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Add MS 7498

Record Id:

032-003791204

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003791204

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100116235738.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 7498

Title:

Taqwīm al-buldān تقويم البلدان

Abū al-Fidāʼ, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī أبو الفداء، إسماعيل بن علي

Scope & Content:

Geographical compendium by the Ayyubid prince and scholar Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī ibn Maḥmūd al-Malik al-Muʼayyad ʻImād al-Dīn Abū al-Fidāʼ (إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود الملك المؤيد عماد الدين أبو الفداء, d. 1331). Its composition was completed in Shaʻbān 721/August-September 1321 (see authorial colophon, f. 118v, lines 2-5, transcribed below).

The present copy was completed on 17 Ṣafar 743/22 July 1342 by the scribe Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāhiḍ al-Ḥalabī (إبراهيم بن محمد بن ناهض الحلبي, f. 118v, lines 8-9 and 12), at the Firdaws mosque-madrasa (here called 'shrine', مشهد) in Aleppo, which had been founded by the Ayyubid Queen Regent Ḍayfah Khātūn (ضيفة خاتون, d. 1242) in 1235/6. Above the date of copying, another date five years earlier (18 Shawwāl 737/20 May 1337), the significance of which is uncertain, has been added to the scribal colophon (ثامن عشر شوال سنة سبع وثلثين وسبعمائة, f. 118v, line 11).

In the preface (f. 1r), the author mentions the numerous historians cited in the text, and explains that he named it following the Taqwīm al-abdān fī tadbīr al-insān (تقويم الأبدان في تدبير الإنسان) of Ibn Jazlah (ابن جزلة, d. 1100), based on its similar tabular structure.

Around the tables (ff. 29v-118r), parallel descriptive text is copied in the upper and lower margins across each double page spread. Following the end of the text, a bio-bibliography of Abū al-Fidāʼ has been added to the volume by a previous owner, ʻAbd al-Rahmān ibn ʻImād al-Dīn (عبد الرحمن بن عماد الدين, f. 119r). A fragment of historic Western laid paper mentioning place-names in Africa in an 18th-19th century English hand was found within the volume (frag-r).

Contents:

Preface (f. 1r);
General topographical introduction, on the equator, the climes, coordinates and measurements, the seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc (ff. 1v-27r);
On the structure of the book, definition of the 28 customary climes (الأقاليم العُرفية) and summary diagram (صورة الزائرجة, ff. 27v-29r);
89 double-page tabulations of locations, ordered by the 28 customary climes, each one giving notes on the correct spelling and vocalisation of place-names, geographical coordinates and locations according to various systems, sources of information, descriptions and historical information. Each is numbered in red ink next to the head of the table, in the verso margins (ff. 29v-118r).

Title page (f. 1r, lines 1-5):

كتاب تقويم البلدان

تأليف السلطان الملك المؤيد عماد الدين إسماعيل بن الملك

الأفضل نور الدين علي بن المحمود بن محمد بن عمر شاهنشاه بن أيوب صاحب حماة

من نظم المولي شرف الدين الحسين بن ريان

كتاب بديع وصفه واختراعه وابداعه قد فاق تأليف الكتب

Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-5):

الحمد لله حمدًا يليق بجلاله وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وآله وبعد فإني لما طالعت الكتب

المؤلفة في البلاد ونواحي الأرض من الجبال والبحار وغيرها لم أجد فيها كتابًا موفيًا بغرضي

فمن الكتب التي وقفت عليها في هذا الفن كتاب ابن حوقل وهو كتاب مطول ذكر فيها صفات البلاد

مستوفيًا...

Ends (f. 118r, lines 4-6 and f. 117v, lines 5-6, alternating across the double page spread):

قال بعض من سافر إلى تلك البلاد أنهم يتصلون بساحل البحر الشمالي قال فإذا وصل القفل

إلى تخومهم أقاموا حتى يعلموا به ثم يتقدمون إلى المكان المعروف بالبيع والشراء ويحيط كل تاجر

بضاعته يعلمه ويرجعون إلى منازلهم فيحضر أولائك القوم ويضعون قبالة تلك البضاعة

السمور والثعلب والوشق وما شاكل ذلك ويدعونه ويمضون ثم يحضر التجار فمن أعجبه ذلك

أخذه وإلا تركه حتى يتفاصلوا على الرضا والله أعلم حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل

Authorial colophon (f. 118v, lines 1-6):

قال المؤلف رحمه الله تعالى

وهذا آخر ما أوردناه مما صح لدينا من

أخبار البلاد على قدر الطاقة وكان

الفراغ من تبييضه في شهر شعبان

من سنة إحدى وعشرين وسبعمائة هجرية

على صاحبها أفضل الصلاة والسلام

Scribal colophon (f. 118v, lines 7-10 and 12-14):

وفرغ من تعليقه الفقير إلى الله تعالى

إبراهيم بن محمد بن ناهض الحلبي بمشهد

الفردوس بحلب المحروسة غفر الله له ولوالديه

ولمن كتب هذا له ولوالديه ولمن دعا لهم ولجميع المسلمين

[...]

