Is Dhul Qarnayn, Alexander the Great? Reflecting on Muhammad Rāghib al–Ṭabbākh�s contribution on a translated manuscript discovered in Timbuktu on Dul Qarnayn

This article emanates from a manuscript found in Timbuktu and digitised. The digitised version was subsequently translated by a team of translators and published as a book: Qissat Dhul Qarnayn [Tale of the two-horned one]. The most important question raised in reading this manuscript was the identity of Dhul Qarnayn. Subsequently to this manuscript being published as a book, a book written by Muḥammad Rāghib al-Ṭabbākh in 1949 in Arabic was examined, and it detailed a comprehensive scholarly study of the different views among scholars at that time about Dhul Qarnayn and Alexander the Great. This article reflects on the views of Muḥammad Rāghib al-Ṭabbākh in his book together with the manuscript found in Timbuktu and brings together views that attempt to establish and understand who Dhul Qarnayn is or was and his adventures. INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : The article elaborates on a topic that has been discussed by historians and theologians of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. It forms part of the discussion on apocalyptic literature. Within the Islamic context, it is often discussed among scholars dealing with the exegesis of the Qur’an and the Hadith. Some Sufi scholars tend to discuss it as well. It has intrigued some archaeologists. It highlights some civilisational issues at the time.http://www.ve.org.zaam2018Science of Religion and Missiolog

The Visual Construction of the Umayyad Caliphate in Al-Andalus through the Great Mosque of Cordoba

My first exposure to the epigraphic program of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, published in 2001, came from reading an article on the ideological meaning of the decoration and the Quranic citations inscribed in al-H. akam II’s addition to the building. In that article, I concluded that the Quranic verses found in the mosque were chosen not only for being a universal proclamation of divine power and praise for the Umayyad dynasty, as proposed by Nuha Khoury in 1996, but also because they clearly fitted in with the particular Andalusi, or rather Cordoban, religious, cultural, and political context in the first half of the 10th century. Most of the inscriptions had been read in the 19th century by Amador de los Ríos, but some of them remained uninterpreted. Given that they were an essential part of the ideological message, it seemed appropriate to revisit the critical reading of the epigraphic program and determine its full meaning. Later, I discussed other architectural aspects of the Great Mosque in which the links to the Andalusi and the eastern Umayyad traditions are a key aspect in understanding why these forms were chosen. Damascus, the eastern Umayyad capital, and to a lesser extent Medina and the Abbasid capitals, became the model for the caliphs of Cordoba. This article proposes to revisit the main architectural and decorative features of the caliphal enlargements of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in order to reflect on the meaning and forms of its epigraphic program

Vingt-et-un traités d'alchimie, par Djâbir ibn Ḥaiyân.

Numérisation effectuée à partir d'un document de substitution.Le premier opuscule traite de l'or ; le second, de l'argent ; le troisième, du cuivre ; le quatrième, du fer ; le cinquième, de l'étain (الـقـلـعى) ; le sixième, du plomb, etc. On y remarque deux traités sur les vertus secrètes des lettres de l'alphabet, un sur les diverses catégories d'êtres (?(الـعـوالــم ; deux autres sur la pierre philosophale, et deux autres sur les combinaisons chimiques. Les derniers feuillets manquent. Le folio 163 n'appartient pas à l'ouvrage. Liste des ouvrages contenus (daprès l'Index de G. Vajda) : f. 2-10v : Al-Ḏahab f. 10v-20v : Al-Fiḍḍa f. 21-38 : Al-Nuḥās f. 38-44v : Al-Ḥadīd f. 45-50 : Al-Raṣāš al-qalʿī f. 50-56 : Al-Usrub f. 56-59v : Al-Ḫārṣīnī f. 59v-60 : Al-Īğāz f. 60-62v : Awlāf al-usrub f. 62v-63v: Bāb bunyā (?) yadḫul ʿalayh al-kibrīt f. 63v-68 : Al-Ḥurūf (II) f. 68v-74 : Al-ʿAwālīm f. 74v-80v : Al-Tanwīb f. 80v-92v : Al-Kabīr f. 92v-94v : Al-Wāḥid (I) f. 94v-95v : Al-Wāḥid (II) f. 96-101 : Al-Rūḥ fī al-mawāzīn f. 101v-105v : Al-Zaybaq al-šarqī f. 105-108v : Al-Zaybaq (zībaq) al-Ġarbī f. 108v-112v : Nār al-ḥaǧar f. 112v-115v : Arḍ al-ḥaǧar f. 115v-119 : Al-Tarākīb al-aʿẓam al-awwal f. 119-134v : Al-Tarākīb al-aʿẓam al-ṯānī f. 134v-139 : Al-ʿAhd f. 139-156v : Al-Raḥma al-kabīr f. 156v-162 : Ṣifat ʿamal al-isranǧ f. 162 : Risālat al-iḫtilāṭ f. 162v : Al-Miḥa

