Ghars al-anshāb fī al-ramy bi-al-nushshāb غرس الأنشاب في الرمي والنشاب Suyūṭī سيوطي

Content

A compilation of hadiths, reports, verses and comments on the subject of archery by the prolific Egyptian jurist and historian Jalāl al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī (جلال الدين عبد الرحمن بن أبي بكر السيوطي, d. 1505). This work (see title on ff. 1r, line 2, and 1v, line 7) covers topics including the construction and use of the bow and arrow, excerpts on the science of archery referencing al-Ṭabarī (الطبري, given as al-Ṭabaristānī [الطبرستاني]), archery terminology, and riddles (لغز) relating to the bow.

This text preserves sections from Awthaq al-Asbāb fī al-Ramy bi-al-Nushshāb (أوثق الأسباب في الرمي بالنشاب) by ‘Izz al-Dīn ibn Jamā‘ah (عز الدين ابن جماعة, d. 1416), an earlier archery treatise otherwise lost, as well as the entire text of a unique maqāmah on the bow in rhymed prose, by Ismāʿīl ibn Jamāl al-Dīn al-Isbahānī (إسماعيل بن جمال الدين الإسبهاني, fl. 6th/12th century).

The copy was completed on 4 Muḥarram 918 (22 March 1512), seven years after the death of the author (see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , below, f. 35v).

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

الحمد لله الذي جعل الرمي بالسهام

أفضل عدة للجهاد وحث على تعلمه

ووعد عليه بالازدياد...

Ends (f. 35v, lines 2-8):

... ويشهد له ما أخرجه

الدَيلمي من حديث ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما

مرفوعًا ما مد الناس أيديهم إلى شيء

من السلاح إلا وللقوس عليه فضل والله

أعلم وحسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل وصلى

الله على سيدنا محمد

وآله وصحبه وسلم

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 35v, lines 9-13):

ووافق الفراغ منه

يوم الخميس

رابع المحرم

افتتاح

سنة ٩١٨

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. iv+35+xviii

Physical characteristics

Material: Western laid paper with watermarks and 'Z' countermark

Dimensions: 209 x 130 mm leaf [131 x 69 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 15 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings and text frame in red

Decoration: Illuminated opening (f. 1v), red double-ruled frame around text area throughout

Binding: British Museum orange half-leather binding

Condition: Some erasure of text due to a large waterstain affecting the whole volume, worse towards the end. Some paint flaking off illuminated heading (f. 1r).

Marginalia: Almost none

Seals: British Museum stamp on verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. of third end flyleaf (v-v)

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 12830

History of this record

Date(s)

4 Muḥarram 918

Provenance

• Sharīf Ghālib ibn Sharīf Zayd al-ʿAbd, Amir of Mecca [?] (أمير مكة شريف غالب ابن شريف زيد العبد): his note, with date 1129/1716-17 (f. 1r);
• Erased and illegible ownership note, with date in Eastern Arabic numerals '77' (f. 1r);
• Amīr al-Umarāʾ al-Sayyid Khayr al-Dīn (أمير الأمراء السيد خير الدين): his purchase note with date Ramaḍān 1285/December 1868-January 1869 (f. 1r).

Immediate source of acquisition

Acquired by the British Museum, 1963

Related material

Select Bibliography

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. 168

Al-Sarraf, Shihab, 'Mamluk Furūsīyah Literature and Its Antecedents', Mamluk Studies Review , 8 (Chicago: Middle East Documentation Center, The University of Chicago, 2004), pp. 141-200 (see pp. 152, 171)

Subjects

Military art and science -- Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Suyūṭī

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Ghars al-anshāb fī al-ramy bi-al-nushshāb غرس الأنشاب في الرمي والنشاب Suyūṭī سيوطي, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 12830, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100099022516.0x000001> [accessed 28 August 2024]

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