في سابع عشر صفر المبارك سنة ثلث وأربعين وسبعمائة

وحسب الله ونعم الوكيل

الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلواته على سيدنا محمد وآله وصحبه وسلام

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003791204", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 7498: Taqwīm al-buldān تقويم البلدانAbū al-Fidāʼ, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī أبو الفداء، إسماعيل بن علي" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003791204

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003791204

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. ii+119+ii

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1342

End Date:

1342

Date Range:

17 Ṣafar 743

Calendar:

Hijri-qamari

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 261 x 183 mm leaf [190 x 134 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; quire signatures in Eastern Arabic numerals in red ink throughout (quinions), every ten folios beginning with ٢ on f. 10r

Ruling: Misṭarah; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm

Script: Vocalised naskh; the scribe is Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāhiḍ al-Ḥalabī (إبراهيم بن محمد بن ناهض الحلبي, see f. 118v, lines 8-9)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings, text frame and ruled lines for text (introduction only) and tables

Decoration: None

Binding: Brown leather binding with flap, each board with blind-tooled central medallion and upper and lower pendants, within a blind-tooled floral frame with corner pieces. The flap, on maroon leather, bears a central gold-tooled medallion and frame.

Condition: A few stains and smudges; f. 119 fore edge margin repaired with paper. Fore edge margin of f. 1r is covered with a strip of Western laid paper obscuring a number of ownership and reading marks, some of which are cancelled.

Marginalia: Very few; a sketch of terminology related to the seas (f. 7r), list of the 28 customary climes (f. 29r, head margin)

Seals: First unfoliated flyleaf recto (i-r) and f. 1v

British Museum stamps: ff. 1r, 16r, 26r, 38r, 48r, 58r, 70r, 82r, 94r, 105r and 119v

Custodial History:

Claudius James Rich (كلاديس جيمس رچ, b. 1786-d. 1821), Political Resident in Baghdad (1808-21): his seal (in Arabic), dated 1812, with legend (from the preface to the Gulistān of Saʻdī) بلغ العلى بكماله كشف الدجى بجماله حسنت جميع خصاله صلوا عليه وآله;
Ownership note, with date 1175/1761-62 (f. 1r [obscured with paper]);
Round seal with scalloped edges, stamped in black ink, with date 974/1566-67 (f. 1v);
Ownership note, with date 960/1552-53 (f. 1r [obscured with paper]);
ʻUthmān ibn Murād (عثمان ابن مراد): his reading note (f. 119r);
ʻAbd al-Rahmān ibn ʻImād al-Dīn (عبد الرحمن بن عماد الدين): his bio-bibliography of Abū al-Fidāʼ and ownership note (f. 119r);
Ownership note with erased oval seal (recto of first unfoliated flyleaf);
Other ownership and reading marks, some of which are cancelled (f. 1r [obscured with paper]).

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased from Mary Rich (née Mackintosh), widow of Claudius James Rich (1786-1821), Political Resident in Baghdad (1808-21), 25 March 1825

Administrative Context:

Firdaws Mosque-madrasa, Aleppo, Syria

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 375, pp. 181-82

Publications:

Edition:

Abū al-Fidāʼ, Géographie d'Aboulféda (Kitāb taqwīm al-buldān), edited by Joseph Toussaint Reinaud and William MacGuckin de Slane (Paris: Imprimérie Royale, 1840), reprinted Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wisenschaften, Frankfurt am Main, 1985

Translations:

Abū al-Fidāʼ, Description des Pays du Magreb, Texte arabe dʼAbouʼlféda, accompagné dʼune traduction française et de notes par C. Solvet (Alger: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1839
Abū al-Fidāʼ, Tarjumah-i Taqvīm al-buldān, translated by ʻAbd al-Muḥammad Āyatī, (Tihrān, Bunyād-i Farhang-i Īrān, 1970)

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. 48, and Volume S2 (117/S2), p. 49
Calvo, Emilia, 'Abū l-Fidāʼ', in The Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, edited by Helaine Selin (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008), pp. 13-14
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.) (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003), no. 680 (G1), p. 237
Thompson, J.R. Fawcett, 'The Rich Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly 27.1/2 (1963) pp. 18-23

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Abū al-Fidāʼ, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī, 1273-1331,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/49358074

Subjects:

Geography--Early works to 1800