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Add MS 23419, ff 90v-233v

Record Id:

040-004540925

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003719841

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100182260047.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 23419, ff 90v-233v

Title:

Kitāb al-khawāṣṣ al-kabīr كتاب الخواص الكبير

Jābir ibn Ḥayyān جابر بن حيان

Scope & Content:

Complete copy of a treatise attributed to the alchemist Abū Mūsá Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (أبو موسى جابر بن حيان), concerning the occult properties (خواصّ) of animals, plants and stones, chemistry and other related subjects. The copy was completed on 1 Shaʻbān 1215/18 December 1800 by an un-named scribe (see colophon, f. 233v, transcribed below).

For a resumé of the diverse subject matter of the text see Kraus, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān. Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam, vol. 1. Le corpus des écrits Jābiriens (Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1943), pp. 149-52 and al-Hassan 'Industrial Chemistry in Kitab al-Khawass al-Kabir (The Great Book of Properties) of Jabir ibn Hayyan', in Studies in al-Kimya' (Hildesheim, Zürich, New York: Olms, 2009).

The text is divided into seventy-one books (كتاب, indicated in the present volume with rubricated headings), six of which (as well as short extracts of others) have been edited by Kraus (Jabir ibn Ḥayyan. Essai sur l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam, vol. 1. Textes choisis [Paris: Maisonneuve, 1935], pp. 224-332).

Another British Library copy is Or. 4041.

Begins (f. 90v, lines 2-7):

المقالة الأولى من كتاب الخواص الكبير لجابر بن حيان رحمه الله

الصوفي الأزدي وهو أحد وسبعون مقالة ويُعرف بكتاب الجامع

قال أبو موسى جابر الحمد لله كما هو أهله ومستحقه

الكبير الجواد الفعال لما يريد وتعالى عما يقول الظالمون علوًا

كبيرًا من كان حافظًا لقواعد كتبنا هذه وترتيبها وما عليه موضوعها

فسيعلم علمًا يقينًا أنا وعدنا أن نذكر في جملة كتبنا مفردات من علم الخواص ...

Ends (f. 233v, lines 6-11):

...فإن بيّن

الله لك ذلك وإلا فأنت محروم والشيطان أخوك وقريبك

ففرّ منه إلى الله عز وجل وأترك حرصه والسلام

وإذ قد أتينا على ما قد ضمنّا من هذه العلوم فليكن الآن

آخر هذه المقالة وآخر هذا لكتاب والسلام والحمد لله وحده

وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسليمًا كثيرًا

Colophon (f. 233v, lines 12-16):

وكان الفراغ من تعليق هذه النسخة في يوم

الخميس غرة شعبان المكرم

لسنة خمس عشر

ومأيتين

وألف

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003719841
040-004540925

Is part of:

Add MS 23419 : Three texts on alchemy and cookery

Add MS 23419, ff 90v-233v : Kitāb al-khawāṣṣ al-kabīr كتاب الخواص الكبيرJābir ibn Ḥayyān جابر بن حيان

Hierarchy:

032-003719841[0002]/040-004540925

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 23419

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Ff. 90v-233v

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1800

End Date:

1800

Date Range:

1 Shaʻbān 1215

Calendar:

Hijri-qamari

Era:

Access:

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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, II, p. 638

Publications:

Partial edition:

Jabir ibn Ḥayyan. Essai sur l'histoire des id ées scientifiques dans l'Islam, vol. 1. Textes choisis = مختار رسائل جابر بن حيان, ed. by Paul Kraus (Paris: Maisonneuve and Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1935), pp. 224-332

Studies:

al-Hassan, Ahmad Y., 'Industrial Chemistry in Kitab al-Khawass al-Kabir (The Great Book of Properties) of Jabir ibn Hayyan', in Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, Studies in al-Kimya'. Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry (Hildesheim, Zürich, New York: Olms, 2009), pp. 145-90
Kraus, Paul, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān. Contribution à l'histoire des id ées scientifiques dans l'Islam, vol. 1. Le corpus des écrits Jābiriens (Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1943), pp. 148-52, nos. 1900-1970
Kraus, Paul, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān. Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam, vol. 2. Jābir et la science grecque (Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1942), pp. 64-91
Sezgin, Fuat, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 4 (Leiden: Brill, 1971), p. 264
Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1972), p. 207

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, alchemist, 9th century-10th century

Subjects:

Alchemy--Early works to 1800
Chemistry--Early works to 1800