al-Mukhtār min kutub al-ikhtiyārāt al-falakīyah المختار من كتب الاختيارات الفلكية Takrītī, Yaḥyá ibn Jarīr تكريتي، يحيى بن جرير

Content

A treatise on the selection of propitious astrological moments (astrological elections), copied 28 Ramaḍān 646/14 January 1249 by the scribe Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿIzz al-ʿAskarī (أحمد بن محمد بن أبي العز العسكري, see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 158r, line 16).

It was written by Abū Naṣr Yaḥyá ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī (أبو نصر يحيى بن جرير التكريتي, fl. 472/1079), brother of al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī who was physician to the Marwānid amīr of Diyārbakr, Nāṣir al-Dawlah ibn Marwān (r. 1011-61).

The treatise, compiling the writings of previous authorities on the subject, was composed at the behest of 'the cultured lord, Sadīd al-Dawlah Abū al-Ghanāʾim ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Ibrahīm' (السيد المهذب سديد الدولة أبي الغنائم عبد الكريم بن ابرهيم, d. 1096, see Ends, f. 158r, lines 13-15, below).

Sadīd al-Dawlah was the son of Abū Faḍl Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Anbārī (d. 1065-66) and brother of Abū Ṭāhir ibn al-Anbārī (d. 1096), who served successively as viziers to Nāṣir al-Dawlah's son (Niẓām al-Dīn, r. 1061-79) and grandson (Nāṣir al-Dawlah Manṣūr, r. 1079-85). Both Abū Ṭāhir and Sadīd al-Dawlah were eventually executed in 1096, after falling under the suspicion of the Seljuk powers, who had conquered the region in 1085 (see Amedroz, H. F., 'The Marwānid Dynasty at Mayyāfāriqīn in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries A.D.', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland [1903], pp. 123-54, esp. pp. 143-53).

The work is organised into five chapters or summaries (جمل) subdivided into 31 sections (باب) numbered consecutively throughout the volume, and 195 points (فصل) in total; these are enumerated in the introduction (ff. 5v-6r) and listed in a comprehensive contents section (فهرست, ff. 6r-14r).

The volume has incurred some losses, and ends following the heading of point 5 of section 30, although the subsequent text corresponds to the actual end of the treatise numbered in the contents as section 31, point 2: 'list of previous authorities on elections' (في ذكر العلماء الذين جمع هذا الكتاب من كتبهم, f. 158r). The previous four points (i.e. section 30, points 3-5 and section 31, point 1) are missing; loss is also indicated by a note in the tail margin of f. 157v.

Ff. 1r-5r contain astrological and calendrical tables and notes relating to the text in a later hand using purple ink. F. 5 (containing most of the preface) and f. 12 are later replacements.

Contents

• Chapter One, encompassing what must be mentioned in advance and by way of introduction prior to [pursuing] the aims mentioned in the book (الجملة الأولى تتضمن ذكر ما يجب تقديمه وتمهيده قبل الأغراض المذكورة في الكتاب, sections 1-2, ff. 14r-38v);
• Chapter Two, on particular elections (الجملة الثانية في الاختيارات الجزئية, sections 3-14, ff. 38v-119r);
• Chapter Three, the benefit, in brief, of making elections (الجملة الثالثة في ثمرة مختصرة تتضمن الاختيارات, sections 15-27, ff. 119r-35r);
• Chapter Four, on the elections used by the notables and the commoners (الجملة الرابعة في الاختيارات التي يستعملها الخاصة والعامة, sections 28-29, ff. 135r-49r);
• Chapter Five, on elections based on the Moon's arrival in the 28 mansions (الجملة الخامسة في الاختيارات لحلول القمر في المنازل الثمان والعشرين, section 30, points 1, 2, 5, ff. 149r-58r).

