Or 11313, ff 97r-136r

Treatise on astronomy usually attributed to Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي, d. 1274; see Storey [ed.], ‘3 Astronomy and Astrology’, § 91, item 15, Storey Online, Brill Reference Online https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/storey-online/3-astronomy-and-astrology-COM_20300000 [accessed 30 May 2023] and Rosenfeld and Ihsanoğlu, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.) [Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003], no. 604, item A24, p. 218).

Rosenfeld and Ihsanoğlu follow Ḥājjī Khalīfa (Kâtip Çelebi) in also attributing the treatise to Muwaffaq al-Qayṣarī (موفق القيصري, fl. 13th-14th century; see Ḥājjī Khalīfa (Kâtip Çelebi), Kashf al-ẓunūn ʻan asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn, ed. by Yaltkaya and Bilge [Istanbul: Maarıf Matbaası, 1941–43], vol. 2, col. 953 and Rosenfeld and Ihsanoğlu, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.) [Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003], no. 692, item A1, p. 240).

A note on f. 97r refers to an Arabic translation of this treatise under the title al-Zubdah fī al-hayʼah (الزبدة في الهيئة). The Arabic version was produced by ʻImād al-Dīn ʻAlī al-Qāshī (عماد الدين علي القاشي, fl. 1385; see Mach, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts (Yahuda Section) in the Garrett Collection Princeton University Library [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977], p. 421, item 4884 https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9962636113506421). The first twenty-eight chapters of the Arabic version are preserved in Or. 1560, ff. 15r-63v.

The copy was completed at the tomb of Īrtāsh (مقام إيرتاش, at Baghdad?) on 3 Muḥarram 751/13 March 1350 by Abū al-Muẓaffar Muḥammad ibn Muḥammadshāh al-Tafrishī (أبو المظفر محمد بن محمدشاه التفرشي, see colophon, f. 136r, lines 13-18, transcribed below, and colophons on ff. 21r, 43v, 87r, and 96r).

The diagrams illustrating the text have been left incomplete from chapter eight, and from chapter fourteen blank spaces have been left for diagrams that were never inserted. Likewise, blank spaces have been left for rubricated chapter titles that were never inserted from chapter twenty-two.

The treatise is divided into thirty chapters (باب):

• Chapter one: What to know before beginning in this science (باب اول در آنچه پیش از شروع درین علم دانستنی باشد, ff. 97v-99r);
• Chapter two: The bodies of the cosmos and their order by way of summary (باب دوم در اجرام عالم وترتيب آن بر طريق اجمال, ff. 99r-99v);
• Chapter three: Explanation of the primary movement, the secondary movement, and the cycles produced by them (باب سوم در بيان حركت اولى و حركت ثانيه و دوايرى كه بسبب آن حادث شود, ff. 100r-101v);
• Chapter four: The cycles by which, in accordance with the celestial spheres, parts of the earth are produced (باب چهارم در دوایر که بحسب افلاک بابقاع زمین حادث شود, ff. 101v-102v);
• Chapter five: Discussion of the fixed [stars] and the differences in their positions in accordance with the two aforementioned movements (باب پنجم درذکر ثوابت و اختلاف اوضاع ایشان بحسب دو حرکت مذکور, ff. 102v-104v);
• Chapter six: The arrangement of the spheres of the Sun and the quality of its movements (باب ششم در هيات افلاک آفتاب و كيفيت حركات او, ff. 104v-106r);
• Chapter seven: The arrangement of the spheres of the Moon and the quality of its movements (باب هفتم در هيات افلاک قمر و کیفیت حرکات او, ff. 106v-110r);
• Chapter eight: The arrangement of the spheres of Mercury and the quality of its movements (باب هشتم در هيات افلاک عطارد و کیفیت حرکات او, ff. 110r-112v);
• Chapter nine: The arrangement of the spheres of the four remaining planets and the quality of their movements (باب نهم در هيات افلاک چهار کوکب باقی از سیارات و کیفیت حرکات ایشان, ff. 113r-114r);
• Chapter ten: The retrogression and progression of the planets (باب دهم در رجوع و استقامت كواكب, ff. 114r-114v);
• Chapter eleven: Widths of the planets and the nature of the width of the Moon (باب يازدهم در عروض كواكب و حال عرض, ff. 114v-115v);
• Chapter twelve: How the Moon waxes and wanes (باب دوازدهم در كيفيت زيادت و نقصان تغيير ماه, ff. 115v-116v);
• Chapter thirteen: The arrangement of lunar eclipses (باب سيزدهم در هيات خسوف ماه, ff. 116v-117v);
• Chapter fourteen: Explanation of variation in the Moon's appearance (باب چهاردهم در بیان اختلاف منظر ماه, ff. 118r-118v);
• Chapter fifteen: The arrangement of solar eclipses (باب پانزدهم در هیات کسوف آفتاب, ff. 118v-119v);
• Chapter sixteen: The amount of time between two consecutive lunar or solar eclipses (باب شانزدهم در مقدار زمان ميان دو خسوف يا دو كسوف متوالى, ff. 119v-120v);
• Chapter seventeen: Discussion of the appearance and disappearance of planets (باب هفدهم در ذكر ظهور و خفاء كواكب, ff. 120v-121r);
• Chapter eighteen: The arrangement of the surface of the earth and discussion of the climes (باب پنجدهم در هیات سطح زمین و ذکر اقالیم, ff. 121r-122v);
• Chapter nineteen: Characteristics of the placements of the equator (باب نوزدهم در خواص مواضع خط استوا, ff. 122v-123v);
• Chapter twenty: Characteristics of inclined horizons (باب بيستم در خواص آفاق مايله, ff. 123v-124v);
• Chapter twenty-one: Characteristics of each place on the inclined horizons one by one (باب بيست و يكم در خواص يك يك بقعه از آفاق مايله, ff. 124v-126r);
• [Chapter twenty-two] (ff. 126r-128r);
• [Chapter twenty-three] (ff. 128r-129r);
• [Chapter twenty-four] (ff. 129r-130r);
• [Chapter twenty-five] (ff. 130r-131v);
• [Chapter twenty-six] (ff. 131v-132v);
• [Chapter twenty-seven] (ff. 132v-133r);
• [Chapter twenty-eight] (ff. 133r-134r);
• [Chapter twenty-nine] (ff. 134r-135v);
• [Chapter thirty] (ff. 135v-136r).

