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Or 12152

Record Id:

032-003693974

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003693974

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100106890409.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100128615732.0x000002

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Or 12152

Title:

Kitāb anīs al-jalīs fī kull ḥadīth nafīs كتاب أنيس الجليس في كل حديث نفيس

Najjār, Ibrāhīm ibn Khalīl النجار، إبراهيم بن خليل

Scope & Content:

Pharmacological handbook, re-bound out of order and with sections missing. The text is organised into chapters (فصول) on major ingredients and on effective categories of drugs, and records recipes for medications such as pills (حبوب), drops (قطرة), gargles (غرغرة), ointments (مرهم), oral draughts (جرع ), powders (مسحوق), enemas (حقنة), skin washes (غسول), etc.

The text bears witness to a mixture of Arabic medico-botanical and Latinate chemical terminology such as potassium carbonate (كربونات البوتاسا, f. 48v), oxide (اكسيد, various entries, e.g., f. 20r) and iodine (يود, f. 70r).

The text is attributed on the title page (f. 1r, apparently a later replacement or interpolation in a different hand) to Ibrāhīm Afandī al-Ṭabīb (the physician), 'one of the doctors of the Madrasah Mulūkīyah of Exalted Asitānah (Asitane/Istanbul), and the foremost medic to the military in Ottoman Beirut (كتاب أنيس الجليس في كل حديث نفيس من إبراهيم أفندي الطبيب أحد أطباء المدرسة الملوكية في الأستانة العلية والطبيب الأول في العساكرالسلطانية في مدينة بيروت المحروسة), while the introductory preface (f. 40v, same hand as f. 1r and different to the main text) dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecit I (reg. 1839-1861) identifies the author as the doctor Ibrāhīm al-Qamrāwī (القمراوي, 'al-Qamrāwī' is erased and replaced with 'al-Dayrānī ' above the line; both are valid nisbas), domiciled in Beirut (الديراني مولدًا والبيروتي وطنًا). The author is thus identified with Ibrāhīm ibn Khalīl al-Najjār (إبراهيم بن خليل النجار, b. 1822, d. 1864) born in Dayr al-Qamar, Lebanon, and one of the first Lebanese students to receive a Western-style medical training. Taken at face value, the text is dateable to between 1845 (after Ibrāhīm al-Najjār became established as chief medic to the Ottoman army in Beirut) and 1861 (Abdülmecit I's death date).

However, the fact that ff. 1 and 40 are not original to the main text, and that a work by this name or description is not elsewhere ascribed to Ibrāhīm al-Najjār, may cast some doubt on this attribution.

The verso of the title page contains the contents list of an apparently unrelated travel narrative featuring several characters with European names (ff. 1v, continued on f. 39r-39v).

Contents:

Chapter one discussing astringent drugs (الفصل الأول في الكلام على القوابض, ff. 2v-29r);
Chapter two on general stimulants (الفصل الثاني في الأدوية المنبهة العمومية, ff. 29r-38v);
Preface (f. 40v);
Section three on diuretic medicines using the squill onion (Drimia maritima) ( الرتبة الثالثة في الكلام على الأدوية المدرة في بصل العنصل, f. 42r-50v);
Chapter on sulphur (الفصل في الكبريت, ff. 50v-59r);
Chapter seven on Spanish fly (الفصل السابع في الذراريح, ff. 59r-62v);
Chapter eight on mercury (الفصل الثامن في الزيبق, ff. 62v-73v);
Chapter nine on Nux Vomica [strychnine] (الفصل التاسع في جوز القيء , ff. 73v-76v);
Chapter ten on drugs known as anti-spasmodics (الفصل العاشر في الأدوية المسماة بضد التشنج أعني الطي [!] انطي سبازموتيك , ff. 77r-84r);
Chapter eleven on anaesthetics (الفصل الحادي عشر في [...] الأدوية المسكنة للمجموع العصبي وتسمي أدوية مخدرة, ff. 84r-98r);
Chapter twelve on emetics (الفصل الثاني عشر في الأدوية المقيئة, ff. 98r-104v);
Chapter sixteen on stimulants (الفصل السادس عشرفي الأدوية المنبهة, ff. 104v-122v);
Chapter fourteen on antipyretics (الفصل الرابع عشر في الكلام على الأدوية والتراكيب المبردة, ff. 122v-124v);
Chapter fifteen on laxatives (الفصل الخامس عشر في الكلام على الأدوية الملينة, ff. 125v-128v).

Begins (f. 2v, lines 1-7):

الفصل الأول

في الكلام على القوابض

إن القوابض هي جواهر دوائية إذ لا مست الأنسجة الحية أحدثت

فيها نوع انكماش في الألياف يسمى بالإنقباض ولها فعل مقم وقتى

وحقيقة خاصيتها هي الخاصية الأولى وكل جوهر من هذه الأدوية

إذا وُضع على جرح دام أحدث فيه إنقباضًا وانكماشًا يمنع خروج

الدم الناشيء من الأوعية الشعرية...

Ends (f. 128v, lines 15-18)

في الصانعتيون المعروف بالجماجم

وآذان الحمار الكبير

هذا النبات ملين قليل الاستعمال في يومنا هذا وكانوا يستعملونه

سابقًا كثيرًا في النزيف المتعدي الرئوي والمعوي

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003693974

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003693974

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

ff. iv+128+iv

Digitised Content:

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100106890409.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1845

End Date:

1864

Date Range:

1845-1864

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Western wove paper

Dimensions: 216x161mm leaf [163x115mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 13 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with headings in red, blue and yellow

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum half-leather binding

Condition: Generally good; some folios guarded

Marginalia: Very few; some apparently in the same hand as the title page and preface (e.g., f. 54v); a few collation marks (ff. 6v, 14v, 22v, 28v and 55v) and quire markings (f. 47v, 48r and 116r).

Seals: BM stamp: ff. 1r and 128v

Custodial History:

From the collection of Yūsuf al-Ṣayfī (يوسف الصيفي): no 26 (f. 2r)

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased from Mrs A. M. Sefi, 28 May 1957

Finding Aids:

Hamarneh, Sami, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library (Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte, 1975), Item 333, pp. 245-46

Publications:

Author's autobiography:

al-Najjār, Ibrāhīm, Miṣbāḥ al-sārī wa-nuzhat al-qārī (Beirut: self-published, 1272/1855-56)

Studies:

Brockelmann, Carl, History of the Arabic Written Tradition: Volume 2, trans. by Joep Lameer. Handbook of Oriental studies. Section one, The Near and Middle East; volume 117/2 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016), p. 800
Haddad, Fouad Salim, 'History of Modern Anesthesia in Lebanon', in Wilhelm Erdmann et al. (eds.), Anaesthesia: Essays on Its History (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 1985), pp. 234-37
Hasan, A. N. M. A., 'Western Influences in the Arabic Literature of Egypt and Syria between 1820 and 1879', unpublished PhD dissertation, SOAS, 1931, pp. 161-63

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Najjār, Ibrāhīm ibn Khalīl, doctor, 1822/23-1864/65

Subjects:

Medicine