Firdaws al-ḥikmah فردوس الحكمة Ṭabarī, ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban طبري، علي بن سهل ربن [‎241v] (493/568)

Content

Encyclopedia of medicine by the Persian physician ʿAlī ibn Sahl ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī (810- c 855). This undated copy was produced by a maghribī scribe, probably in the late 13th century as suggested by Hebrew and Arabic ownership inscriptions (f. 2r) dateable to early fourteenth-century Georgia (see Custodial History).

The text is divided into seven books (أنواع), each subdivided into chapters (مقالات) and further into sections (أبواب). This copy is defective at the end and is missing the end of Book Seven.

Folio 8r contains a short poem 'in praise of this book' (بمدح هذا الكتاب) composed by ‘Abd al-Wāḥid al-Arīḥāwī (عبد الواحد الأريحاوي), one of the book's owners, whose inscription can be found on f. 2r.

Contents:

Begins (table of contents, f. 2v, lines 2-4):

هذا فهرست أبواب كناش علي بن ربن المسمى فردوس الحكمة

قال الكناش كله على ستعة أنواع من العلم ولهذه الأنواع ثلثون مقالة ولمقالاتها

كلها ثلث مائة وستون بابًا ...

The rest of the table of contents (ff. 2v-7v) can be found transcribed in Cureton and Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), pp. 218-20

Beginning of text proper (f. 8v, lines 3-5)

هذا كتاب جامع علي بن ربن ابتدأ حامدا لله فقال إن مدح الخير والجود وتفضيل

أهلهما أمر تجتمع عليه الأمم كلها ومن إرتاد منافع الناس فهو خير ومن

جاد بما عنده فهو جواد ...

Ends (f. 276, lines 19-21):

... وتسحق على الصلابة وتسحق المسك على حدة سحقًا جيدًا وتجمع وتعجر بدهن بان

جيد وتستعمل و إن جعلته فيه شيئًا من مسك مسجوق منخول بحريرة كان أفضل مسوج

للرجال طيب خذ قطعة صندل أحمر غليظ قرر شبرا وأكبر وأثقب فيه أربع ثقب

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. ii+276+ii

Physical characteristics

Material: Paper

Dimensions: 240 x 170 mm leaf [185 x 125 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 21 lines per page; vertical spacing 12 lines per 10 cm

Script: Maghribī

Ink: Black ink, with headings and diagrams in red

Binding: Morocco leather Ottoman (?) period binding with envelope flap; blind-tooled borders of three fillets and medallions encasing floral pattern on both boards; flap has blind-tooled border of two fillets and medallion encasing geometrical pattern

Condition: Minor water damage

Marginalia: Few throughout, with the exception of ff. 58r-61v, which are heavily annotated

Seals: None

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

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