Arabe 2605

Contient : فـصــول اسـطـانـس الـحـكـيــم « Les (douze) chapitres d'Ostanès le sage » ; كـتـاب الـمـلـك « Livre du royaume », traité d'administration politique, fondée sur l'alchimie ; كـتـاب الـرحـمـة الـصـغـيـر « Le Petit traité de la Miséricorde », traité d'alchimie, par Djâbir ibn Ḥaiyân ; Traité d'alchimie divine, attribué au sage OstanèsNumérisation effectuée à partir d'un document de substitution

ســرّ الـحـكـمـة فى شـرح كـتـاب الـرحـمـة « Secret de la philosophie (hermétique) pour servir de commentaire au Livre de la miséricorde (de Géber) ».

كتاب الرحمة الصغيرسرّ الحكمة فى شرح كتاب الرحمةNumérisation effectuée à partir d'un document de substitution.Ce commentaire est attribué au célèbre vizir Al-Toghraï. Commencement : الـحـمـد لله الـذى هـدانــا لـمـا لـم نـهـتـدى لـه. A la fin du volume se trouve la note d'un adepte qui donne la composition de la pierre philosophale. Il déclare que la première opération avait manqué, l'opérateur ayant chauffé trop fort, et que, faute d'argent, il n'a pu la recommencer

Kitāb Tafsīr al-Qurʼān al-ʻAẓīm al-musammá bi-al-Nahr, [17th century].