Illustrations:

• Diagram of the elementary and celestial spheres from the sphere of Earth (كره زمين) to the all-containing sphere of spheres (فلك الافلاك, f. 99v);
• Diagram of the zodiac as affected by the two movements of the sphere of spheres and the sphere of the zodiac (f. 103v);
• Diagram of the two movements of the sphere of spheres and the sphere of the zodiac (f. 104r);
• Diagram of solar positions (f. 105v);
• Diagram of the spheres of the Moon and its movements (f. 106v);
• Diagram of the lunar cycle and epicycles (f. 108v);
• Diagram of the lunar cycle and epicycles (f. 109v);
• Three incomplete diagrams of the spheres of Mercury (ff. 112r-112v);
• Two incomplete diagrams of planetary retrogression and progression (f. 114r);
• Incomplete diagram of planetary width (f. 114v);
• Incomplete diagram of the lunar phases (f. 116v);
• Space left blank for diagram of lunar eclipses (f. 117v);
• Two incomplete diagrams of variation in the Moon's appearance (ff. 118r-118v);
• Space left blank for diagram of solar eclipses (f. 119v);
• Space left blank for diagram of inclined horizons (f. 124v);
• Spaces left blank for diagrams (ff. 126r-136r).

Begins (f. 97v, lines 1-7):

... الهم وفق لاتمامه بعد از سپاس و ستایش

آفریدگار جل جلاله و درود بر خاتم انبیا و اهل بیت و باران او چنین گوید

محرر این مقالت و مسوّد این رسالت کی در بعضی سفرها جماعی متعلمان

که بنثابت فرزند آن اند بل عزیزتر باستفادت علم هیات و استکشاف

احوالی افلاک و اجرام و معرفت اوضاع و حرکات کواکب میل نمودند

از جهت اجابت التماس ایشان این مختصر درین علم بحسب اقتضای وقت و حال

و مساعدت خاطر با تراکم اشغال تحریر کرده ...

Ends (f. 136r, lines 9-11):

... واین قدر درین مختصر کتایت شود از علم

هیات و در معرفت اجرام و ابعاد کواکب مختصری ساخنه شود بتوفیق

الله ومنه ...

Colophon (f. 136r, lines 11-19):

... والحمد لله حق حمده والصلوة

والسلم على خير خلقه محمد وآله وصحبعه

أجمعين تمت الرسالة

الموسومة بالزبدة وقد وقع

الفراغ من تعليقها في اليوم الثالث

من محرم الحرام لسنة إحدى وخمسين والسبعمائة

بمقام إيرتاش على يدي العبد

الخاطئ محمد بن محمدشاه التفرشي

يخافه الله عن معاصيه الجم (؟)