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 7499

Record Id:

032-004547369

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-004547369

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100187688688.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 7499

Title:

Taqwīm al-buldān تقويم البلدان

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

Scope & Content:

A copy, without colophon, of a 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. 114v, lines 1-5, transcribed below).

In the preface (ff. 1v-2r), 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. 25v-114r), parallel descriptive text is copied in the upper and lower margins across each double page spread. Some folios of the last quire have become disordered, as evidenced by the non-sequential abjad numbering and mismatch of text. The upper half of f.1, where a patron or owner's dedication (recto), or illuminated opening (verso) might be expected, has been mutilated and repaired with Western laid paper.

Contents:

Preface (ff. 1v-2r);
General topographical introduction, on the equator, the seven climes, coordinates and measurements, the seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc (ff. 2r-24r);
On the structure of the book, definition of the 28 customary climes (الأقاليم العُرفية) and summary diagram (صورة الزائرجة, ff. 24r-25r);
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 general information (ff. 25v-114r).

Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-4):

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 فيه صفات البلاد مستوفيًا...

Ends (ff. 112v, lines 8-9 and 114r, lines 8-9, alternating):

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

يعلموا به ثم يتقدمون إالى المكان المعروف بالبيع والشراء ويحيط كل تاجم [!] بضاعته معلمة ويرجعون إلى مفازلهم (!) 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

Authorial colophon (f. 114v, lines 1-5):

وهذا آخر ما أوردناه مما فتح ارينا من أخبار البلاد

على قدر الطاعة (!) وكان الفراغ من تبييضه في شعبان

سنة إحدى وعشرين وسبع مائة هجرية على صاحبها أفضل

الصلاة والسلم الحمد لله وحده وصلواته

على سيدنا محمد وآله وسلم

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-004547369", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 7499: Taqwīm al-buldān تقويم البلدانAbū al-Fidāʼ, Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī أبو الفداء، إسماعيل بن علي" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-004547369

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-004547369

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. ii+113+ii

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1600

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

ca 17th 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:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 295 x 177 mm leaf [235 x 138 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil. F. 15 has been missed out so the actual number of folios is 113, not 114 as numbered

Ruling: No misṭarah visible; 20 lines per page; vertical spacing 9 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and horizontal text ruling, and red, blue, green and gold inks used for table and text frame ruling.

Decoration: None

Binding: Light brown leather binding with envelope flap and red leather doublures, both boards with central blind-tooled lobed mandorla and upper and lower pendants all with raised maroon floral designs, and gold-tooled scrolling frame

Condition: A few water smudges; f. 1 top half mutilated and repaired with Western laid paper; both boards stained by liquids

Marginalia: Almost none; a few interlinear scribal corrections and marginal notes (e.g. see f. 98v); sketch of terminology related to the seas (f. 7r)

Seals: f. 1r. British Museum stamp: ff. 1r, 20r, 48r, 75r, 98r, 107r and 114v

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 Sa‘dī) بلغ العلى بكماله كشف الدجى بجماله حسنت جميع خصاله صلوا عليه وآله (f. 1r)

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

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 376, p. 182

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