Begins (f. 5v, lines 2-6):

قال الأستاذ الجليل أبو نصر يحيى بن حريز [!] الطبيب التكريتي

أما بعد فمن أنعم استزيدت نعمه بالشكر ومن شكر فقد نهض

بواجب الصنيعة والبر ولما كانت نعمة الصدر الأجل السيد

المهذب سديد الدولة أدام الله علأه علي سابغة ضافية وموارد

أحسانه عندي…

Ends (f. 158r, lines 13-15):

...تم الكتاب المختار من كتب الاختيارات

الفلكية تأليف أبي نصر يحيى بن جرير الطبيب التكريتي ألفه

لمجلس الأجل السيد المهذب سديد الدولة أبي الغنائم عبد الكريم بن ابرهيم

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 158r, lines 16-17)

فرغ من تحريره أحمد بن محمد بن أبي العز العسكري في ثامن وعشرين شهر المبارك

رمضان من سنة ست وأربعين وستمائة والحمد لله وحده وصلى الله على محمد وآله الطاهرين

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+159+i

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 240 x 167 mm leaf [180 x 117mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink (starting on f. 14 after the contents page); in black and red ink in the middle of verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. head margins (to f. 56v, ٦٠)

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 17 lines per page; vertical spacing lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh ; the scribe is Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿIzz al-ʿAskarī (أحمد بن محمد بن أبي العز العسكري, see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 158r, line 16)

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

Decoration: None

Binding: Red British Museum quarter leather binding

Condition: A few worm-holes; some mould-stains and tidemarks especially to lower half of volume, increasing in size towards to back of volume

Marginalia: Occasional marginal comments in various different hands, some notes regarding losses (e.g. ff. 14v and 17v)

Seals: f. 5r; British Museum stamp: ff. 1r, 50v and 158v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 5709

History of this record

Date(s)

28 Ramaḍān 646 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Provenance

• Inscription with date 1171/1757-8 (f. 5r);
• Abd Allāh (عبد الله): his seal with date 1163/1749-50 (f. 5r);
• Abd al-Muʿṭī (عبد المعطي), 'scholar of Jerusalem' (من فضلاء بيت المقدس): inscription naming him as the ' writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of this book' (كاتب هذا الكتاب), and giving his death date in abjad as 'between 50 and 60 after 1000 and 100', i.e. 1150-1160/1737-1747 (f. 159r);
• Al-ʿAbd Fatwajī (العبد فتوجي): inscription recording purchase for a price of '410', with date 1060/1650 (f. 6r);
• Hasan ibn al-Munajjim (حسن ابن المنجم): his ownership inscriptions (ff. 1r and 6r lower margin);
• Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ridwān (سليمان بن محمد بن رضوان): his inscription (f. 6r);
• Taqī al-Dīn al-Murāṣid (تقي الدين المراصد): his ownership inscription (f. 6r).

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from Ibrahim Elias Gejou, 14 November, 1899

Related material

Finding aids

Ellis, A.G. and Edward Edwards, A Descriptive List of the Arabic Manuscripts Acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894 (London: British Museum, 1912), p. 38.

Select Bibliography

• Amedroz, H. F., 'The Marwānid Dynasty at Mayyāfāriqīn in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries A.D.', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1903), pp. 123-54, esp. pp. 143-53 on the lives of Sadīd al-Dawlah, his father and brother.
• 'The Marwānids', in Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 89-90
• Brockelmann, Carl, History of the Arabic Written Tradition: Supplement Volume 1 , trans. by Joep Lameer. Handbook of Oriental studies. Section one, The Near and Middle East; volume 117/S1 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016), p. 897
• İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin, and Boris Rozenfeld, Mathematicians, Astronomers And Other Scholars Of Islamic Civilisation And Their Works (7Th-19Th C.) (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture, 2003). P. 159 (no. 366)
• '10.40: Abū Naṣr Yaḥyā ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī', in E. Savage-Smith, S. Swain, G.J. van Gelder (eds.), A Literary History of Medicine (Leiden 2020), online edition: [https://dh.brill.com/scholarlyeditions/reader/urn:cts:arabicLit:0668IbnAbiUsaibia.Tabaqatalatibba.lhom-tr-eng1:10.36-10.40.]

Subjects

Astrology--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Abū Naṣr Yaḥyá ibn Jarīr Takrītī

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al-Mukhtār min kutub al-ikhtiyārāt al-falakīyah المختار من كتب الاختيارات الفلكية Takrītī, Yaḥyá ibn Jarīr تكريتي، يحيى بن جرير, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 5709, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/node/9569> [accessed 24 November 2024]

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