Miscellanies [IO Islamic 824]

Miscellanies.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 824 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 1043 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

1043.

824. Size 73/4 in. by 5 in.; foll. 250. Seventeen lines in a page.

Collectanea of Molla AḤMAD B. SULAIMÂN [ed note: He lived in western India in the 18th century, see XIII below]; the greater part in Arabic, the remainder in Persian. Inscribed:

نقل بیاض حضرت..1 احمد بن مولوی سلیمان قدس الله سرهما الحنان المنان

This collection contains complete treatises, extracts, and notes (فائدة), bearing chiefly on mathematical and philosophical subjects. Of longer extracts or more remarkable works, the following may be noticed.

I. Foll. 26-35. مقالة ابی ریحان محمد بن احمد البیرونی فی راشیکات الهند

A treatise of BÎRÛNÎ (d. A.H.430), on the rule of proportion, based on Indian system. The author says (fol. 26v.), referring to the rule of three:

والهند یسمونها تری راشیک1 ای ذو الثلاثة المواضع و راش2 هو البرج وراشیک هو الموضع من الصورة فان منجمیهم یسمون البیوت الاثنی عشر راشیک

The treatise begins:

النسبة فی ما بین المقادیر المتجانسة

Blanks are left for some diagrams which have never been added.

II. Fol. 36. برهان آخر علی الشکل السابع من کتاب بنی موسی, and foll. 37-38 الشکل السابع من کتاب بنی موسی 

A proposition of the BANU MÛSA (cf. no. 734, viii.), on the mensuration of triangles; preceded by a demonstration, which is probably by AL-KHÂZIN (Abu Ja’far).

III. Foll. 50-52.

الشکل السادس عشر من کتاب معرفة مساحة الاشکال البسیطة و الکریة لبنی موسی محمد و الحسن و احمد

The sixteenth proposition from the book of the BANU MÛSA, on the mensuration of plain and spherical bodies, from which apparently also the preceding no. is taken. This book is to be found in Cat. Bodl. i. 208, b.

Begins:

نرید ان نجد مقدارین یقعان بین مقدارین مفروضین

Diagrams omitted.

IV. Fol. 58. A short mathematical treatise by NAṢÎR AL-DÎN ṬÛSÎ (d. A.H. 672), inscribed

للمحقق نصیر الدین الطوسی رحه فی بیان انه لا یمکن ان یجتمع من عددین مربعین فردین عدد مربع

V. Foll. 76-77. A riddle on قانون; and Foll. 78v.-81, another on کافیة; both by BAHÂ AL-DÎN ‘ÂMULÎ (d. A.H. 1031).

The first riddle was composed in A.H. 1002, as appears from the chronogram لغز طبیبانه بی عدیل (i.e. 1116, minus 114).

VI. Foll. 113v.-123. A treatise on Astronomy, called تشریح الافلاک, by BAHÂ AL-DÎN ‘ÂMULÎ. See Cat. Mus. Brit. 244.

It consists of five sections (فصل).

Additional notes by the author on the margin. Diagrams omitted.

VII. Foll. 125-128. رسالة فی اثبات حدوث العالم, by ḤUSAIN B. IBRÂHÎM التنکابنی [Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tunukābunī, fl. 17th cent.?]

VIII. Foll. 131 and 146.1 A Ḳaṣîdah ascribed to the Khalîf YAZÎD B. MU’ÂWIYAH,

قصیدة میمیة منسوبة الی یزید بن معاویة علیه ما یستحقه

Begins:

اراک طروبا ذا شجی و ترنم

Various readings on the margin.

Dated 20th Jum. II., 1135 [=28 March 1723]

[ed note: Quick link to a manuscript with work attributed to this author]

IX. Foll. 140v.-142. An extract from the fifth treatise of the Ikhwân al-ṣafâ, on Music.

Begins:

فائدة ان الحکماء الموسیقیین انما اقتصرو من اوتار العود علی اربعة

X. Foll.143-145. A treatise of ARCHIMEDES, inscribed

کتاب ارشمیدس فی قسمة شکل سماه بسیطماشیون (؟) باربعة عشر شکلا مناسبة له

Identical with that noticed in Cat. Bodl. ii. 603, ad CMLX.2

Diagram omitted.

[ed note: Quick link to other works of Archimedes.] 

XI. Foll. 184-191. A theosophic treatise, by MUḤAMMAD AFḌAL AL-DÎN, a shî’ite, who wrote it at Mashhad ( الروضة الرضیة الرضویة), for the use of his pupils.

This treatise has no special title. It is preceded by a long introduction, which begins: اما بعد فتح الکلام بحمد الملک العلام الخ. After this, the first paragraph commences as follows: المسئلة الاولی من الکلام فی توحیده تعالی واجب الوجود. The author quotes Dawwânî, Amîr Fakhr al-dîn Astarâbâdî, Abu’l-Ḥasan Kâshî, and others.

Imperfect at the end.

XII. Foll. 191-194. مقالة لقسطا بن لوقا فی البرهان علی1 حساب الخطائَیْن و هو الباب الجامع الذی یستخرج به جمیع مسائل الحساب التی لیس لها جذور.

A treatise by ḲUSṬA B. LÛḲA (d. A.H. 311), on the regula falsi.

A revised edition of this treatise, by Jâbir b. Ibrâhîm Ṣâbi’, seems to be contained in Cat. Lugd. iii. 59.

XIII. Foll. 225-229. An extract from (‘Alî b. Aḥmad) IBN ḤAZM Andalusî Ẓâhirî’s (d. A.H. 456) work on Shâfi’ite law المحلّی, for which see Ḥ. Kh. v. 428.

This extract bears on the law of inheritance. It is accompanied by the glosses of MOLLA AḤMAD.

Collated on 7th Dhû-alḥijjah, 1140 [= 15 June 1728 CE]

XIV. Foll. 234-241. A Ḳaṣîdah, called العروس, by KHÂLID B. ṢAFWÂN FAIYÂḌ [خالد بن صفوان]. See Cat. Mus. Brit. 260b. The author flourished under the last Omaiyades and the first Abbasides.

The collection concludes with the خاتمة of ‘ÂMULÎ’S خلاصة الحساب (see no. 758).

This copy belonged to a grandson of the compiler, Muḥammad Riḍa b. Ghulâm Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Sulaimân. It is dated Dhû-alḥijjah, 1134 [=September/October 1722, which date is nonetheless earlier than that in part XIII above]. On the last page is a poem, beginning:

لقد صار قلبی باللواحظ جَوْدر (!)

Which was written by the owner on 18th Ramaḍân, 1141, at Sûrat (بالبندر المسمی بسورت).

An extract from ḲUṬB-ALDÎN SHÎRÂZÎ’S نزهة القلوب, about the parentage of Ziyâd b. Abu Sufyân and a method of divination, both derived from Aḥmad b. Sulaimân, have been prefixed to the original volume by a later hand (foll. 1-3).

[Gaikwar.]

1 Two words erased.

1 The latter fol. has been misplaced in binding.

2 There, however, the name of the figure is written بطماشیون (!).

1 Here follows in the MS. the word عبل.