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Add MS 23419, ff 2v-89v
- Record Id:
- 040-004540907
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-003719841
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100182251566.0x000001
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 23419, ff 2v-89v
- Title:
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Kashf al-asrār fī hatk al-astār كشف الأسرار في هتك الأستار
Iznīqī, ʻAlī Bak إزنيقي، علي بك
- Scope & Content:
-
A work on alchemy, in an introduction (مقدمة), five sections (أقسام), and a conclusion (خاتمة) attributed to the semi-legendary figure ʻAlī Bak al-Iznīqī (علي بك الإزنيقي, d. 1609), also known as ʻAlī Çelebī ʻAlāʼ al-Dīn al-Ṣarūkhānī (علي جلبي علاء الدين الصروخاني).
The copy was completed on 19 'nūn' (ن) 1215, indicating Ramaḍān, 'the blessed' (المبارك; see also the table of contents on f. 2r, the colophon, f. 89v, transcribed below, and Gacek, 2012, 'Dates and dating', p. 85). The date conversion is therefore 3 February 1801.
The author states that, having diligently attempted, over 23 years, to decipher the hidden meanings of ‘the books of the people [i.e., alchemists] full of expressions, [esoteric] symbols, allusions and astonishing things’ (الكتب القوم المشحونة بالألفاظ والرموز والإشارات والتدهيشات), he resolved to explain these secrets (f. 2v, lines 10-13). The author’s sobriquet, the New Author (المؤلف الجديد), derives from his presentation of himself as the inheritor of the alchemical tradition of Aydamir ibn ʻAbd Allāh al-Jildakī (ايدمر بن عبد الله الجلدكي, active 1349-61, named on f. 2v, line 15), who had predicted a successor. On the problematic identity of al-Iznīqī, see Tuna Artun, Hearts of Gold and Silver. The Production of Alchemical Knowledge in the early Ottoman World (PhD Dissertation, Princeton University, 2013), especially pp. 102-41.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-4):
الحمد لله الذي خلق السموات والأرض وجعل الظلمات والنور أنوار
عالم اللاهوت وأظهر عجائب المصنوعات في أطوار عالم الملك والملكوت
بإمرار الجبروت
Ends (f. 89r, line 22–f. 89v, line 6):
...فأتركه في إناء يجمد حجرًا أصفرًا كالشمس ألق منه جزؤًا على ألف جزء
من سائر الأجماد يقوم شمسًا خالصًا ثابتًا على الخلاص ولا شك
في صحة هذا الطريق ولا رمز فيه إلا رمز قريب كما لا يخفى على العاقل
اللبيب والله أعلم وهذا الباب كمال العارفين وحذاقة الماهرين
وصناعة المنتجرين (!) وأعمال الكائنة من هذا
الباب يسمى الإكسير الأعظم في عرف
الحكماء والله أعلم بالصواب
Colophon (f. 89v, lines 7-12):
تم الكتاب بعون
الملك
الوهاب
لسنة ١٢١٥
في ١٩ [رمضا] ن
المبارك
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-003719841
040-004540907 - Is part of:
- Add MS 23419 : Three texts on alchemy and cookery
Add MS 23419, ff 2v-89v : Kashf al-asrār fī hatk al-astār كشف الأسرار في هتك الأستارIznīqī, ʻAlī Bak إزنيقي،… - Hierarchy:
- 032-003719841[0001]/040-004540907
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 23419
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Ff. 2v-89v
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Arabic
- Scripts:
- Arabic
- Start Date:
- 1801
- End Date:
- 1801
- Date Range:
- 19 Ramaḍān 1215
- Calendar:
- Hijri-qamari
- Era:
- AH
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- 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 1373, I, p. 638
- Publications:
-
Studies:
- Artun, Tuna, Hearts of Gold and Silver. The Production of Alchemical Knowledge in the Early Ottoman World (PhD Dissertation, Princeton University, 2013)
- Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 242-43
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Iznīqī, ʻAlī, 'al-Muʼallif al-Jadīd', d 1609
- Subjects:
- Alchemy--Early works to 1800
Chemistry--Early works to 1800