Fine copy of the first third (through the conclusion of Sūrat al-Tawbah [9]) of Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī's (d.1344) commentary on the Qurʼān derived from his more extensive commentary al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 941Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper, hand, etc. strongly suggest early 17th century.Accompanying materials: "a. Slip of paper: 8348; b. Slip of paper: 13713" - from handlist prepared by R. Dougherty, 1993.Former shelfmark: Mich. Isl. Ms. temp. no. 90Binding: Fiberboards covered in maroon cloth with brown leather over spine and board corners (half binding) ; Western style binding ; pastedowns (now fully detached from boards, traces of adhesive visible) and flyleaves in shell 'marbled' (printed pattern) wove paper in brown, red, blue and gold ; board corners and spine leather extending over boards edged in gold-stamped vegetal accents ; spine gold-stamped with decorative accents over raised bands ; edges of textblock speckled red ; spine label carries title and subject "الجزء الاول من تفسير ابي حيان وبه الثلث الاول | تفسير" ; sewn (not original) in white thread, six stations ; Western style endbands ; overall in fair condition with some abrasion, lifting and losses of cloth and leather, etc.Support: European laid paper with 6 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), single chain lines evenly spaced roughly 28 mm. apart (vertical), three crescents watermark (see p.10, compare Heawood 863, Venice 1610), some inclusions and undissolved fibers ; heavy but crisp and well-burnished.Decoration: Keywords and sūrah headings rubricated ; textual dividers in the form of small red discs, hāʼs (ه), and inverted commas.Script: Naskh ; clear Egyptian hand in a thin line ; serifless with slight effect of tilt to the left, adhering fairly closely to baseline, many closed counters, pointing in distinct dots, alif maqṣūrah pointed as yāʼ, kāf mashkūlah (mashqūqah) preferred.Layout: Written in 33 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: Original gatherings now difficult to discern, though likely quinions ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization.Colophon: "Scribal," triangular, reads "كمل الثلث الاول من النهر المأخوذ من البحر ويتلوه ان شاء الله تعالي سورة يونس عليه السلام والحمد لله وحده و بالله المستعان تم"Explicit: "في سوء العاقبة من الوقوع في العذاب ويحرص على هداهم ويرأف بهم ويرحمهم اللهم فصل عليه اشرف صلاة وسلم عليه ازكى سلام"Incipit: "قال الشيخ الامام العلامة الحافظ سيبويه الزمان ابو حيان محمد ابن يوسف بن علي رحمه الله ورضي عنه بحمدك اللهم استفتح وبنورك استوضح من فضلك استمنح ... وبعد فان لما صنفت كتابي الكبير المسمى بالبحر المحيط في علم التفسير عجز عن قطعه لطوله السابح ... فاجريت منه نهرا تجري عيونه ... وهذا النهر مدة من بحر ليس له حرز ..."Title from 'title page' (p.1).Ms. codex.Glazer, Sidney. "Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī." In EI3,Fatehi-nezhad, Enayatollah. (Tr. Rahim Gholami). "Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī." In Encyclopaedia Islamica,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Fine copy of the first third (through the conclusion of Sūrat al-Tawbah [9]) of Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī's (d.1344) commentary on the Qurʼān derived from his more extensive commentary al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ.Mode of access: Internet.Acquired in the Fall of 1950.On upper pastedown, label with ex libris of James Heyworth-Dunne (d.1974), stamped with inventory number, "Ex Libris | J. Heyworth-Dunne | D. Lit. (London) | No 8348" ; UM Library inscription on (p.3) "Dunning | Heyworth-Dunne | 6-12-51 | 71955" ; occasional glosses and marginal corrections

Recueil

Contient : MUḤAMMAD IBN MŪSĀ AL-DAMĪRĪ ; al-Ğawhara ABŪ MADYAN ŠUʿAYB AL-TILIMSĀNĪ ; al-Lamḥa al-baṣriyya fī ʿilm al-ʿarabiyya MUḤAMMAD IBN YŪSUF IBN ḤAYYĀN AL-ANDALUSĪ AL-ĠARNĀṬĪ ; ʿABD ALLĀH IBN MUḤAMMAD IBN ʿABD AL-ĠAFFĀR AL-QUSṬANṬĪNĪ ; Futūḥāt ḏī al-raḥma wa-al-minna fī šarḥ Iḍā ʾat al-duğunna MUḤAMMAD IBN AL-MUḪTĀR AL-AʿMAŠ AL-ʿALAWĪ AL-ŠINĞĪṬĪ ; Ḍiyāʾ al-ḥukkām fī-mā lahum wa-ʿalayhim min al-aḥkām ʿABD ALLĀH IBN MUḤAMMAD IBN FŪDĪ ; MUḤAMMAD IBN AḤMAD IBN HIŠĀM AL-LAḪMĪ ; al-Farīda ĞALĀL AL-DĪN AL-SUYŪṬĪ ; al-Arbaʿūn YAḤYĀ IBN ŠARAF AL-NAWAWĪ ; Nayl al-amānī fī šarḥ al-tahānī AL-ḤASAN IBN MASʿŪD AL-YŪSĪ ; Šifā ʾ al-nās min dā ʾ al-ġafla wa-al-waswās [ABD ALLĀH IBN MUḤAMMAD FŪDĪ] ; Commentair