هياكلها وغرائب أحوالها
من رسائل إخوان الصفاء وخلّان الوفاء
يوم الجمعة الحادي عشر ذي الحجة سنة أربع
وأربعين وستمائة والحمد لوليه
والصلوة على نبيه
Ends (f. 279r, lines 16-20):
تمت الرسالة
والحمد لوليه والصلوة على نبيه
محمد وآله وأصحابه الطاهرين
تم مجلد الثاني من كتاب إخوان الصفاء وخلان الوفاء
وسلّم تسليمًا كثيرًا
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-003435960", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Or 8254: Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ رسائل إخوان الصفاءIkhwān al-Ṣafāʾ إخوان الصفاء" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-003435960
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-003435960
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Codex; ff. i+279+i
- Digitised Content:
- https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100073295527.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Arabic
- Scripts:
- Arabic
- Start Date:
- 1246
- End Date:
- 1247
- Date Range:
- 644
- Calendar:
- Hijri qamari
- Era:
- AH
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Eastern laid paper
Dimensions: 245 x 178 mm leaf [188 x 125 mm written]
Foliation: Arabic quire markings in red ink (to f. 90) and black ink (to end), British Museum foliation in pencil.
Ruling: Misṭarah; 21 lines per page and occasionally a few words in the lower margin of verso pages; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm
Script: Naskh
Ink: Brown ink, with rubricated headings, overlinings, and diagrams in red. The heading of epistle 8 of section two [22] (f. 13r, line 1) in green ink over-written with red, and epistle 10 of section two [24] (f. 102r, line 1) in green ink with red pointing.
Decoration: None
Binding: Red leather binding without flap; blind-tooled central medallion and pendants within a double frame; boards covered with indigo paper.
Condition: Generally good; water damage to gutter margin throughout has damaged some text, which has been over-written in places. First and last folios heavily repaired. Insect damage in outer margin (ff. 67-88) has been crudely repaired with paper.
Marginalia:
- Many marginal corrections in the scribal hand, and many notes throughout in a small neat nasta'liq hand (in Arabic); notes on f. 279v are obscured by an ink spillage.
- Seal of Solomon (f. 1r);
Seals:
- f. 1r
- British Museum seals on f. 1r, f. 279v
- Custodial History:
-
al-faqīr Bahrām ibn ʿAbd [?]: His pointed oval ownership seal stamped in black ink, partially smudged, accompanied by lines of love poetry in Persian, probably penned by the same (f. 1r);
Ownership inscription (f.1r);
- 'Abd al-Wahhāb ibn Yūsuf ibn Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Mutaṭabbib al-Mīrdīnī (عبد الوهاب بن يوسف بن احمد بن عبد الرحمن المتطبب الميرديني [i.e. Mārdīn, Turkey]): inscription, undated, attributing former ownership to him (f.1r).
- Source of Acquisition:
-
Purchased from Abdul Majid Belshah, 8 November 1919
- Finding Aids:
-
This copy published as No. 15 (p. 139) in Edwards, E. 'Some rare and important Arabic and Persian manuscripts from the collections of Hajji ‘Abdu’l-Majid Belshah now either in the British Museum or in the private collection of Professor Edward G. Browne' in A Volume of Oriental Studies presented to Edward G. Browne, ed. by T. W. Arnold and R. A. Nicholson (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 137-149.
- Publications:
-
Studies/translations:
- de Catallaÿ, Godefroid, 'The Classification of Knowledge in the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'', in El-Bizri, Nader, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: The Ikhwan al-Safa' and their Rasa'il: An introduction (2008). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 58-82.
- The case of the animals versus man before the King of the Jinn: an Arabic critical edition and English translation of Epistle 22. Edited and translated by Lenn E. Goodman and Richard McGregor; foreword by Nader El-Bizri. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Sciences of the soul and intellect. Part I, an Arabic critical edition and English translation of epistles 32-36. Edited and translated by Paul E. Walker, Ismail K. Poonawala and David Simonowitz, Godefroid de Callataÿ; foreword by Nader El-Bizri. Oxford : Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2015.
- Sciences of the soul and intellect. Part III, an Arabic critical edition and English translation of Epistles 39-41. Edited and translated by Carmela Baffioni; Ismail K. Poonawala; foreword by Nader El-Bizri. Oxford : Oxford University Press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2017.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)